Читать книгу A Carolina Psalter - Tony Scully - Страница 26

1 I love thee, O God, my strength.2 God is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;My God, my rock, in whom I will take refuge;My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.3 I will call upon God, who is worthy to be praised:So shall I be saved from mine enemies.4 The cords of death compassed me,And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid.5 The cords of Sheol were round about me;The snares of death came upon me.6 In my distress I called upon God,And cried unto my God:He heard my voice out of his temple,And my cry before him came into his ears.7 Then the earth shook and trembled;The foundations also of the mountains quaked And were shaken, because he was wroth.8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils,And fire out of his mouth devoured:Coals were kindled by it.9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down;And thick darkness was under his feet.10 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly;Yea, he soared upon the wings of the wind.11 He made darkness his hiding-place, his pavilion round about him,Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.12 At the brightness before him his thick clouds passed,Hailstones and coals of fire.13 God also thundered in the heavens,And the Most High uttered his voice,Hailstones and coals of fire.14 And he sent out his arrows, and scattered them;Yea, lightnings manifold, and discomfited them.15 Then the channels of waters appeared,And the foundations of the world were laid bare,At thy rebuke, O God,At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.16 He sent from on high, he took me;He drew me out of many waters.17 He delivered me from my strong enemy,And from them that hated me; for they were too mighty for me.18 They came upon me in the day of my calamity;But God was my stay.19 He brought me forth also into a large place;He delivered me, because he delighted in me.20 God hath rewarded me according to my righteousness;According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.21 For I have kept the ways of God,And have not wickedly departed from my God.22 For all his ordinances were before me,And I put not away his statutes from me.23 I was also perfect with him,And I kept myself from mine iniquity.24 Therefore hath God recompensed me according to my righteousness,According to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.25 With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful;With the perfect man thou wilt show thyself perfect;26 With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure;And with the perverse thou wilt show thyself forward.27 For thou wilt save the afflicted people;But the haughty eyes thou wilt bring down.28 For thou wilt light my lamp:God my God will lighten my darkness.29 For by thee I run upon a troop;And by my God do I leap over a wall.30 As for God, his way is perfect:The word of God is tried;He is a shield unto all them that take refuge in him.31 For who is God, save God?And who is a rock, besides our God,32 The God that girdeth me with strength,And maketh my way perfect?33 He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet:And setteth me upon my high places.34 He teacheth my hands to war;So that mine arms do bend a bow of brass.35 Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation;And thy right hand hath holden me up,And thy gentleness hath made me great.36 Thou hast enlarged my steps under me,And my feet have not slipped.37 I will pursue mine enemies, and overtake them;Neither will I turn again till they are consumed.38 I will smite them through, so that they shall not be able to rise:They shall fall under my feet.39 For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle:Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me.40 Thou hast also made mine enemies turn their backs unto me,That I might cut off them that hate me.41 They cried, but there was none to save;Even unto God, but he answered them not.42 Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind;I did cast them out as the mire of the streets.43 Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people;Thou hast made me the head of the nations:A people whom I have not known shall serve me.44 As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me;The foreigners shall submit themselves unto me.45 The foreigners shall fade away,And shall come trembling out of their close places.46 God liveth; and blessed be my rock;And exalted be the God of my salvation,47 Even the God that executeth vengeance for me,And subdueth peoples under me.48 He rescueth me from mine enemies;Yea, thou liftest me up above them that rise up against me;Thou deliverest me from the violent man.49 Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O God, among the nations,And will sing praises unto thy name.50 Great deliverance giveth he to his king,And showeth loving kindness to his anointed,To David and to his seed, for evermore.

Someday I will know you

You are my strength

My power

My light

I like to think

Or at least to imagine

In the meantime

You are only sensed

As if you hide beyond a row of hills

We call you our Rock

Our Might

Our Deliverer

By the way

Where were you at Gettysburg?

Shiloh

Fort Donelson

Chattanooga

Antietam

Yellow Tavern

Nashville

Mobile Bay

Five Forks

Gettysburg

Always that

Before the beginning

Of who we became

The Battle of Camden

Barefoot soldiers eating grass

In the glaring Carolina sun

The sorrows of death encompassed us

And pressed us down

We called upon your holy name

As boys surrendered to the dirt

Their brains blown to smithereens

Innards splattered

Dreaming dashed

Did you hurl the lightning?

Did you send the storm?

We said you saved us

Even as the majority went down.

Will you show yourself to be merciful?

We are a nation destroyed

A people in anguish

We stand convinced you will rescue us

As we lay slain and torn apart

We still believe in you

We have nothing else

Only ourselves

And we are beaten down

You breathed into us

Weapons of steel

And domination

You offered dreams of victory

Of the world we left behind

Of slaves for the taking

According to your holy laws

To please you we pursued our enemies

To please you we became invincible

Until we were dust under the feet

Of those who destroyed us

We prayed to you

To deliver us

From our enemies

Now the war is lost

The fields are burned and barren

We are reviled

And ridiculed

Still

We persist in giving thanks unto thee

And why is that?