Shout, shout, O saints, your holy joy aloud!
For it is right the righteous praise our God.
Sing, sing, your thanks to him with ten-stringed lyre,
And improvise a melody with skill.Sing praise, because God’s every word is truth,
Accomplishing his works in perfect righteousness.
For God, in his integrity, loves justice,
So that his steadfast love fills all the earth.And by God’s spoken word he made the heavens,
Together, too, with all the angel hosts;
He allocates the waters of the sea
So drops fill up the deep at his command.
Let the whole world, and all who live therein,
Stand silently amazed before the Lord,
For everything he spoke has come to pass,
While he has effortlessly brought to nothing
The keenest counsel of the peoples’ wise.He frustrates all the nations’ shrewdest plans,
But all his purposes will stand forever.
How happy, therefore, out of all the earth
The nation God takes for his cherished own,
The people worshipping the Lord alone
And walking in the way his law commands.The Lord looks down upon the earth from heaven,
Where he sits high enthroned in glorious raiment,
And searches every human heart below—
For he who made them knows their every deed.
No king is saved by having many soldiers,
Nor warriors by battle-strength of arm.
No charging horse, however strong, can save,
Nor can its fearsome might deliver men.Behold, God’s eye above is fixed below
On those who confidently trust his love,
To save his saints from death, from sword or flame—
So therefore we will wait for him alone,
For God who is our only help and shield;
Because we trust his love and holy name,
Our hearts are full of gladness and his praise.So spread your faithful love upon us, Lord,
Who look to you in confidence and hope.
This poem is the thirty-third in my series of verse paraphrases of the Psalms. I began this project in the summer of 2012, starting with the first Psalm, and have worked on one Psalm at a time, in order; I began this poem after finishing my setting of Psalm 32, at the end of July of last year, and finished it about a month later.
I always welcome your comments, questions, or other feedback about this or any other part of my work. If you’d like to read more of my poetry, you can get my book, which contains over sixty of my best poems; browse my archive, much of it also broken down into more-manageable groups; or follow this blog for new poetry (among other things)—at least two poems per month through next Easter. You may also share this poem with others, subject to my sharing policy.
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