Psalm for sad American Christians

IF I HAD LIVED this year 3000 years ago, maybe I would have written a psalm to express the joylessness that I sense among many Christians during this bizarre and wrenching election cycle.

The psalm might have gone something like this.

 

With a loud voice we cry out to the Lord,

our throats sore from screaming our complaints.

 

Rulers represent no one but themselves

and those who know it and reward it.

Rich get richer, selling their souls

and the living hide of their brothers.

Scribes hired to tell stories of the masses

Say, instead, whatever the high bidder wants to hear.

 

Sick lay in their bed

feeling the Bern for medicine they can’t afford.

Families sleep in cars, if not under the stars

while bootstrap Christians wish them well.

 

The challenge to this nation is huge

yet we fear that those who would lead us have tiny hands,

calloused hearts,

and sorry souls.

 

With one loud voice we cry out to the Lord.

Until our throats bleed, our anger drains, and our Lord awakens.

 

We’ve built ourselves a prison

from bones of our dead fathers.

We have no more trust in laws,

no confidence in those who wrote them.

 

In God we trust.

In ourselves, we must.

 

I’m not sure this psalm would have made the cut for the Bible.

Okay, I’m sure. It wouldn’t.

It barely made this blog.

But I’ve been thinking about the sadness and disappointment that many Christians are feeling these days. And I wondered how it might come out in a psalm of lament.

If you’re adventurous, give it a whirl yourself.

For more about Psalms

• Singing the Psalms with a banjo
• Does Psalms need an organizer?
• Dare: Try reading Psalms like this
• Bipolar Psalms
• The Complete Guide to the Bible, pages 154-162

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