Forgotten Ground Regained
O Wonder-Worker (Psalm 77)
Poem revised from The Song of Joseph and Selected Poems.
Psalm 77 is the Gradual Psalm for Quinquagesima
I cried aloud to the Lord, my God;I cried to Him to hear me and help in my distress.Without stopping I stretched out my handall through the night; my anguished soul,fretting and brooding, refused to take comfort.When I remembered God I moaned and grieved,and my spirit fainted and my faith was troubled.
You hold my eyelids open at night;I am so troubled I cannot talk.Let me remember the song I sang in the nightin years gone by, in better days.My spirit made search; I said to my soul,“Will the Lord disdain me day after day,and grant His favor never again?Has His faithful love finally ceased?Are His promises ended once and for all?Has God forgotten His gracious giving?Has His anger shut up His ardent heart?”
But I will recall and remember the merciful deedsof the Lord my God in long-ago times:Your miraculous works, Your wonderful acts.I will meditate and muse on Your mighty deeds.
O God, Your ways are wondrous and holy.What God is so great as our God who saves?You have made known Your might among the peoples.With Your arm You have redeemed Your own people,the sons of Jacob and the sons of Joseph.
When the waters saw You, O Wonder-Worker,they trembled with dread; even the deeps were troubled.Water beat down from the dark clouds;the skies echoed with awesome thunder;on every side Your arrows flashed.Your thunder roared from the reeling wind;the flash of Your lightnings lit up the world;the earth trembled; the earth shuddered.You made Your way through the mighty waters;the sea was Your path as You passed along;with footprints unseen You strode forward.
By the hand of Moses and the hand of Aaron,You led Your people like a patient shepherd.
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