Psalm 2—Don’t ask for answers; ask for waiting. You barely know the meaning of things.

Rendition of Psalm 2

Why do the lost nations rage
And rally devices against the living God?
The kings of the earth take their stand
Against the Lord and his messiah, saying,

“Let us break our shackles,
And throw off every binding.
He is a consuming fire.
He will turn the hard blade 
Of his hand against us any day.
So we became stoneburners.
We split love seven ways,
Were cast in gold, were heaven itself.
We plotted and raged.
We spoke in tongues. We saw secret things.
It cost us our lives, but God, we were beautiful.
We made a deal, and now
This show don’t stop for no one.

How were we supposed to love
That thunderous light? 
The auguries were all indifferent,
And time tumbles pips up.
If you go back enough
It is all just dice.”

The Lord of all the earth
Laughed in his wild water heart.
He warned them in his anger, saying,

“For all your bluster, you still failed
At every chance to change you got.
Anymore, you barely need a reason
To give yourself to things 
You can’t come back from.
You could never pick up the hot coals 
Inside yourself and kiss them.
Even still, you could have been saved
If you had learned to take inside yourself
The reprisals of your friends 
When they braved your dagger-bladed smile.
So now you have headaches
And suffer through all you wanted.
So now you are wires and exposed bone
And fever and heartstring.
So now the day wrings mute confessions out of you
And you stay in bed so no one will hear them.

Yet, for all the nations’ frenzy,
I have established my king
On Zion, my holy mountain.”

Then, the Lord said to me, 

“Today, you are my son
And I am your father forever.
The throne of God is God’s alone
But it was always shared.
I made the earth to be inherited.
Ask me, and it is yours,
But you must also take these enemies of mine.
Break them like pottery;
Bind them like your own broken body."

Be wise, be warned, 
You who gather greatness in heaps.
Serve God with holy fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
Don’t ask for answers; ask for waiting.
You barely know the meaning of things.
What you get is quiet.
What you get is your life.

God’s wrath burns at a touch.
The shelter of his kindness
Is the only shelter left.

---

Psalms: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 35, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 46, 50, 51, 53, 54, 62, 63, 65, 66, 73, 74, 75, 84, 86, 88, 90, 91, 100, 107, 110, 114, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 137, 139, 140, 142, 147, 148.

Request the Darkling Psalter in Print

If you would like to move this project one step closer to publication, sign up on this form to request the Darkling Psalter in print.