Psalm

Psalm
by John Herman *
 
Lord, I confess my need
Indefeasible, 
For everywhere I see
Brokenness. Eye knows, 
Mouth tastes, hand feels
Foreignness, as when 
A ball strikes, and sight
Reels in sparks. 

We are in want, Sir,
We are in jeopardy
We are hurled like iron hissing.
We are ice in a heated room.
We are broken shins

This is our state. 
This our commonweal. 
You are health, you 
A rock in a slimy place.
Your face is hidden, your hand, 
But here I stand, 
I can do no other. 

I need you. 

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We stand, at all times, naked before the Lord as the torrents and tumults of life assault us.  Naked in our need and naked in the sense that our hearts are an open book to God. How often do we break down and break through and beseech God (the great I AM, Allah, The Great Spirit or Universal Intelligence ...) for help?   

Queries: 

• How often does pride stop us? 
• How often is our ego willing to say the words "I don't know?" 
• Can we admit to the words "I've boxed myself into a corner and I don't know what the next move is?"  

We've seen so much arrogance in our politics and daily life we've forgotten what it is to be humble.  It is okay to ask for help.  None of us is the Encyclopedia Britannica 

The Psalm of John Herman is both a plea and a promise because among all the brokenness there is also the divine. Perhaps it is in the very brokenness, the complexity, and the deconstructing that we find what we need.  

The carefully constructed façade of our little "s" self is just that -- a Potemkin Village waiting to be revealed as the fraud it is.  What lies behind is the real big "S" Self, what Quakers would call "that of God in each of us",  but to get there we have to be willing to be vulnerable & humble ... NAKED. 

And why not? We already are. 

Joseph Olejak 

* WHITE SUMMER by John J. Herman