(An Asaph poem.)
Why did you walk away, God?
Walk away and never look back?
What set you off?
Why such seething against the sheep you shepherded?
Have you forgotten our history together?
You bought us out of slavery.
You made us your kids, your heirs.
You made Zion your home.
Come back and see what happened here.
Walk through the rubble,
The wreck,
The ruin that is your old sanctuary.
We used to meet together here.
But our songs were replaced
By enemy curses,
Our offerings by unthinkable abominations.
Like a clear cut forest,
Nothing was left untouched by their axes.
They chopped us your sanctuary like kindling
And burned it to the ground,
Your home an unholy bonfire.
They set out to erase you completely,
Gunning down every person,
Bulldozing down every place
Touched by your worship.
What’s left?
God’s gone silent.
No one speaks for him.
There’s no sign the silence will ever end.
But your enemies aren’t silent, God.
Their mockery makes your silence worse.
How long do we have to endure it?
Why don’t you do something?
Anything!
Destroy the destroyers!
Let me get this straight.
You are my King
And you’ve been the creating King since the beginning,
Earth’s saving King ever since.
In both Creation and Exodus,
You divided the waters.
You drowned anti-salvation Egypt in the sea.
You crushed anti-creation Leviathan,
That many-headed monster,
His carcass a feast for carrion in the wild.
You opened up springs in the desert for us
And dried up the always flowing Jordan
So we could walk through it.
You made the day: it’s yours.
You made the night: it’s yours.
The motions of sun and moon were set by you.
You crafted the continents
And contours of the earth.
You set the seasons.
You established everything,
So establish us!
The enemy did this to you,
Mocking you,
Spitting at the sound of your name.
Don’t let them do this to us,
Your precious people,
Crushing us,
Killing us.
Remember the covenant you made with us?
Well, the land is filled with violence now.
We’re so tired of getting beaten up,
Of losing ground,
Of enduring shame.
We’ve become so poor and needy.
Give us a reason to praise your name again.
Get up and get going, God!
Defend your reputation.
Defend your people.
Do you hear that sound?
It’s your enemies,
Shouting for all the wrong reasons,
A non-stop noise of obscenities.
(It should be your people,
Singing your praise.)