Descriptor:
This resource relating to Psalm 54 provides a poem by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) seeking God's deliverance from internal conflict and a poem by Malcolm Guite seeking freedom from the tyranny of the mind.
Paid Resource:
N
Requires FREE Account:
N
Lectionary:
Revised Common Lectionary
Source:
Englewood Review
Related to Children or Youth:
N
Audio/Video:
N
Full Text:
*** Revised Common Lectionary ***
Lectionary Reading:
Psalm 54
CLASSIC POEM:
Who Shall Deliver Me?
Christina Rossetti
God strengthen me to bear myself;
That heaviest weight of all to bear,
Inalienable weight of care.
All others are outside myself;
I lock my door and bar them out
The turmoil, tedium, gad-about.
I lock my door upon myself,
And bar them out; but who shall wall
Self from myself, most loathed of all?
If I could once lay down myself,
And start self-purged upon the race
That all must run! Death runs apace.
If I could set aside myself,
And start with lightened heart upon
The road by all men overgone!
God harden me against myself,
This coward with pathetic voice
Who craves for ease and rest and joys:
Myself, arch-traitor to myself;
My hollowest friend, my deadliest foe,
My clog whatever road I go.
Yet One there is can curb myself,
Can roll the strangling load from me
Break off the yoke and set me free.
*** This poem is in the public domain,
and may be read in a live-streamed worship service.
CONTEMPORARY POEM:
Deus, in Nomine
Malcolm Guite
SNIPPET:
Let us rejoice to see your light prevail
Save us O God! For what the tyrants seek
Is not our bodies but our very soul!
The freedom of the heart is now at stake.
The enemies of freedom are within
Each one of us, for we have let them speak
…
[ READ THE FULL POEM ]
Content Type:
Key Scriptures:
Psalm 54
This sermon-related resource is based on a topic. I have selected the correct topic from the topic tags.:
Non English Resource:
RCL Lectionary Week:
Year B Proper 20 (Ordinary Time 25)