posted 15 Apr 2014, 01:43 by Ben@theorderoftheblacksheep.com
Afflicted, I have seen and know what it’s like to feel the rod of God’s anger:2 An absence of light and only darkness. Darkness—that’s where God has driven me.3 Against me and me alone, over and over, God raises His hand incessantly. 4 Bones are broken, skin rubbed off, and my flesh wasted;
this is God’s doing:
5 Besieged in hardship,
wrapped in a husk of bitter poison and trouble;
6 Brought to darkness like those dead and decaying,
and left there alone to live. 7 Cut off from every avenue of escape, God has fenced me in
and tied me up with heavy chains.
8 Crying and carrying on do me no good;
God shuts out my prayer.
9 Closed in and blocked by walls of cut stone,
what paths I have left, He has twisted and confused my steps. 10 Dangerous as a stalking lion or a lurking bear,
God lies in wait for me.
11 Dragging me off the path and tearing me up,
He has left me desolate.
12 Drawing back His bow, God aims
straight at me with His own arrow. 13 Ever true arrows, ready in His quiver,
now sink into my gut.
14 Echoing taunts ring ’round me from the mouths of my own people,
laughing and joking about me all day long.
15 Enough! He has filled me with bitterness,
saturated me with gall. 16 For He crushes my teeth with a mouth filled with gravel;
He humiliates me, trampling me in ashes.
17 Fragmented, my self knows no peace.
I cannot remember what it’s like to be happy.
18 “Failed,” I say to myself. “My hope fails
in the face of what the Eternal One has done.” |
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