PSALM 2020, "The Promised Land"

As part of the Psalms Cohort we were invited to write our own psalms. This psalm is the fruit of the process.

PSALM 2020, "The Promised Land"
of Michael, a member of the Cohort of Psalms,
learning to pastor in the midst of a global pandemic.

LORD, our God, we long for the Promised Land.

Because what a wilderness wandering.
This pestilence––pandemic––has wrecked havoc.
Remember your pilgrim people, who like our ancestors,
journeyed through the desert in search of home.
We are parched LORD.
Our bones waste away under the heat of 
uncertainty, isolation, grief, disappointment, waiting.
Preserve us so that we may persevere,
sustain us with your Living Water and Bread of Life,
your very Spirit and Son.

LORD, my God, I long for the Promised Land.

I fear that I, like Moses,
can only shepherd your people so far,
and myself never enter what was Promised.

Remind me daily of that bush,
the one you dropped your Presence on,
the one that burned but never burned out.
The one where I took off my sandals,
and felt holiness get caught between my toes.
The one where we spoke:
I AM with I am.

So burn and shine your face on us, on me,
like a sun that does not sap strength
but invigorates and illuminates––

the one thing I see to be true:
LORD, my God, I long for the Promised Land.
LORD, my God, your Presence is the Promised Land