Psalm 4

PSALM 4 – For Persistence and Trust, with Melody and Devotion

Is it fair?

It is my call?

Please answer.

Respond honestly.

Sorrow and strife

Widen horizons and

Grow the soul when we welcome grace,

Listen with impassioned awareness. Hear my prayer.

Sons of a man, so?

What have you done with my dignity?

Am I a nobody? Is my love worth nothing?

My wants for naught?

We know better.

Discernment. Devotion.

Heed my call.

Shake off the stale shame of habits now lame

and speak with songs of heart strings pulled tight.

Treat first words as last and

Silence as best. Selah.

So many talk and talk, their talking can’t reveal your good.

Try us, shine the light

on your unseen face,

on the joy of times plentiful with grape and grain

planted in my unsettled breast.

I long to rest, to sleep in peace,

to share this solitude

and return to that refuge of trust.

FOCUS PHRASES:

Batzar hirchavta li – with sorrow you grow my soul

לבטח תושיבני / lavetach toshiveini – return me to trust

Shema Tefilati – hear my prayer

Rig’zu v’al techata’u – shake off the sin

Lamnetzeach bin’ginot – For persistence with song