Wednesday, December 11, 2013

4826. PSALM 49

PSALM 49
First part:
Listen to me now, people :
everyone who is bent and cut
by the knife of time. You. All.
-
You who farm and toil and work, and
you big-wigs as well, fat and sassy. I'm
speaking the truth here, and from my own
heart. I'm only saying those things that I know. 
-
I listen hard for stories and words. I scratch 
out my questions like a music score.
-
What do I care now if bad things are coming  -
Calamity Jane doesn't know me, especially when
all those unfair people behind me start unleashing
their bills and dues and unfounded damned wants.
-
I don't care. All those with faith in their money and 
riches, they praise only themselves, are puffed with 
vanity. People don't help their fellows, nor do they 
come to God seeking help and forgiveness.
-
Second part:
Fact is, they coudln't pay what it would cost to save
themselves, and then they wouldn't want to anyway.
Envy and greed have already gotten their numbers.
They die forever. I don't know; can't they see?
-
Muscles weaken, flesh decays  -  on everyone  -
and they're not going to live forever. Even the wisest
men perish, and always have done so. Even the best,
just like the fools and the brutes; sunk in their holes.
Dead. Dead. Dead.
-
Everything they had  -  all those wealthy men  -  both
given and gone away. Given over to others and to the
grave in their eternal rest.  Forever. Go read the
names on their markers and plaques.
-
I listen hard for stories and words. I scratch
out my questions like a music score.
-
Third part:
No one is buried with their money  -  before God
we are all like silent beasts of the field. That's how the
foolish go, and the wise as well. Try to stay happy and
win with wealth? A fool's game, and the end is the 
underworld. Death eats the flesh of their bones.
-
The good ones among us  -  the straight and the humble  -
use the same path in the morning as the dumb and the
stupid. All to be bodies withered from Death in the
grave, and all those big-shots fallen away.
-
But there is a chance? God will redeem me from darkness? I
will sit with Him? Do not fret as others around you win and get
rich, with their houses heavy with all that's within. They can't take 
it with them, and won't. That's one weight won't follow them down.
-
While alive, they may appear footloose and fancy and 
blessed  -  but if they're not thanking you, oh Lord, they'll 
be sorry. It will all fall away; they'll be blinded by darkness 
and death, and, like the rest, never seeing light again.
-
See : all mortals are visitors, and we do not understand  -  
like silent animals before the will of God.




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