Complaining
A Plea from the Clay
The speaker humbly acknowledges God as his power and wisdom, and himself as fragile clay and dust, contrasting divine glory with human helplessness.
Do not deceive my heart, because you are my power and wisdom.✦ Do not put me to shame, because I am your clay that weeps, your dust that calls. You are the Lord of glory; the deed and the story are both your due: but I am only a helpless fly that lives or dies according as the weather falls.1
Questioning the Divine Attributes
The speaker questions whether God is only just, and whether his own experience is limited to grief, probing the nature of God and his own suffering.
Are you all justice, Lord? Doesn't your word reveal other attributes as well? Am I nothing but a throat or an eye, meant only to weep or cry out? Have I no parts but those of grief?
A Cry for Mercy in a Short Life
The speaker pleads for God's wrath not to consume his brief life, or else for grace to shorten it and bring relief.
Don't let your wrathful power afflict my hour—my inch of life—or let your gracious power shorten my hour, so that I may climb and find relief.✦2
Read the original English
Do not beguile my heart, Because thou art My power and wisdome. Put me not to shame, Because I am Thy clay that weeps, thy dust that calls.
Thou art the Lord of glorie; The deed and storie Are both thy due: but I a silly flie, That live or die According as the weather falls.
Art thou all justice, Lord? Shows not thy word More attributes? Am I all throat or eye, To weep or crie? Have I no parts but those of grief?
Let not thy wrathfull power Afflict my houre, My inch of life: or let thy gracious power Contract my houre, That I may climbe and finde relief.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Cor.1.24 — but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
- ↩Ps.39.5;Ps.90.10-Ps.90.12 — Make known to me, LORD, my end, and the measure of my days—what it is—that I may know how fleeting I am. Ps.90.10 — The days of our years in them are seventy years, or if in strength, eighty years; and their pride is toil and trouble, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Ps.90.11 — Who knows the power of your anger, and, in keeping with the fear you are due, your wrath? Ps.90.12 — Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Notes
The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations companion
A prayer for every moment, already on your phone
Chosen Portion puts a curated historic prayer in front of you each day — so the words are there before the moment arrives.
Chosen Portion is the digital descendant of the carried prayer book: the short daily prayers this collection preserves, delivered one a day to your pocket.
- One short, memorable prayer delivered daily — build your repertoire a card at a time
- Prayers matched to real situations: fear, gratitude, decisions, grief, sleep
- Save favourites into your personal pocket collection you can open anywhere