600. Ad Dominum

A paraphrase of Psalm 120 – a Song of Ascents, or pilgrimage hymn. This is the psalm that references Meshech and Kedar, foreign places far to the north and south of Israel. As I wrote this paraphrase, stanza 4 was originally stanza 1, but I found it hard to let the hymn end the way this psalm does and I was loath to add any new ideas to it. Not that that should necessarily stop a hymnwriter – some of my other psalm paraphrases are actually quite loose – but I didn't feature tampering with this one any more than absolutely necessary. So ...

False tongue, what shall put paid to you?
Bolts from the arm'rer's smithy!
Wry lips, what are you fit to do
But burn like kiln-fired withy?^*

Alas! I sojourn far from home,
For blest communion pining!
How long, Lord, will You bid me roam,
Far from Your precincts shining?

Alas! For I am domiciled
With hateful men surrounded,
And though I plead, "Be reconciled,"
Their war-lust is unbounded.

To God in my distress I cry,
His ears my plea receiving:
Lord, save my life from lips that lie
And from a tongue deceiving!

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^* a reference to the ancient craft of charcoal-burning.