reformation

“Create in me a clean heart, O God;
and renew a right spirit within me.”—Psalm 51:10

make this mountain
of my anger
a valley of peace,
where no danger
spurts from my ire.
make this fountain
of my weeping
a token of ease,
where the stranger
may rest acquire.

make impatience
my enemy,
that humbly Thy sheep
may multiply
under my hand.
let my conscience
keep Thy praising;
in hallowed and deep
conformity,
my wit expand.

take my lonely,
heartbroken will
and my restlessness,
that i may fill
Thy courts with song,
ever, only
gladness raising.
take my recklessness,
this bitter kill
that does me wrong.

make the darkness
my undoing
no longer, when night
comes with daunting
calamities.
lest the starkness
of its deep sting
abolish my light,
let me be chanting
new harmonies.

every measure
of forbearance
You bestow on me
gives me clearance
for happiness;
buried treasure
grows from the chaff,
as new liberty
and assurance
my tongue confess.

© Copyright 2022 April 23
by Clyve A. Bowen♫