Lectionary Poetry – 23rd Sunday After Pentecost ( Year B )

Each week we carefully curate a collection of  poems that resonate with the lectionary readings for that week (Narrative Lectionary and Revised Common Lectionary).
 

*** Revised Common Lectionary ***

Lectionary Reading:
Job 42:1-6, 10-17 and Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)

 
 

CLASSIC POEM:

Psalm 34, Part 1
Isaac Watts

I’ll bless the Lord from day to day;
How good are all his ways!
Ye humble souls that use to pray,
Come, help my lips to praise.

Sing to the honor of his name,
How a poor suff’rer cried,
Nor was his hope exposed to shame,
Nor was his suit denied.

When threat’ning sorrows round me stood,
And endless fears arose,
Like the loud billows of a flood,
Redoubling all my woes;

I told the Lord my sore distress,
With heavy groans and tears;
He gave my sharpest torments ease,
And silenced all my fears.

[O sinners, come and taste his love,
Come, learn his pleasant ways;
And let your own experience prove
The sweetness of his grace.

He bids his angels pitch their tents
Round where his children dwell;
What ills their heav’nly care prevents
No earthly tongue can tell.] [O love the Lord, ye saints of his;
His eye regards the just:
How richly blest their portion is
Who make the Lord their trust!

Young lions, pinched with hunger, roar
And famish in the wood;
But God supplies his holy poor
With every needful good.]

*** This poem is in the public domain, 
  and may be read in a live-streamed worship service.
 
 

CONTEMPORARY POEM:

Crows
Marilyn Nelson

SNIPPET:
What if to taste and see, to notice things,
to stand each is up against emptiness
for a moment or an eternity—
…

[ READ THE FULL POEM ]

 
 

<<<<<< PREV. POEM  |
NEXT POEM >>>>>>