The Two Men: Psalm 32

Two men have I at times been through my life:
One silent, keeping secret sins inside.
Troubled days, walking pathways long in strife,
Swimming against the ever-swelling tide.
Wishing often a sympathetic ear,
And loving friends to hold me close and cry.
But in those times when friends have drawn so near,
My lips are closed, my eyes avert, I fly.
In loneliness and shame I walk so long,
By barbs and whips I ever know my way.
Mournful voice singing always its one song,
I numbly tread through every darkened day.
These empty steps familiar to me still,
If walked for long, my soul they’d rape and kill.

But second man of late have I become,
Naked standing, exposed before the Lord.
To piercing eyes of his will I succumb,
And by his hands my guilty streams I’ll ford.
On other side so far away from guilt,
The paths I’ll walk are ever in his care.
In stormy days a safe place has he built
To keep my soul from walking in despair.
Instead of whips his staff directs me now,
Teaching ever the way I ought to live.
And on those days when troubled is my brow,
Forgiveness, love, and more he has to give.
As the second man, nothing do I lack.
To the first, I hope I never will go back.

This poem is taken from my book A New Song, (Westbow Press, 2016) and can be found online HERE.