Praise God!
Give thanks to Lady Wisdom
For Her love persists forever
Can I ever thank God enough
Praise God enough
Wouldn’t it be wonderful
If I lived my whole life
Praising God
Giving thanks
Acting justly
Doing what is right
Ah yes, then I would deserve reward
Then I would merit saving
Then I wouldn’t need saving
But here’s the sad truth
Time and time again
I forget
I wander
I grumble
I close my eyes to Her light
I stumble in my darkness, my blindness
When I feel enslaved by my own selfishness
I forget God is with me
When I wallow in my own doubts
I forget God drives those doubts aside
When I wander lost in the wilderness of despair
I forget God feeds my spirit
When I give my time, my worship to unwise pursuits
I forget the peace I find in God
When I sacrifice love to anger
I forget God’s gentleness with me
When I live a half life, married to trivial things
I forget the fullness of life with God
When depression captures me
I forget God’s power to free me
With the psalmist I look back
I look back on the long history
Of God’s enduring love
To a faithless people
A doubting people
A grumbling people
A wicked people
A captive people
And I see myself
But I see God too
Her love
Her splendor
Her power
Her forgiveness
Her persistence
As always, for all people
She sees my distress
She hears my cry
She remembers me
She loves me
She saves me
She gathers me in
That I may give thanks to Her holy name
That I may glory in Her praise
Praise be to Lady Wisdom
Sovereign God of Israel
My God
From everlasting to everlasting
With that great cloud of witnesses
I joyously whisper shout, AMEN!

Let me give thanks to God
For She is good; Her love endures forever
Let me remember and tell myself always
The story of my recurring redemption
How Lady Wisdom comes to me again and again
To defeat my dark tendencies
To bless my poor efforts
To gather my scattered thoughts
I wandered in my desert wasteland
Of darkness, despair, doubt and depression
I could not find my way to Her city of light
I was hungry for peace, thirsty for comfort
My hope faded
Lost, I cried out for rescue, for Lady Wisdom
And She came, with good news and the Way
She delivered me to the gates of Her city of light
Where my thoughts could settle
Where my darkness was banished
So I thank God for Her unfailing love
For Her wonderful help
For satisfying my hungry longings
For quenching my raging thirst
But then again I sat in darkness
In utter darkness
Prisoner in chains of my own making
I forgot God
I made my own plans, lived my own life
Went my own way
Until I stumbled, until I broke
Blindly, I cried out for rescue, for Lady Wisdom
And She came, with light and truth
She brought me out of darkness
Out of the utter darkness
She broke my chains
So I thank God for Her unfailing love
For Her wonderful help
For breaking the steel gates of my selfishness
For cutting the iron bars of my ignorance
But then again I became foolish
I left God
No dramatic rebellion but I left
Wandered away into other preoccupations
Into the tempting world
Until I felt like death, not even warmed over
Sickly, I cried out for rescue, for Lady Wisdom
And She came, with healing and life
She restored my faith, my hope
So I thank God for Her unfailing love
For Her wonderful help
For finding me
For curing me
With prayer and praise, with songs of joy
I give thanks
Yet again I was cast adrift
Scared and overwhelmed
Storms of doubt raged around me
Towering waves of despair crashed over me
I could find no lifeboat, no life preserver
Surely God’s anger would weigh me down
Drowning, I cried out for rescue, for Lady Wisdom
And She came, with power and love
She stilled my storms of doubt to whispers of faith
She calmed my waves of despair
She guided me to Her safe haven
So I thank God for Her unfailing love
For Her wonderful help
I will join the great cloud of witnesses
In exalting and praising Her
I am God’s creation
No less when my faith dries up
Than when it flows freely
I am God’s creation
No less when my hope shrivels
Than when it bears fruit
I am God’s creation
She turns my desert doubts into pools of faith
She turns my parched faith into flowing springs of hope
She shows me where to sow my hope
Where to plant my faith
With Her, I harvest the sweet fruit of love
She blesses me, and my comfort increases
My terrible Ds diminish in power
And yet, again, and again, and then again
I grow proud and am humbled
I grow careless and am brought to sorrow
I grow ugly and wander lost in anger
Until I know, again, how needy I am
How afflicted I am, on my own
Then She lifts me, again
Then She saves me, again
Then She reminds me again
That She is the Way, the Truth, the Life
She is Love
She is Lady Wisdom
She is Helper, Sustainer, Consoler
She is God
Let me be wise, please God
Let me remember
Let me ponder the loving deeds of God
For me – again and again. Amen

The psalmist proclaims that her heart is steadfast
Ah, how I envy her
What is the opposite of steadfast
My heart is that – wobbly slow
Too slow, so often, to remember how good my life is
With God
Too wobbly, always, to hold onto that truth
But this morning, this morning
Praise God
With the psalmist I sing and make music with all my soul
Quietly but surely the music of comfort plays around me
Hope dawns for me
If there is one consolation for being so often lost
It is this: the wonderful feeling, the dawn feeling
Of being found, of coming again from darkness into light
Of knowing myself to be part of that great cloud of witnesses
Of laughing with the new old knowledge
Of God’s great love
God’s highest, deepest, longest, surest faithfulness
So today I thankfully join the psalmist across eons
To pray
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens
Let Your glory be over all the earth
And, like the psalmist, I hastily add
Save me and help me, deliver me
Because You love me
I believe Your promises
Today I believe; always I want to believe
When I wander, when I despair, when I doubt
Is it not You, God, I wait for, hope for
Is it not You who has to lead me back to You
My own efforts are usually worthless
Until I turn to You, until I hide behind You
As You gain victory, again and again
Over my doubts, depression, despair, darkness
Ah yes, this morning they are defeated
I rest and arise this morning within Your victory
For me. Amen and Thank You

Ah, God, wasn’t it just yesterday
When I joyously proclaimed
Your victory in my life
Didn’t I rest and arise within Your victory
And now, here I am
Feeling defeated
Here I am, about to rant
I am tired, God
I am tired of waiting for You to finally banish
My terrible foes
You know the ones, the ugly ones
The ones who scorn my prayers
How often have I named them for You
How often have they driven me from You
Doubt tells me You do not exist
Depression tells me I am worthless
Despair tells me this world is hopeless
Darkness tells me there is no light
Dis-ease tells me there is no quiet
Discouragement tells me to forget prayer
Distractions claim my attention
Bind them, burn them, banish them
Bury doubt in Your reality
Build Your mighty fortress to imprison depression
Bring hope to my hopelessness
Bank Your bright fires against my darkness
Be healing balm to my dis-ease
Blot out my discouragement
Bring my attention back to You
May this be how You, God, deal with my terrible Ds
That whisper and then shout evil
Poisoning my peace
Out of the goodness of Your love, Lady Wisdom
Deliver me
For I am poor and needy
And my heart is wounded within me
My hope, my joy fade away like evening shadows
I don’t like myself, I don’t like my choices
Help me, Lady Wisdom
Save me through Your unfailing love
Help me remember Your blessing
Help me believe Your power
Power to help me, power to save me
Your power with me always. Amen

[…God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory…in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Col 1:27 & 2:3]

God said to Jesus, “Sit at my right hand
Until I make your enemies your footstool.”
God gave Jesus God’s own power and authority
To rule over all, to defeat all foes
God has sworn to Jesus, “You are my high priest forever.”
And – oh glory be! – St. Paul tells me Jesus the Christ is in ME
I can conquer my foes, those foes that destroy my peace
I can break and shatter, crumble and trample my terrible Ds
No, not me, but Christ in me
With the Holy Spirit of Christ in me
With Lady Wisdom’s sustaining grace
I can lift my head from darkness and death
I can drink Christ’s everlasting water
And thirst no more. Amen