Jerusalem Beggars
A Poetic Commentary on Psalm 109
Dedicated to the Messiah of Zion,
the great musical conductor.
A song from the ear of David
God of justice, redeemer of Zion,
when you reveal yourself,
you are my beauty and my praise.
I am waiting for you.
Please attend unto my need!
I need hate to be converted to love.
Reveal your mercy, reveal yourself,
God of Israel,
God of restorative justice for all the world.
Do this for Zion, I pray.
When your love defeats Zion's enemies,
the nations will praise her.
Cause the destroyer to be destroyed gently,
and leave among the nations something to save.
Leave something among the nations to rebuild for your glory,
so that they may give thanks for Zion when she prays for them.
When the nations are planted like Pharaoh
in the sea of dissolution,
plant them with a powerful, reverent fear of you,
that afterward they might sprout anew
when you revive them with your blessing,
the blessing of a new creation,
the blessing you entrusted to Abraham.
Zion is a lamb in a lion's field.
The lions say, "Come and graze with us!"
They seek a play thing for their cubs.
They teach their cubs to devour her.
They circle her and say,
"Where now is her God?
Let him save her if he is able!"
Once God courted the world.
He pitched his tent beside his dear one,
his darling Israel.
But she played coy and flirted with others.
God had given his heart to her,
to the poorest maiden.
He called Zion his home.
He gave her his name.
But like a little child she used it in vain.
She was filled full of herself
and had no room for him.
Then he pulled up his tent.
She felt utterly alone.
Those who had grown jealous of her circled her.
They saw her as easy prey.
They made themselves lions unto her.
They attacked her without a cause,
because she alone possessed God's name.
In her prayer she cried,
My sisters were jealous,
because our Creator gave me alone his name.
They hated me
on account of the one who made them,
because he was angry with his world.
In pride and bitterness they created idols for their God.
They worshiped themselves more than their Creator.
The Creator of the heavens and the earth
shared the thoughts of his mind and heart with me.
He told me all of his desires.
Why did my heart wander from him?
Why did I crave the love of my sisters more than his love?
Zion did not fear the predators.
She prayed for the peace of those who came to devour her.
She looked upon them with a holy spirit.
She saw them as they looked on the day
they were fashioned in the womb,
on the day of the world's conception,
and on the day they were separated from her
as seventy siblings.
Because she loved them with a pure heart,
they hated her even more.
The nations stride around the earth
and kick at her as they walk by.
They are proud of their independence.
They celebrate their rebellion from their Creator.
Little Zion reminds them of him.
So they despise her,
and think it good to deceive her with friendliness,
so that they might suddenly kill her
and make the smoke of her ashes a mock sacrifice.
It is easier for Zion to repent than to be a fool.
Her teacher taught her who to trust.
She walks erect into the arena of lions.
Her breath is prayer.
Her footsteps pray, Oh God!
I walk softly, please listen!
Hear my prayer for the peace of those who would devour me.
Do not be deaf on account of your anger toward them.
Hear the soft footsteps of Zion's prayer!
She prays for hatred to be converted to love.
When Zion was a child she was high spirited,
but when she grew up she became meek.
She stepped into her role as the Creator's servant.
I will walk hand in hand with the King, she sings!
I will serve the smallest and the least of God's creatures!
The nations saw the meek one,
and that she was the heir of the earth.
They saw she held the key to their survival.
They came to show their gratitude
but found they could not stand her.
They showed their gratitude by pushing her from every side.
They pushed and pulled,
trying to baptize her in icy rage
and drown her in the sea,
so great was their jealousy.
It was like the wrath of a dragon,
who knows his time is short.
Then her King rejoiced in her.
He brought her to his door.
He gave her blessings for all her sisters.
The nations were greatly stirred and rose up.
To show their gratitude they bought her presents
and gave them to her but their hearts hated her all the more.
Again, they rushed her from every side
and pushed her down.
They sprinkled her with blood
and sought to drown her in the sea.
So great was their jealousy,
it was like the wrath of a dragon,
who knows his time is short.
Because she loves them even still,
they hate her more still.
How will the nations ever be ruled by your love?
They refuse to see your grace.
The grace that God shows to her King
She feels in his love
when he touches her hand.
His love is the redemption of Zion,
which saves her from all hatred.
Give the nations iron.
Let them worship the steel fist.
Let them craft a hand of iron and fire
with which they would grab all things,
but which grips them
and will not let them go.
Let two fists rule over them,
One from without to kill all hope,
and one from within to steal all their love.
For they loved the fist and despised Zion's prayer. .
When they face their own violence,
when they taste the harm they have done,
when they discover that they have killed all but themselves,
when they search everywhere in loneliness,
when they judge themselves,
then let them awake from the dream,
the nightmare, where when all is dead but their pride
the only way to save their pride is to commit suicide.
The whole world is naked without knowledge.
The nations have trampled Zion beneath their feet,
and have called themselves innocent.
Their prayers are filled with darkness and not light,
that they might hide their nakedness.
Clothe them, Oh God, with your redeeming mercy!
The adversary seeks to sit upon your throne.
Let him fall victim to his own trap.
The adversary of Zion
sought to cast a spell of spiritual sleep over the world.
Lend to him a measure of a deep spirit to make him sleep,
and then finally let him awake to learn his error.
The one created with a living soul could not raise the dead.
Therefore the one with a life-giving spirit
will come and take his rightful place as King of Zion.
Why should children have a father
whose blood is the blood of death?
Why should a wife have a husband
whose seed is the seed of corruption?
Teach the lost children to know the dark poverty of their jealousy.
Lead their spirit out of the wilderness of violence.
Pull them by the hand
out of the swamps of death's enveloping fear.
When he comes to his final end,
may the spirit of the adversary
come again to the hand of the One who gave it.
May it return to its condition before it was given.
May the scavengers who followed the predatory spirit
be drawn away from Zion,
to stand against one another in the way,
— unless you convert them to prayer and to peace.
May there be no one to forgive the enemy of your child,
— unless you forgive him
and grant repentance to his spirit
and convert its hatred to love.
May neither he nor his children
be sustained by unrepentant begging,
lest his evil should rise up a second time.
The rebels in the Garden of Eden
were the father and mother of Zion's enemy.
Zion' enemy wants to justify the rebellion of his parents.
He wants to sabotage the repentance of his parents.
God forbid that he should succeed!
Let his generation cease!
He is the author of all genocides.
I pray, God, convert the hatred he has sown to love.
Let the execution of Adam be carried out
on the day that it was set for,
by the God who raises the dead.
The grace of God is everywhere!
May the persecutors of Zion be judged
according to the wise memory of the smoke of Auschwitz
that ascends eternally
in the circle of your restorative justice.
May the inspiration of all their evil
be forgotten from the world.
But may their lesson be remembered.
Let the broken hearted from every generation
be the final jury;
let them form the circle of merciful justice,
to restore innocence to the world.
Teach the broken hearted your Torah.
Let them learn your sacrificial ways.
Teach the nations how to make the evil inclination
to hew their wood and draw their water.
Teach them how to make their adversary their servant,
to build highways of righteousness,
as you taught Zion, your beloved,
your little Jewess.
The strong man mocked and cursed Abraham.
He stole his nephew and despised the rule of Zion.
The strong man sits now in the flames of loneliness
and watches the great dancing of joy across the divide
in the place he cannot reach.
He sits alone and watches the nations dance
and sing and rejoice with Abraham and with Zion,
As she looks up in anticipation of the coming of her King.
The Prince of Violence wore the robes of sorcery.
He fashioned his robes to be like living flesh.
He seduced a world with his great technique.
He changed time and made it play his tune.
He warped the seasons like a rebel god.
He drove the innocent mad.
His power was a virus that enflamed his head
And infected the whole world.
He hated his own bones,
when he could not transform them into spirit.
To curse his bones, he called them Abraham.
His curse became a flood within his mouth.
His curse became a raging flood
that swirled down and lodged within his throat.
The flood from his mouth
became a religion of cursing and blasphemy.
The adversary of Zion
will be clothed in nothing but his bones
when he stands before his Maker.
He cursed his bones because they mocked him
when he told himself that he was God.
His bones will be his ally and his brace
to let him stand before his Maker.
Zion has taught me to pray,
Bless me through the curses
spoken against me,
that I might bless those who curse me,
that I might be prayer for those who persecute me.
Let my enemy have the open mouth of Bilaam,
but not his whisper.
I am not praying evil for evil done to me.
I am praying that darkness be made the servant of light.
Convert their jealousy into a right fear and their fear into hope.
Teach our hope to obey your love.
Let the prayer of Zion rule the world,
for she is praying for the nations to come to know your name.
Holy Blessed One, whose name is known in Israel
You are Zion's ruler.
You will handle me gracefully
for the sake of your name.
For the sake of your gracious kindness, rescue me,
and reveal your restorative Torah justice to all.
Though you moved a little from Zion, return to her with a full embrace!
Take hold of the hand of Israel,
so that she can take hold of the hand of her sisters who shun you.
For they are destroyers who do not know what they do.
Zion stands in plain sight and no one sees her.
She stands hand in hand with her King
and no one knows it.
She cries out with her voice in the proper place,
Only God, Only Love, hear our plea,
for we two are one prayer.
We are the Jerusalem beggars.
Forgive the rebellion of your world!