Living Psalm 51:1-17

Living Psalms Book

Psalms in the form of words and art, reborn in the specific contexts of our world, privileging the voices of historically marginalized communities and those acting in solidarity with them.

Living Psalm 51_Houser

Have mercy on me, O Love that holds all of who I am.
Not just the parts they call acceptable,
but the softness, the fire, the too-much-ness they tried to strip away.
See me in the fullness of my becoming—
in the scars and the survival, in the beauty they said was broken.

Wash away the shame they taught me to wear like a second skin.
Scrub off the whispers, the slurs,
the hands that pushed me out of pews
and the doctrines that tried to make me disappear.
I have carried their words too long,
pressed them into my ribs until I thought they were mine.

But you—
you have always seen me whole.
Before they told me my body was wrong,
before they wrote rules to keep me from love,
you knit me together with colors they refused to name.
You called me radiant before they called me sinner.

Create in me a heart that beats in the rhythm of truth.
Breathe into these tired bones a spirit that cannot be erased.
Let me sing the song of the outcast made holy,
of the exile called beloved,
of the one they tried to bury,
rising, rising, rising—

not in spite of who I am,
but because of it.

Living-Psalm-51-for-Ash-Wednesday_Houser Download

Living Psalm 51:1-17 was written by Sam Houser.

Living Psalms Book is created by UCC Witness & Worship Artists’ Group, a Network of UCC connected artists, activists and ministers bridging the worship and liturgy of the local church with witness and action in the community. Maren Tirabassi, editor

Logo is detail from Living Psalm 80 by Sophia Beardemphl, Redwoods, CA. Recovering from significant bullying, Sophia, age nine, read Psalm 80 and thought of brokenness that needs mending. She drew this broken and mended bowl.