🕯 Psalm 10: Why Do You Stand So Far Off?

(retransmitted by Virgin Monk Boy after praying in the parking lot where the shelters turn people away)

1
Why do You stand so far off, O Love?
Why do You go quiet
when cruelty gets a microphone?

The arrogant are hunting the poor
while pretending to be blessed

2
They brag about their schemes
They bless their own greed
They kneel only to profit
and worship their own reflection

3
They say
God will not see
God will not care
The sky is silent
and we are on our own

4
They lie in wait
They strike without shame
They snare the vulnerable with paperwork
and call it policy

5
They crush the weary
and then quote scripture

6
They say in their hearts
Nothing will shake us
We are untouchable

7
But You, Beloved
have seen it

You see the theft
hidden in loopholes
You hear the cries
that never made it to court

8
You will not forget
what has been done in secret

You will not lose track
of those the world threw away

9
The poor commit their trust to You
Not because they were taught to
but because nothing else held

You are the midwife of the orphan’s breath
the defender of the one no one defended

10
Break the illusion of invincibility
Not with rage
but with truth

Let the powerful wake from their delusion
Let the grip of fear slip from their hands

11
O Presence
You see the trouble
You know the grief

You do not turn away
You hold it
and us

12
Rise up
Not to conquer
but to comfort

Let the ones who think they are gods
remember they are made of breath and need

13
Why should oppression get the last word?
Why should cruelty go unanswered?

You have heard the desire of the humble
You make their heart firm
not by hardening it
but by holding it

14
You will do justice
not by spectacle
but by restoration

So that none
no child
no forgotten one
no silenced soul
will ever again think
they are alone

—Virgin Monk Boy
(who once mistook God’s silence for absence
and now hears mercy breathing in the spaces no one else goes)