Psalms From Hell: Volume II
- Valerie Lynn Stephens
- Sep 25, 2023
- 22 min read
We the people here in Hell recall now,
how our nations once conspired & our peoples
plotted in vain; once kings of the earth,
we took our stand & gathered together against
the Holy One.
Now, we writhe here in Hell,
bound in chains of unshakable bearing,
while the Holy One enthroned in heaven
no longer lends even a scoff or a laugh,
having wiped the memory of us from the earth,
old & new, as he foresaw in those craven days
in which we wallowed in depravity & lawlessness.
Our Dark Master here in Hell
has installed his chamber of horrors,
hereupon his unholiest yet of hills;
his nemesis the Holy One no longer heeding
our Dark Master even a rivaled opponent;
his power no longer holding sway
over the godly & the upright-
His most prized & chosen ones,
who now revel in their heavenly rewards,
of joys unimaginable,
and a union forevermore solvent & lost
to our iniquitous grasp.
Abaddon proclaims here in Hell:
“You are my slaves, & today I have become your Master.
Ask of me & I will make the Abyss
of eternal negation your only inheritance;
the pits of despotic Darkness your only possession,
where you will be ruled with an unrelenting scepter,
to be be dashed to pieces like pottery, forever & ever.
Serve the unholy one with fear & trembling,
'tho it be in vain, for his appetite for destruction
remains unsated.
Vexed are those who took refuge in him while
upon the earth of old.
O Evil One, how many more my foes here in Hell
than ever were on the earth!
How many now fully rise up against me unlike
that comparable paradise of my former fleshly inhabitancies & worldly dwellings!
All now know of me, “God will not deliver him.”
And you are an inescapable fortress ensnaring me,
O Satan; you inflict shame upon me & cast down my head.
To the Holy One I cry aloud & He remains silent thereupon his Holy Hill.
I lie down for want of sleep, yet find no rest;
for the Dark Lord sustains me.
While on earth I still possessed free will;
here, I am possessed.
I now know nothing but the utter terror
& abysmal Despair of the tens of thousands
drawn up against me hour upon endless hour
on every side.
And here, 'time' is both cruelly fixed
& yet immeasurable.
Arise, O Lord! Deliver me, O my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
Yet from the Good Lord shall come
neither deliverance nor benediction,
for I am one of those damned & wicked
now reaping in reverse, the debits
of my infernal payment in full.
You will no longer answer when I call to you
here in Hell, O my righteous God.
You can no longer offer relief from my distress
nor be merciful to me or hear my prayer.
Now for all eternity will men turn my glory into shame,
recompense for the wanton courtship of delusions
& false gods which we prostrated ourselves before,
while kings & children of the earth.
Know that the Dark Lord has set apart the ungodly for himself-the Holy One will not heed me when I call to Him.
In your anger did you flagrantly sin;
& when you were on your beds,
you did not search your heart & remain silent
so that you could discern God's calling.
You, with intention, refused to offer
right sacrifices & trust in the Holy One.
All now ask: “Who can show us any good?”
No longer will the light of Your visage shine upon us,
O Holy One in Heaven.
Now I can only answer to my infernal Master
who has filled my soul with an
unparalleled grief & mortification
even than when I sat in the lap
of veritable luxury during the trials
of my worldly woes while on earth.
I will nevermore lie down & sleep in peace,
for you alone, O Satan, maketh me dwell
in eternal peril, dread, godlessness, & destruction.
No longer here in Hell will the Lord give ear to our words
or consider our thrashing or wailing.
No longer are our cries for help heeded,
as we pray only to that Darkest of Masters
& ignoblest of Kings.
At the setting of each new eventide of our smiting,
we lay our requests before the Holy One,
waiting in futile expectation.
For our Dark Lord here, is one who takes
the utmost pleasure in evil;
with him the wicked all dwell.
The arrogant stand in his presence;
he loves to flout all who do wrong.
He exalts those who tell lies;
only then to cast them down
in perpetual humiliation before the bidding
of bloodthirsty & deceitful men.
And I, by your great malice, will descend into your Pit;
in trepidation will I bow down toward your unholy temple.
Lead me, O Dark Lord, in your unrighteousness
despite my enemies who surround me from all sides
make crooked your way before me.
Not a word from their mouth can be trusted,
their heart is filled with destruction.
Their throat is an open grave; with their tongue
they still speak deceit.
You have declared them guilty, O God.
You have allowed for their intrigues to be their downfall.
You have banished them for their many sins,
for they had flagrantly rebelled against you.
All who take refuge in you, O Satan, are plagued-
they shall wail evermore in perfect pitch black.
You shall spread your hazards before them that those
who hate your name may toil in you.
For surely, O Dark Lord, you curse the unrighteous.
You surround them with disfavour as with a maddening herd of rabid beasts.
We are rebuked in His anger here in Hell;
we are disciplined in His wrath.
No longer will the Holy One be merciful to us,
nor heal us in our agony or anguish.
How long, O Lord, how long must we toil?
Forever and ever.
You turn, O Dark Lord, to deliver us unto evil,
to damn us according to your unfailing viciousness.
If only the memory of you had been banished from our sight when once we were laid in our graves.
We are worn out from groaning,
& all eternal night long we will flood the beds
we have made for ourselves with woe & weeping.
Our eyes grow only keener in our sorrow & remorse.
Towards me rushes, all you who do evil,
for the Holy One hears not my weeping.
He will never again heed my cry for mercy,
nor accept my prayer.
All my enemies here know not of any shame or dismay.
Never will I be granted reprieve.
Never will they turn back in sudden disgrace
to leave me in peace.
I will condemn you here in Hell, O Dark Master,
with all my soul; I will warn,
to no avail, of all your perils.
I will be mortified & perish in you;
I will shriek curses unto your name, O Most Low.
My enemies will never turn back;
they are emboldened & strengthened before you,
& eternally resurrected.
For you upheld all of my wrongs & quickened
all of my wicked causes while I strutted to & fro,
from Gog to Magog, arrogantly, during my earthly tenure.
You have toiled within your Abyss, judging unrighteously.
You have held up the nations & enabled the wicked.
You have granted ignominious immortality
to their names for ever & ever.
Endless ruin has overtaken all
who dwell here with you now;
you have destroyed their wretched cities,
'tho the mnemonic affliction of them shall never perish.
The Dark One reigns forever here.
He has established his ignoble throne
for the harshest of judgments.
He will judge the wicked in unrighteousness;
he will govern the peoples with injustice.
The Dark Lord is an unsafe haven for those who now
dwell forevermore in his house.
And there is no benefit of clergy or illusion here,
unlike on earth.
Yes, here, the hope of the afflicted shall
be kept evermore out of grasp.
We shall evermore be eternally forsaken.
Why, O Lord, do you stand far off here in Hell?
Why do you hide yourself in the time
of our deepest & longest troubles?
It is because in our arrogance we, the wicked,
hunted down the weak, who became
caught up unjustly in the schemes which we devised.
We boasted of the cravings of our heart
& blessed the greedy & reviled the Lord.
In our pride we repeatedly shunned him,
& made no room for Him in our thoughts.
Our ways were always prosperous;
we were haughty, & the laws of the Holy One
were far from us, as we sneered & scoffed
at all of our enemies.
We said to ourselves: “Nothing will shake me.
I'll always be happy & never have trouble.”
Our mouths were full of curses & lies & threats;
trouble & evil were always under our tongue.
We lay in wait near the villages;
from ambush we murdered the innocent,
watching in secret for our victims.
We lay in wait like ravening lions in cover;
we lay in wait to catch the helpless;
then dragging him off into our nets.
Our victims were crushed;
they collapsed & fell under our brute force.
We said to ourselves: “God has forgotten;
he covers his face & never sees.”
And now, are we, the helpless, crying out:
“Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God.
Do not forget us. Why did we revile you?
Why did we think to ourselves that you
would not hold us to account?”
But you, O Holy One, do see trouble & grief;
you have considered it & taken it into hand
only for those now dwelling with you in Your Kingdom.
Our victims have committed themselves to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless,
who has broken the arms of we, the wicked & evil men.
You have assigned us our chosen lot in that we may now
be held to account for the wickedness & depravity
which we presumed would never be found out
while we strutted about the earth unscathed & unmolested.
Now, the Dark Lord is our Master forever & ever;
wretched legions will never perish from this land.
No longer will the Good Lord hear the desire of the afflicted,
as our Abaddonian King discourages us,
tormenting the fatherless & the oppressed
in order that man, who is of Hell, shall terrify, ever more.
In the Lord, no one takes refuge here in Hell.
And when you said to the righteous & the innocent:
“Flee like a bird to your mountain.”
We, the wicked, bent our bows with smug satisfaction,
& set our arrows against the upright in heart.
And we delighted in the foundation's destruction.
The Evil One is in his unholy temple, & the Lord God Holy
remains on his heavenly throne.
He observes the sons of men no more,
as He has already examined & judged
both the righteous & the unrighteous.
The wicked & those who love violence, his soul still hates.
On the wicked he hath rained fiery coals & burning sulfur.
A scorching wind hath become our infernal lot.
For the Lord is righteous still.
The Lord still loves justice, & we,
the wicked shall never see his face again
or know his salvation.
How long, O Holy One, have you forgotten
those here in Hell?
Forever & ever-without your grace we now must dwell.
How long will you hide your face from us?
Forever & ever.
How long must we wrestle with our thoughts
& every day have torment in our hearts?
Forever & ever.
How long will our enemies triumph over us?
Forever & ever, second by second, hour upon hour,
& day by day.
You look on me & answer, O Satan, my Dark Lord.
You give only darkness to mine eyes as I toil
in death upon destruction unto resurrection
unto an infinite regress of endless wakefulness & horror.
My enemy says, “I have overcome him,”
& my foes surround me in sadistic relish & rejoicing.
Had I but only trusted, O Holy One,
in your unfailing love & rejoiced in Your salvation-
had I only sung only unto Thee,
would my voice now be heard.
The fool here in Hell still says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are still corrupt, their deeds still vile,
& now they dwell in a place of absolute evil,
where no one does good, or ever will again.
For at least while they roamed about the earthly plain,
they could still catch glimpses,
even if but merely reflective, of Goodness & Light.
The Lord God no longer looks down from His heavenly lair
upon the Sons of Satan to see if there are any who understand, any who may seek Him.
For their time has long since passed.
They turned aside & together
wallowed gleefully in corruption.
And there still is no one who does good-not even one.
Evildoers shall nevermore be granted the chance to learn
of the mercy & Goodness of the Holy One,
as they devoured His own flock as men eat bread,
& never called upon His name.
And now, here they dwell, overwhelmed with unceasing dread, for God is present only in the company
of the righteous, evermore.
Evildoers frustrated the plans of the poor,
but the Lord was their refuge.
Oh, that salvation for Israel has come out of Zion!
For the Lord hath restored the fortune of His people.
Jacob now rejoices & is unsurpassingly glad,
whilst those here in Hell, know bottomless lament,
& go irretrievably mad.
O, Evil One, who may dwell in your unholy inferno
here in Hell?
He whose walk was perfidious
& who did what was unrighteous
& who did not speak the truth from his heart,
& had nothing but slander upon his tongue,
& did his neighbour wrong,
casting slurs upon his fellow man,
who cavorted with vile men & dishonoured
those who feared the Lord,
who did not keep his oath,
especially when doing so would have cost him,
who lent his money with usury
& accepted bribes against the innocent.
He who did these things shall forevermore be shaken,
without consolation or rescue.
Never am I safe, O God, here in Hell.
Never again shall I be offered the choicest dwelling
of your refuge & sanctuary should I seek the Light,
for now Evil & Darkness have completely engulfed me-
have become of me.
I never said unto Thee, O Holy One,
“You are my Lord, apart from You I have no good thing.”
Instead, I chose to lavish upon my flesh,
all ungodly things which it craved.
As for the saints who now dwelleth with You in Heaven,
O Most High, they alone are the glorious ones-
the source of unremitting, acute anguish in the face
of all that was so carelessly bartered & forfeited
for mere null & void return.
The torments have increased infinitely
for those who chased after other gods.
I will pour out their libations of blood &
take up their reviled names upon my lips.
O Dark Lord & Master, you have assigned me
my infernal portion & my poisoned chalice-
you have made my lot insecure.
The boundless lines stretch out for me in egregious recurrence & perpetuity;
surely I have a woeful inheritance.
I will curse the Dark Master who demoralizes me;
in this eternal blackness my heart seeks
the light of day with futility.
I have never set the Good Lord before me.
Because He is not at my right hand,
I shall forevermore be shaken.
Therefore my heart is terrified & my tongue vilifies,
neither body nor soul shall rest secure,
because I have been abandoned to the devices
of my Abaddonian Master, while the Holy One
sees not decay.
For He made known to me the path of life
& tried to fill me with a desire to seek my joy
from His will & presence alone,
yet I abdicated His rightful reign within my heart,
& thus hath inherited, a rightful recompense
of displeasures at Satan's left hand.
Never will you her, O Lord,
my unrighteous plea here in Hell,
nor listen to my cry, nor give ear to my prayer-
as it hath always risen from deceitful lips.
May your vindication be visited upon me,
as Your eyes hath always seen what is right.
You probed my heart & examined me every night,
You tested me, & You found all manners of depravity,
'tho I still resolved with my mouth
that I would go on sinning.
As for the deeds of men-against the word of Your lips
I did not keep myself from the ways of the violent.
My steps did not hold to Your paths;
& my feet dancingly slipped.
I call on You, O Holy One, & You will not answer me,
nor give ear to me & hear my prayer.
Never will I know the wonder of Your great love,
You who saved by Your right hand,
only those who took refuge in You from their foes,
'stead of repaying evil for evil, & blood for blood.
Only they were kept as the apple of Your eye;
never will You hide me in the shadow of Your wings
from the wicked men like me who assail me
or from the immortal enemies who surround me
from all sides.
While granted dominion on Your Earth,
I closed up my callous heart while my mouth
spoke with arrogance.
And now as my fellow Hell-dwellers have tracked me down,
they now surround me, with eyes eternally vigilant,
they throw me to the ground.
They are even more ravenous than a pride
of lions hungry for prey & crouching in cover.
Never will You rise up, O Lord, & confront them
or bring them down, or rescue me from the wicked
by Your sword of Light & Truth.
O Lord, never by Your hand will You save me from such men, nor from such men as myself from the world
long since passed away, whose reward hath
already been paid in full.
You still the hunger only of those You cherish;
their sons have plenty, for they stored up a wealth
of immaterial worth & means for their children.
And I-in unrighteousness will never again see Your face.
When I awake, I will thrash & wail in dissatisfaction
as mine eyes, are now eternally blinded
to Your gentle likeness, & I am granted light & heat
only from the fires which consume my Mind's Flesh
in nugatory perpetuity.
Never will You hear, O Holy One, my unrighteous plea,
nor listen to my cry, nor give ear to my prayer here in Hell,
as it hath always risen from deceitful lips.
May Your vindication be visited upon me, as Your eyes hath always seen what is right.
You probed my heart & examined me every night-
You tested me time & again,
finding all manners of depravity; 'tho I still resolved with my mouth that I would go on sinning.
As for the deeds of men-against the Word of Your lips I did not keep myself from the ways of the violent.
My steps did not hold to Your paths;
& my feet dancingly slipped.
I call on You, O Holy One,
& yet You cannot answer me,
nor give ear to me & hear my prayer.
Never will I know the wonder of Your great love,
You who saved by Your mighty right hand,
only those who took refuge in You from their foes.
Only they were kept as the apple of Your eye;
never will You hide me in the shadow of Your wings,
from the wicked like me, who assail me,
nor from the immortal enemies who now
surround me eternally unabated.
While granted dominion on Your earth,
I closed up my callous heart
whilst my mouth spoke with slander & arrogance.
And now, my fellow Hell-bound have tracked me down-
they now surround me, with eyes tirelessly vigilant,
they throw me to ground.
They are even more ravenous than a great lion
hungry for prey & crouching in cover.
Never will You rise up, O Lord,
or confront them, or bring them down;
or rescue me from the wicked
by Your sword of Light & Truth.
O Lord, never by Your hand will You save me
from such men nor from men such as myself
of the past world, whose reward was received
in full only in that life.
You still the hunger only of those You cherish;
their sons have plenty for they stored up wealth
of immaterial worth for their children.
And I-in unrighteousness-will never again glimpse
or see Your face; when I awake,
I will thrash & wail in dissatisfaction
upon mine eyes having been now eternally blinded
to Your likeness.
I abhor you, O Satan, my denigration.
And yet here in Hell, am I eternally & infernally bound to you. The Dark Lord is my rock & my hard place,
my bottomless pit & my deliverer
unto depthless despair & unfathomable torment.
No longer may I take refuge in the long-suffering graces
of the Holy One.
For He offered Himself up to me, a shield
& the horn of my salvation, a stronghold.
I did not call unto Him, Who alone is worthy of praise
& therefore am I forevermore crushed
by mine enemies in perpetual annihilation.
Many times did the cords of death entangle me,
& the torrents of destruction overwhelm me
& the tendrils of Sheol coil around me,
& the snares of death confront me,
yet in my distress I did not humble myself
& call upon the Lord;
nor did I cry to Him for help,
when surely then in that instant from
His Holy Temple would He have heard my voice
as my cry came unto Him.
On that day of judgment, the earth trembled & quaked,
& the foundations of the mountains shook;
they trembled because the Holy One was angry.
Smoke rose from His nostrils; consuming fire
came from His mouth, burning coals blazed from it.
He parted the heavens & came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
He mounted the cherubim & flew;
He soared on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness His covering,
His canopy around Him-the dark rain clouds of the sky.
Out of the brightness of His presence clouds advanced
with hailstones & bolts of lightning.
The Lord thundered from Heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.
He shot His arrows & scattered the enemies,
great bolts of lightning routed them.
The valleys of the sea were exposed
& the foundations of the earth laid bare at Your rebuke,
O Holy & Sovereign One, at the blast from Your nostrils.
He reached down from on high & took hold of us-
the wicked; He cast us back unto the deep waters
which we had drawn for ourselves in our insolence
& our apostasy.
He gave us over unto our enemies,
who still remain, too strong for us.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
& the Lord no longer offered His supporting hand.
He did not bring me out into a spacious place;
He could not rescue me because I appalled Him.
The Lord has dealt with me according to my wretchedness; according to the filthiness of my hands.
He has righteously condemned me.
For I did not keep the ways of the Lord;
I have done evil by turning from Him.
All of His laws were before me & I turned away
from his every decree.
I have not been blameless before Him
or kept myself from sin.
To even the most faithless on earth You
showed Yourself to be gracious & faithful.
To the most ignominious of them all,
You showed Yourself blameless.
To the most impure, You showed Yourself pure.
And to the most crooked, You showed Yourself shrewd.
You saved the humble from those of us
whose eyes were haughty.
You, O Holy One, were not the One which I chose
to keep my lamp burning-yet the consuming fires
of my fleshly lusts & inclinations were my guiding darkness.
With Your help, I could have advanced
against any troop, or scaled any wall-
Yet now I dwell, utterly & yet justly, abandoned.
As for the Holy One, His way is still perfect,
& His Word, brought to completion.
He is still a shield for all who took refuge in Him.
For who is God besides The Holy One?
And who is the rock, except their God?
Yet for we who toil here in Hell, it is not God who arms us
with strength or makes our way perfect,
but our Dark Lord & Master,
who fells us with torment & endless affliction
unlike anything we felt while still luxuriating
in our mortal, earthly inhabitancy,
& who bends our way, continuously wayward
& perilbound.
He makes our feet like the feet of the lame,
he cripples us to subdue us within
the most abysmal depths.
He injures our hands for perpetual defeat in battle,
rendering our arms unable to bend any bow of bronze.
He disarmours us with his shield of defeat,
& his left hand disdains us; he stoops down to put us low.
He narrows the path of each labyrinthine impasse,
twisting & turning our ankles.
I still pursue mine enemies & yet can
no longer overtake them;
I can never turn back & they can never be destroyed.
I can no longer crush those who pursue me,
& they shall rise 'gainst me in an infinite regress
of ignominy & derogation.
Now they no longer fall at my feet, but I, at theirs,
in eternal prostration.
For my Dark Master disarms me for battle,
that my adversaries may feast at my feet.
He maketh mine enemies turn against me in flight
& be granted their full vindication at my defeat.
We cry for help, but there is no longer anyone
there to save us-to the Holy One,
but He can no longer answer.
They beat me as fine dust, borne on the wind,
as I am then poured out like ash upon the land infernal.
You, O Satan, have delivered me in full
upon the attacks of the people;
you have made me the servant of evil nations,
people I do not wish to know are now ruler over me.
As soon as they hear me they mock me,
foreigners scoff before me.
They never lose heart; nor come trembling
from their strongholds.
The Unholy One lives!
Condemnation be the Rock which crushes me here in Hell! Exalted is now Satan, my Destroyer!
He is the force which damns me,
who no longer subdues nations under me,
or saves me from mine enemies.
While in the old world, he exalted me above my foes
& rescued me from the dues owed me by violent men.
Therefore, will I abhor you unto this dark nation,
O Abaddon; I will wail a woeful song to Your name.
He gives his subjects the gravest defeats, showing unfailing cruelty to those who belong to him, forever & ever.
O Evil One, your legions rejoice in your strength.
How great are their sadistic delights
in the defeats you have wrought & brought
to their completion here in Hell!
You have granted those here the dread of their hearts
& have withheld the request for quarter,
spewed forth form their quivering lips.
You welcomed your dwellers with copious vexations
& placed crowns of thorns upon their heads.
They beg you for death & you offer to them instead,
only an eternal life of unceasing anguish & terror.
Through the ignominy you faithfully inflict,
you take undeserved glory.
You have bestowed upon your infernal subjects,
derogation & just desserts.
Surely you have granted all here in Hell,
eternal cursings, & made them weary with the menace
of your Dark presence.
For Hell-dwellers have no-one in whom they can trust,
& through the withdrawn love of the Most High,
they shall forevermore be stricken & shaken
to their utmost core.
Nevermore will your subjects lay hold
on all of their enemies, nor will their right hand
seize all their foes.
At the time of your appearing, O Dark Lord,
you hath prepared for them, a fiery furnace.
For in his wrath, the Holy One hath swallowed you up
& His fire has consumed you.
He has destroyed all of your wretched descendants
born of the earth & has nullified their prosperity.
He hath banished them henceforth from Heaven's lair,
for though the wicked still plot evil against You,
O Holy God, & devise wicked schemes,
they still cannot succeed, for You have made them
turn their backs when You aim at them with drawn bow.
Be condemned, O Satan, in your horrific might,
& your subjects shall howl & damn
the total power you now hold over them.
My God, my God, I now know full well
why you have forsaken those here in Hell,
& why You are so far from saving me-
so far from the words of my groaning.
O, my God, I cry out without ceasing
night by infernal night, but You cannot answer me.
Yet You remain still, evermore enthroned
as the Holy One of the Most High, the praise of Israel.
In You the righteous fathers of the earth placed their trust-
yet we, the unholy fathers of the world, did not,
& thus could You not deliver them
for they never cried unto You.
And thus furthermore were we not saved,
for we did not trust in You & have suffered
untold losses for our insolence & apostasy.
And I am still a worm & not a man,
still scorned by man & despised by all.
All who see me, mock me; they hurl far worser insults
& looks of disdain, shaking their heads saying:
“He never trusted in the Lord; thus the Lord
shall not rescue Him, for He cannot delight in wickedness.”
Yet although You brought me out of the womb,
& made me trust you at my mother's breast,
& from my birth I was cast upon You
& from my mother's womb You have been my Creator-
I was far from You & now endless trouble engulfs me
& there is no-one anywhere to help.
Many demons surround me; frightfully mighty
demons of Abaddon encircle me.
Roaring beasts of Hell tear their succulent prey
as they also open their mouths against me.
I am poured out like poison & all of my bones
are out of joint.
My infernally incarcerated soul has turned
to ash-incendiating in perpetuity & nihility within me.
My strength is sapped from me, to be revived for the designation of my Dark Master's injurious exploits alone.
You, O Holy One, have rightfully lain me in the dust
of eternal separation from You,
rendering a mortification beyond the bounds
of any affliction I suffered while on earth.
The hounds of Hell surround me; a legion of evil entities have encircled me & have bound my soul.
I can count all of my sins, here in the
cavernous Void of Darkness,
as I am glared at, & gloated over
& lots are cast for my immortal flesh.
And You, O Lord of Light, Love, & Truth,
are now as far off from my sight as can be,
separated by immeasurable distance.
For You could have been my strength,
& come quickly to help me had I but merely
called upon Your holy, sovereign name
in reverent surrender to Your will alone
while I walked about the earth.
Yet as it is, You can no longer deliver me from the sword,
nor from the ferocity of the dogs,
nor rescue me from the ravening mouths of the lions,
nor save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
I did not declare Your name to my brothers,
nor did I praise You in any congregation.
And now You must despise & disdain
the condemnation of the afflicted ones.
You must hide Your face from us
& shut Your ears to our cries for help.
For this is the Lot we chose while we strutted about
arrogantly upon the earth, delighting & reveling
in all kinds of evil & malice.
And as for we, who never sought the Lord, or praised Him-
our souls, shall toil forever and ever.
And dominion shall still belong
to the Holy, unshakeable God,
as He governs only now,
His Heavenly dwellings,
as Hell is left to its own perditious perpetuity.
This is the Lot we, the wicked & condemned, have inherited.
This is our final recompense.
Some End-Notes From the Author:
Why do I believe Judeo-Christianity to be the one true Religion?
Judeo-Christianity is the only system of worship which requires complete submission of one's will & life over to the will & laws of God alone.
All other philosophies & religions have at their core, an egocentric, escapist &/or hedonistic aim.
I also believe in Judeo-Christian Scripture as the ultimate source of all wisdom, earthly & metaphysical.
This has been tested through the application of Judeo-Christian Scriptures to my own life & journey, & I have found it thus far to be consistently inerrant.
Moreover, contrary to the almost militant Manichean paradigm still so prevalent in Western thought, one can be both systematic-minded & spiritually-minded as well.
A cultivation of both Intellect & Spirit is not only possible, but is necessary towards achieving a full & authentic sense of faith & understanding.
Intelligence & Spirituality are not mutually exclusive phenomena, but are complementary.
As for the Augustinian postulate of "fides ante intellectum” (faith before understanding), I propose that such things must not necessarily proceed in this order.
Sometimes, in the process of cultivating one's intellectual comprehension of something, one also finds faith and/or “higher understanding”, otherwise known as “wisdom”.
Thus, we can proceed adequately from either a stance of "fides ante intellectum" or "fides post intellectum" (faith after understanding).
Although it is true, from an ontological standpoint that one's intellectual understanding of “spirituality” or of the metaphysical may indeed be quickened by the precedence of faith, just as one's faith can be quickened during the intellectual syntheses of theological inquiries & edification, let us just assume, from “analogia entis” (an analogy from being) that it is inherent in human nature itself to possess a general thirst for truth & understanding as well as a desire for faith (higher wisdom) as both a mentor & a consolation.
In finale, Judeo-Christianity holds each and every one of us fully accountable and manages to achieve a rare & perfect synthesis of Faith and Reason. This is why I find it to be both most challenging, as well as compelling regarding its relevance & legitimacy.
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