Save Me

Based on Psalm 31:9-16 (lectionary this week)

O, God
My heavenly father,
Look upon me and smile for I need your grace.
I need your support.
I feel lost and alone.
Distress, like cement, weighs me down.
I cry and my eyes waste away with the tears.
Sorrow eats away at my body.

My life is spent in sorrow
My years are weighed with grief
So much so that I am weak and tired, failing.
Even my bones shrink with the weight of my pain.

Those who once loved me are gone,
And my enemies are all around.
My neighbors hide from me
I am forgotten by those who used recognize me,
I am invisible to those who used to see me.

I have passed from memory like one who has died.
I am broken, empty.

They whisper their fear, tainting the air
I breathe in their plots against me,
I taste their fear of me.

But I trust in you, O Lord.
I say, “You are my God.”

Everything is in your hands,
Even time, even my life.
Deliver me from my pain,
From my fears,
From my enemies.
Save me from those who hate me.
Rescue me from myself.

Smile upon me, O Lord,
Turn your face toward me, your servant.
Save me in your unending, steadfast love.