Was it I who set this ruin in motion?
Was it I who named this price?
A white-hot ache saws through my ribs;
I move like a shadow inside my own skin.
Nothing in this world can hold my gaze—
helpless, broken, unstitched—
without purpose, without healing.
What’s left of my heart lies buried in a dark field.
Rivers run the ridges beneath my eyes;
before me, tear-stained pages
where my sorrows lay bare.
How can I hope when I have tasted death?
No true word of hope will leave my breath.
My spirit drowns in waves of grief,
finding neither rest nor relief.
God, why have I tasted such darkness?
Why am I, Your servant, crushed so hard?
Sleepless nights saturated with lament—
each thought returns like tide, unrelenting,
carving deeper rooms in the hollow.
I pace the same corridors of worry;
doors do not open; windows forget the sun.
But wait—
Dawn edges the blinds—thin gold—
and the room remembers how to breathe.
Its warmth reveals the stains of my despair
yet promises more than mere survival.
The ice loosens; the waters move;
could this be Your quiet intervention?
In the stillness of morning, You meet my mortal soul.
Your presence whispers truths I had forgotten.
Hope wells up, giving birth to future days
where broken pieces find their place by grace.
Your mercy flows like healing streams,
restoring what was lost in shadowed dreams.
Lead me, Lord. Take me by the hand.
Walk me beside still waters clear,
where perfect love drives out my fear.
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me;
through valleys dark, You help me see.
In my weakness, You are strong—
You turn my sorrow into song.
The One who spoke the stars awake
now fills my emptiness with love.
You trade these ashes for a crown of beauty;
You wrap my mourning in a wedding garment of joy.
You restore what the locusts stole;
You bind the wounds within my soul.
From the pit’s floor to the ridgeline,
You teach this tired heart to fly.
In You alone, my hope restored—
my breath learns praise, my days learn light.
And with the morning, voice returns:
Forever I will sing, “Praise the Lord.”
