PSALM OFFERING 3, OPUS 10: A lament for imprisoned migrant children in the U.S.
“When you come to appear before me who asked this from your hand? Trample my courts no more; bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation— I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” (Isaiah 1:12-17, NRSV Bible)
The feeling of distress and being disturbed is not just limited to my mother’s recent death. I have watched children ripped from their parents, babies torn from their mother’s breast by agents of our government under orders from trump, and the pain that I am experiencing by being separated from my mother because of death, pales in comparison to the anguish of these poor children.
Only a monster would cold-heartedly issue the order for such an abomination. Rage fills me whenever I see his face and hear his voice.
On the verge of praying to God for the immediate demise of this monster of a person, I chose instead to offer a prayer in song for the 3000 estimated children still languishing, still petrified at being separated from the ones they love and need the most.
There is a repeated melodic figure that is introduced at the beginning and continues throughout the music. Descending pitches, with a half note (2 beats) followed by a quarter note (1 beat) are a melodic representation of tear drops rolling down the cheeks of the children, dropping one tear at a time to the cement floor on which they lay. Think of sobbing, the kind of sobbing that racks the human body, that takes the breath away. This sobbing is the legacy of trump who trods upon the broken spirits and bodies of innocent children. My heart breaks.
This Psalm Offering is for the refugee children who have been so sinfully treated by many who call themselves Christian, but are the antithesis of Jesus Christ. May God forgive this great sin of our nation. May we wash the blood of the refugee and the innocent from our hands. May our nation regain the soul we have lost.
Bob
(c) 2018, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
