Ps 46 "In the Trouble"

Psalter poems & Library of Anglican Poets update

Jun 25, 2025

Ps 46 In the Trouble

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

Earth burns, mountains tremble, 
waters rage, storms roar;
we turn to you, our refuge in the trouble. 

God of deep rivers, vast cities,
new dawns, and national nightmares,
we turn to you, our refuge in the trouble. 

When wars cease and violence ends,
we pause and perceive your divine touch,
turning to you, who rescues us from trouble.

Devotional poetry is the focus of this Substack, where I share personal poems and poems inspired by scripture and, recently, the collect form. This fall, I started focusing on the Psalms, the foundational devotional poetry of the Jewish and Christian traditions. My little Ps poems are distillations of some of my favorite foundational psalms (Ben Miller recently shared two interesting posts about Miniaturizing the Psalter). There are 150 psalms; my aim is to share 15 Ps poems, a creative tithe, by the end of the summer (the 10 below, 1 above, plus 4 more in draft).

Ps 1 & 23 / Ps 30 & 42 / Ps 51 & 84 / Ps 95 & 100 Morning Prayers / Ps 118 & 130

Some of my favorite Psalm translations and commentaries include:

The Book of Common Prayer (1979) Psalter
Psalms for Praying: An Invitation to Wholeness by Nan Merrill
The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter
David's Crown: Sounding the Psalms by Malcolm Guite
Psalms: The Prayer Book of the People by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Praying the Psalms by Thomas Merton

This month I also updated my Library of Anglican Poets. I’ve been assembling this list since 2015 and published it here a year ago. This summer, I’m planning to read two books by Luci Shaw, plus Psalms of Wonder: Poems from the Book of Songs by Carey Wallace and Khoa Le. I will continue adding to this Library as I read more books by Episcopal and Anglican poets. Recommendations welcome!