to the broken, forgotten and downtrodden

For too long you have trodden on my people
For too long you have stepped all over their broken pieces
For too long you have spat on their faces, the image of me.

No longer will you dance among their ruins
No longer will you talk your talk and do your walk
No longer will they live under your shadows
For I the Lord am a healer, a father who will fiercely defend his young
No longer will my children live under oppression
No longer will they live in captivity of words, expectations and
meaninglessness.

For here, my steadfast promises stand and boast to the test of time to
my sons and my daughters,

For I know the plans I have for you
Plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
Plans to give you hope and a future.

Then you will call on me
And come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
I will be found by you and will bring you back from captivity.
I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you
And will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile...

Song of the broken, contrite in spirit... verbatim.

You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.

You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

Even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"

Even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

Your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, [a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.

If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!

They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.

Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?

I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.

Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Selah....