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They Have Not Prevailed · Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast

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  SPEAKER_00: You are listening to the Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast.
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  SPEAKER_00: Please visit online at backwardmutters.substack.com.
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  There you can subscribe via your favorite podcast player and
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  read the newsletter.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Randy Edwards.
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  Today's poem is inspired by a song found in a collection of
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  songs which were sung
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  by pilgrims as they traveled from their homes to worship at the
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  temple in Jerusalem.
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  The collector and organizer of the book of the Psalms titles
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  each of these 15
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  SPEAKER_00: Psalms Songs of Ascent because in traveling to Jerusalem,
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  SPEAKER_00: you are ascending not only the Judean highlands,
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  SPEAKER_00: but you are climbing Mount Zion.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is why when a person going to Jerusalem,
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  SPEAKER_00: even if they are traveling from the north in Galilee,
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  SPEAKER_00: is said to be going up to Jerusalem.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Songs of Ascent contain the themes of pilgrimage,
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  SPEAKER_00: what inspires a person to set out,
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  SPEAKER_00: what struggles they may face in their journey,
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  SPEAKER_00: what encouragement they may need to continue,
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  SPEAKER_00: and
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  SPEAKER_00: the hope of the experience when they arrive.
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  Psalm 129 speaks particularly to the endurance needed to
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  persevere in the pilgrim journey.
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  SPEAKER_00: It begins, Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth.
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  SPEAKER_00: Let Israel now say,
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  SPEAKER_00: Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth,
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  SPEAKER_00: yet they have not prevailed against me.
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  SPEAKER_00: The plowers plowed upon my back, they made long their furrows.
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  It's a powerful psalm,
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  which is itself an act of defiant resistance in the face of oppression.
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  You can imagine those being taken into captivity by Babylon and
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  the mocking of the
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  SPEAKER_00: nations as they are being deported from their homeland.
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  SPEAKER_00: How in such a moment are you going to persevere in faith?
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, you need a marching song.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here's my response to Psalm 129.
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  SPEAKER_00: I hope it helps you as you fight the good fight of faith today.
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  SPEAKER_00: The poem is titled, They Have Not Prevailed.
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  SPEAKER_00: Since my youth, they have afflicted me.
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  SPEAKER_00: Foremen who furrowed my flesh of life,
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  SPEAKER_00: who scourged,
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  SPEAKER_00: whipped,
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  SPEAKER_00: beat,
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  SPEAKER_00: and knifed the plowers who plowed in red.
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  SPEAKER_00: Let all those trodden upon and left for dead say it with me,
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  SPEAKER_00: say it with me,
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  SPEAKER_00: though greatly afflicted,
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  SPEAKER_00: yet they have not,
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  SPEAKER_00: they have not prevailed over me.
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  Let the deeds they sow,
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  though they sprout and grow,
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  wilt,
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  wither,
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  and waste in the sun's heat.
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  Let their garnered glory fade in defeat,
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  leave them nothing in their hand.
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  SPEAKER_00: Bind them to emptiness as with a band.
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  SPEAKER_00: Make these wicked be cursed.
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  SPEAKER_00: Never know the peace of fullness, for they have not prevailed.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not prevailed.
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  SPEAKER_00: Let them know.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Lord is good.
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  SPEAKER_00: He is just.
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  SPEAKER_00: He alone right.
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  SPEAKER_00: He perseveres his people, breaks their chains.
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  With the iron scepter of his rule and reign,
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  he dashes as clay their oppression.
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  SPEAKER_00: but he delivers by his own dispossession,
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  SPEAKER_00: takes the mortal cords,
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  SPEAKER_00: enters the night,
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  SPEAKER_00: gives his back to plowers who plow up his life to bury in death,
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  SPEAKER_00: snuff out the light of light.
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  SPEAKER_00: This was the plan,
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  SPEAKER_00: the eternal decree that the sower furrow into the ground,
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  SPEAKER_00: that in his plowing bury death down beyond the tomb's door sealed
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  SPEAKER_00: Greatly afflicted, by your stripes I am healed.
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  SPEAKER_00: The limbs of your cross my life-giving tree.
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  My glory and boast over my enemy,
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  my sin,
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  which shall never,
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  never prevail over me.
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  SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to the Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Randy Edwards.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.