A Psalm of Earthquakes and Tsunamis

O Lord, hear the cry of your people
as creation trembles and we are made small

The mountains are laid low and the seas rise
The planet shrugs its shoulders

The restless dirt groans and moans
under the weight of our living.

Crops and land are lost to the salt of the world's tears
Wave upon wave cascades over the face of your earth

Their weeping carries away
The witness of our living.
 
In one convulsive heave
pride and possessions, people and places

are shaken down by the land, thrown up by the sea
to be caught by the air:

tossed and turned, and returned
to the wave of anxiety

that crashes onward
An unstopable force of creation and destruction.

Though you called upon us to name the beasts of the field
And the birds of the air

Still the sea is yours
You made it - and its raging fury

The land is yours
You formed it - and its restless heavings

And we, moulded by your hands to hold your breath
are bound to this world by your will and your Word



So I will praise you God in the midst of the fury
From the depths of my grief, for the land and the sea and the lives that are lost

For the nurture and nature that shapes us and feeds us
Though its power astounds, and its might dismays us

Still your Word brings order out of chaos
And your mercies comfort and sustain us

Reminding us, even as we weep
of green pastures, beside still waters