“Poems of Worship” by Jacqueline Mayfield

If you’re unfamiliar with the Book of Psalms in the Old Testament, you might think they’re only about praise. Generally, that’s their purpose. But they’re also about worship, about celebration, and about both the depths and the heights of human experience. David, who wrote many of the psalms, ran the gamut of emotions and experiences, from intense joy to dark depression, and from wild celebration to fear and despair. And the psalms reflect all of those things.

It’s likely why the psalms sound so contemporary. We resonate with what they describe.

Poet and writer Jacqueline Mayfield has published a similar collection of poems, ones that also range from the heights to the depths. The 32 poems of Poems of Worship cover life’s storms and joys, personal struggles, doubt, temptations, God’s strength and love, the poet’s own failures, overcoming the past, looking to the future, forgiveness, and the day-to-day reality of what it means to be a Christian.

Mayfield writes in simple language, using style that makes her[poems sound like a conversation with God.

You Protect Me

When I am walking in the dark

With no light to guide me

On this path in life

I try will all my might

To keep you in sight

Even when I turn the wrong

Way I know you protect me

You set me free from bondage

That had trapped me in

My own mind

You protect me

When I go through

My storms in life

Your umbrella of love

Keeps me dry and

I no longer

Have any tears to cry

You protect me from my enemies

That try to steal my joy

And when they

Play with me

Like I am nothing but a toy

You protect me and

I am grateful each day

And I feel secure

In your love that is so pure

Jacqueline Mayfield

The poems share this essentially free verse form, but with occasional rhyming lines like the ones ending in “might” and “sight.” To read it aloud is to listen to the conversation she’s having.

Mayfield is a freelance writer and poet who’s been writing poetry since she was 12. She is also the author of A Better Tomorrow: Poems (2017) and is working on her third collection of poetry. She lives in Hampton, Virginia.

The poetry of Poems of Worship comes from a childlike heart. And that is exactly the heart God is looking for.

Top photograph by Alex Wigan via Unsplash. Used with permission.