# Living Psalm 17:1-7, 15 for August 2, 2026_Tirabassi

Holy One, I turn to your psalms 
and find them naming my days
when my country's northern neighbor is burning
and we do not send help, but threaten tariffs,
and yet I know that their voices
fill the heart-vacancies of every day.

Give us ears for the just causes,
not only for my people and my interests,
but for all your fragile world.

You know those whose needs are right –
put that knowledge in my heart.
Take violence from my lips and my actions,
and hold my feet from slipping 
off the paths that lead to justice for others
and onto the sticky road of my own advantage.

I call upon you and trust your answer
that will show me how to love and offer refuge
to all those who are endangered,
not only in the hard decisions 
of this particular day, week, month,  
the storm of these winds, fires, elections ...

but in all my wakings and restings,
because I can behold your likeness
in every face before me.