Oxygen from Psalm 34:1 (The Great Pretender)

Don't dismiss the setting given in the Hebrew Bible for Psalm 34.  I think it may shed light on what David is trying to communicate.

When David pretended to be something he's not before before Abimelek, who drove him away, and David left.  


I will extol Yahweh at all times; 
I will constantly speak his praises.
(Psalm 34:1)


Changeless God:

The hummingbird at my feeder
cannot betray its nature;
cannot become more or less
than you, Creator, planned.
My sweet Corgi cannot feign
a quiet, passive disposition,
nor wish she was a Great Dane,
embarrased at her shortness.

Only humans give pretense,
become something we are not,
lie to ourselves without sense,
sin and call it virtuous.
Only people practice dissipation,
hold others up to ridicule;
our species unique in all creation:
pretenders, prevaricators, cruel.

This flaw infects us all,
no one is immune from falsity.
Since Adam and the fall,
all Utopias crumble on this fault.
And never are we more at risk
than to deny our duplicity,
betray the Truth with a kiss,
release our inner Iscariot.

David pretends to madness
to save himself from Abimelech;
acts the fool, cursed by badness,
just to get out of a mess.
Yet even as he pretends,
he extols your holy name,
by which he knows the Covenant extends
to cover every hypocrisy.

So may we whose unholy habit
is to be something we are not,
know your nearness while we're sinning,
extol your grace in which we're caught.
Abandon us -- you shall never do,
but make our pilgrimage of faith
the struggle to subdue
lesser passions to the upward call of Christ.

Amen