- For I Do Not Turn Away My Face from My Own
- 1 Open, open your hearts to exultation in the Lord,
- and your love will grow from the heart to the lips,
- 2 to bring forth fruits to the Lord, a holy life,
- and to speak with awareness in his light.
- 3 Rise and stand upright, you who once were brought low!
- 4 You who were in silence, speak,
- for your mouth has now been opened.
- 5 You who were despised, from now on be lifted up,
- because your vindication has been raised.
- 6 For the right hand of the Lord is with you,
- and he became your helper.
- 7 And peace was prepared for you,
- before your war ever was.
- 8 Hear the utterance of truth,
- and receive the knowledge of the Most High.
- 9 Your flesh will not know what I say to you,
- nor will your garment know what I show to you.
- 10 Observe my secret, you who are kept by it!
- 11 Observe my faithfulness, you who are kept by it!
- 12 And know my knowledge, you who know me in truth!
- 13 Love me with (fervent) love, you who love!
- 14 For I do not turn away my face from my own,
- because I know them.
- 15 And before they came into being
- I understood them,
- and their persons I sealed.
- 16 I fashioned their limbs,
- and my own breasts I prepared for them,
- that they might drink my holy milk and live by it.
- 17 I was well pleased in them and I am not ashamed of them.
- 18 For they exist as my work and (by) the power of my thoughts.
- 19 Who then will stand against my work,
- or who is there that will not submit to them?
- 20 I willed and formed mind and heart,
- and they are mine.
- And near my own right hand I set my chosen ones.
- 21 And my righteousness goes before them,
- and they will not separate themselves from my name,
- because it is with them.
- 22 Seek much
- and abide in the love of the Lord,
- as beloved in beloved,
- and as those who are kept in the one who lives,
- and as the redeemed in the one who was redeemed.
- 23 And you will be found imperishable
- through all ages,
- for the sake of your Father’s name.
- Hallelujah!