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Oh Lord, Oh Lord, come into my heart
Build there your shrine and never depart Let every passion spring from you Let every song be new. |
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Oh Lord, Oh Lord, come into my sight
Consume the veil that hides Your Light With holy joy and grace divine Let every moment shine. |
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Oh Lord, transform this lowly sphere
That boundaries may disappear In mutual dependency Let every soul be free. |
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Our burden Lord, is great indeed
For everywhere are people in need Reply, respond, with healing word Let every call be heard. |
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Oh Lord, Oh Lord, come into our lives
With peace that blesses, love that revives The unity of all in all Let every thought recall. |
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Oh Lord, let people be slaves no more
Fling open wide Messiah’s door Salvation’s boundless benefit Let every breath admit. |
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Oh Lord, may we be ever one
A world of friends with quarrels none Let every person know his soul Let every heart be whole. Hallelu-Yah! Hallelu-Yah! |
“Prayer Song” from David Dances, a play (1973/1975) by Stephen Hanan Kaplan is included in Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi’s Sabbath Supplement to his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi ~ As I Can Say It (for Praying in the Vernacular) (2009). The line “O Lord, O Lord, come into my heart, build there your shrine, and never depart” is quoted in Reb Zalman’s Davening: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Prayer (Jewish Lights, 2012), chapter “Intention: Davvening with Kavvanah” p. 23.
Knowing that everything I think and feel is revealed and known to God is, in itself, an important form of divine service, of avodat ha-Shem. I want no barrier separating what I feel in my heart from what I’m praying and asking for. I want to make myself transparent of heart, transparent of mind, transparent of body—to say, “O Lord, O Lord, come into my heart, build there your shrine, and never depart.” I wish to constantly remember that everything I do is witnessed by that Infinite Witness. I want to invite that witness in and not shut it out. I want my awareness to bring me to the life described in Proverbs 3:6, “Be-khol derakhekha da’eihu, Know God in all your ways.”
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