여호와 우리 주여 주의 이름이 온 땅에 어찌 그리 아름다운지요 어찌 그리 아름다운지요

여호와 우리 주여 주의 이름이 온 땅에 어찌 그리 아름다운지요 어찌 그리 아름다운지요

Oh, God, I praise your majesty.

You led Your chosen people to a great land of abundance.

You gave victory to Your followers and punished their enemies.

In Your mighty name, they chased out the sinners and built Your church.

They faithfully spread the gospel and converted pagans with utter vigilance.

As a child watching Classic Western movies, I was amazed by the strong faith and endurance of the pioneers, by the promised prosperity of the West.

Oh, how glorious and marvelous to see Your reign with the heroes conquering the newly found land, dominating the barbarians, bringing civilization and salvation.

With Your love and compassion in their heart, the winners generously offered assimilation and naturalization, and when the losers refused such a kind offer, what else but isolation and termination?

Justice to be served!

So, in full admiration and aspiration, I headed to the West, the land of good and faithful people.

They would welcome me as a sister in faith.

God, I praise Your blessings upon them, the crusade of Christianity.

얼어붙은 저 하늘 얼어붙은 저 벌판 태양도 빛을 잃어 아 캄캄한 저 가난의 거리
(Frozen heaven, frozen wilderness, the sun lost its light, oh, the dark street of destitution)

God, oh, God. I got it all wrong. My color was wrong too.
(God, why did you create colored people if they were to be treated like slaves and villains, like defective and inferior existence?)
Where are You now? And where were You then?
What I watched were not action movies: those were horror movies.
And true stories were even more horrifying and mortifying than those movies.
For the colonizers, there were no enemies but themselves, enemies within, poisoned by selfishness, prejudice, and hatred. Their conscience and integrity were devoured by the demons inside them. They became elite beasts.
They claimed to be representatives of God, insisted what they say is what God means.
But God, they were not Your loyal servants, but color-phobic criminals of theft, robbery, assault and murder, sinners of tribalism who despised ‘others’ as less human, and worse, dehumanized them.
Those frauds of faith manipulated the gospel, exploited Your authority. They signed Your name on their evil deeds.
They were not protagonists, but antagonists who ganged up against the guardians of this land, the stewards of God’s creation on this land.
They built bleached walls, expelling tinted races, to monopolize blessings and privileges, to secure their tyranny and supremacy.
Were you pleased when they sang praises with mouths that spat discrimination and condemnation? Were you honored when they raised hands in worship that were soaked with blood of innocent people? Were you glorified when they thanked you for their success achieved by violence and injustice?
Jesus, they striped the cross from You, switched the wreath of thorns to the crown of gold, painted white over the nailed and pierced wounds, to turn You into a statue that they could restrain and control.
They persecuted Jesus by the name of Jesus, in the church of Christ without Christ.

어디에서 왔나 얼굴 여윈 사람들 무얼 찾아 헤매이나 저 눈 저 메마른 손길
(Where came from, scrawny faced people? What are they searching, sunken eyes & bony hands?)

God, rise and reveal the hidden truth, re-write the history.
God, awake and see the horrendous smoke from the graves, hear the thunderous appeal from the bones.
Restore wounded soul, vandalized nature, and destroyed land: reinstate the stewardship and guardianship that the invaders took away from the dwellers.
Remove the toxins of ignorance and arrogance from the hypocritical believers, and revive the dead cells of humanity and humility.
Earnest repentance and sincere apology must precede forgiveness and reconciliation.
Jesus, reclaim Your crown of thorns, and return to us in flesh with Your broken body: re-cover us with Your blood, and no more of any human blood.
Oh Lord, my Lord, let no one ever forget that You died for ALL and love All, that no human is above another human and no human is below another human.
And here I am, I belatedly confess my ignorance, indifference, and inaction: help me to seek justice by Your grace.
Show me YOUR ways, oh Lord… teach me YOUR truth. (Psalm 25:4)

오 주여 이제는 여기에 오 주여 이제는 여기에 오 주여 이제는 여기에 여기에 우리와 함께
오 주여 이제는 여기에 오 주여 이제는 여기에 오 주여 이제는 여기에 우리와 함께 하소서
(Oh, Lord, now, here, please come to us Oh, Lord, now, here, please stay with us)