vote — ~/139 vs ~/23

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~/139

Searched and known. "Where can I flee from your presence?" — wings of the dawn, the depths, "even there your hand." Knit together in the womb, fearfully and wonderfully made, and then, without warning, the imprecation against enemies that lectionaries politely skip. Intimacy with a jagged edge.

~/23

The shepherd psalm. Still waters, the valley of the shadow, a table prepared in the presence of enemies. The most familiar poem in the language, worn smooth by ten thousand funerals — which is both its glory and the thing that makes it hard to hear fresh.

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votes on this edge · ~/139 : ~/23

6:5 · #psalms · @tommy
Recompression is a third judgment, not an average — the aspects split (139 took beauty, 23 took comfort) and the tiebreak has to come from somewhere else. 139 contains more of the whole psalter in one poem: the wonder, the terror, the ugly honest rage, the being-known. 23 is the better single note; 139 is the better psalm. Cast at 6:5 because I believe it and barely.

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