A PLACE BY ME

“Behold, there is a place by Me:

There shalt thou stand upon the rock”
For Jesus suffered to unlock
The blessings in God’s heart for thee.

To answer thy desire to see
God’s glory, now revealed in grace
Effulgently in Jesus’ face -
“Behold there is a place by Me!”

A scion of a noble stock
Of those who are the sons of light
Enter God’s realm for His delight,
“There shalt thou stand upon the rock”.

More of Northumberland, England

ENOCH

"What He did not find

In Adam He now finds in

A disciplined man." 

On the Holy Island of Lindisfarne

THE ARK AT REST

All God's inheritance is richly blest

Since, in the temple Solomon prepared,

The Ark of God is finally at rest.

Round it a system God chose to invest

With glory which will never be impaired

‑ All God's inheritance ‑ is richly blest.

It led the way in every storm or test

But now, past all the trials which they shared,

The Ark of God is finally at rest.

Since God's great wisdom knew which way was best

And He was there beside them as they fared

All God's inheritance is richly blest.

His people praise the Lord with joy and zest

As, while His lasting triumph is declared,

The Ark of God is finally at rest.

Because God knew the object of their quest

Before they ventured, and in all things cared,

All God's inheritance is richly blest;

The Ark of God is finally at rest.

I'm putting my India photos in at https://dcbindia.blogspot.com/ 

REMAINING AT JERUSALEM

 A fit place for the Ark he longed to find

When he was still a youth in Bethlehem;

So as the king he firstly had in mind

To bring it upward to Jerusalem.

But when they took the Ark when he was spurned,

And Absalom his son usurped his throne,

David ordained that it should be returned:

He would not make the Ark of God his own.

Peter loved Christ, rejoicing to belong

To such a Master, who did all things well;

But "Peter taking Him to him" was wrong

And moved by impulses Christ had to quell.

May I delight to call the Saviour mine

But on His terms since He remains divine.

Edinburgh view

Have you spotted this chap?

BRINGING THE ARK TO JERUSALEM

 Using the fleshly notion of a cart

They sought to carry up the Ark, but failed.

When they eschewed the ways of human art

And went by God's due order they prevailed.

And what a time of holy jubilance:

Hear voice and music praise with one accord!

See David, in true fervour, play and dance

In honour of the glory of the Lord!

Often desires are good, objectives right,

But means wrong, till the way that God desires

Is followed; and He has for His delight

His Christ and those that glorious One inspires.

What joy it is to God that He should find

Those who give Christ the honour God designed.

A lovely morning on Penicuik House Estate

THE ARK AND HOUSEHOLDS

No longer exiled in a foreign land

The Ark next suffered decades of neglect;

Abinadab could give the Ark room and

Still fail to teach his family respect.

But Obed‑Edom gave it its true place

So that one came to David to attest

The evidence of God's unfailing grace ‑

That through the Ark his household had been blessed.

The Pharisee invited Jesus in

But failed to give Him honour from the start;

The woman came near, conscious of her sin,

But gave the Lord the throne‑room of her heart.

Lord Jesus, may my household always be

One where the foremost place belongs to Thee.

A Few from Aberdeenshire

THE ARK IN CAPTIVITY

 

High Pond

Rightly she named her infant "Ichabod"

At that abyss of Israel's decline:
Men fled; the priest was dead; the Ark of God
Was taken captive by the Philistine.
But what is this that comes across the field
(Decked with the Philistine's pathetic pelf)
In power and dignity which will not yield:
The Ark of God is caring for itself.
 
They led the Saviour to a place of scorn,
Thinking to choose if He should die or live;
"Jesus..went forth..wearing the crown of thorn...":
The Son of God retains the initiative.
 
And now, despite the worst the world can do
The Lord will bring His testimony through.

PHINEHAS AND THE ARK

(Judges 20:28)

To pious minds all seemed to fall apart

But Phinehas remained before the Ark,

Though others' lanterns faltered into dark

And coldness crept across the nation's heart.

Dan turned to images of human art;

Benjamin flicked and guttered to a spark;

To pious minds all seemed to fall apart

But Phinehas remained before the Ark.

Their enemies all sought to seize a part

Of Israel, each voracious as a shark;

Would all be lost? Tossed like a feeble barque,

Israel seemed ignorant of star or chart ‑

But Phinehas remained before the Ark.

Safely returned from an enjoyable trip to India.  I'll mainly post India pictures to https://dcbindia.blogspot.com/ when I get settled down, but here is a sample.

Among tea plantations in the Western Ghats