ORKNEY EVENING

In glory fitted to
The day’s fineness then sun
Sank into a bank of cloud.

But shortly it shone again
Beneath the cloud, before
Sinking behind the hills.

Yet still three angel forms
Hung in full sunshine;

I thanked the Father
For sunshine beneath the cloud.

---

And then, a final grace,
The full moon rose upon Kirkwall.
29/06/2018

AT THE MANGER

A wise man? No; nor
A professional, but, bowing
To Him, I may find, "Christ
God's power and God's wisdom.

No angel: but a fallen creature
Lifted by Him.  Perhaps
As I bow to the Lord, He
May make me His messenger.

A poor shepherd, failing
In skill of hand, integrity
Of heart, yet I can bow to
The chief Shepherd.

A sheep, wanderer
In byways - but ready
To hear the Master's voice:
Lord: thus I come to Thee.

MARGARET WILSON; WIGTOWN MARTYR

Rosemary by the Wigtown monument

The waters were to the ankles:
Well had these feet followed
The Master’s footsteps.

The waters were to the knees;
How had she bowed to Christ
As the church’s only Head!

The waters were to the loins;
Where man’s ties bound her to the stake:
Where her love bound her to Christ.

A river that could not be passed through:
For if men made the waters vanquish her
She more than conquered, buoyed in love’s ocean.

The stone in the churchyard

WHAT MEANS THIS STONE?

Here were two Margarets, living stones;
They were founded on the Rock.

Man’s malice led them to the river;
But water cannot quench stones.

To the tidal river; turning
Towards two staked women.

If the officers doing duty
Acted with undue cruelty
I do not know:

But the tide, licking without taste,
Foot, leg, thigh, belly, bosom
Was indifferent.

The women, the waves whelmed;
The stones, stand to eternity
In the Christ for whom they suffered.
27/07/2018

The stone marks the point where Margaret Wilson was tied to the stake and suffered martyrdom by drowning in 1685 near Wigtown.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wigtown_Martyrs

MEANING

The Standing Stones of Stenness

These stones mean
That the ark drove a way
For a whole people to go over.
(We are risen with Christ.)

Entirely overwhelmed
By the returning river, lie stones
For our feet have stood there.
(We have died with Christ.)

That place had the name –
Ebenezer – before the victory
God was so assured of it.
(Christ was ever our Helper.)

In Beth-Shemesh
Was a great stone, ready
For the ark to be laid upon it.
(Christ will support all of Christ.)

Between two teeth, Bozez and Seneh,
Climbed Jonathan and his man,
To victory.
(Christ clung upon is health.)

29/06/2018         Finstown and Hatston

BRODGAR

Stones set
Long before Joshua crossed Jordan.

We speculate, consider man-hours,
Lines, suns and aspects

But have lost the men we could ask,
‘What mean ye by these stones?’.

Tap now the knowledge
Of those who know the settings
Of God’s stones.

28/06/2018 - Standing stones at Brodgar, Orkney
Thinking of Joshua 4: 6

MY SOUL, MAGNIFY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

My soul, magnify the Lord Jesus Christ,
For He has magnified His grace to you;
My spirit, give praise to the Lord Jesus
Since you say, “Lord Jesus” by His Spirit;
My heart, love the Lord Thy God completely
Because within you His love is broadcast;
My eyes, look stedfastly on Jesus
Since His own are the apple of His eye;
My feet, follow in the pathway of Christ
Since His feet took Him to the cross for you;
My hands, be diligent in the Lord’s work,
Remembering the hands once nailed to the cross;
My mind, be a mind of humility
Formed like the mind that was in Christ Jesus;
My body, still yourself on the altar
For your Saviour was sacrificed for you;
My soul, magnify the Lord Jesus Christ,
For He has magnified His grace to you!

SERVANT

If holiness set
Christ Jesus apart, His love
Made Him a Servant. 

GIFT IDEA!

Wondering what present to buy someone?
How about a book of Christian verse?

Try http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?contributorId=543120 for my Lulu page, or email me and I will probably be able to send you a book.

Grace be with you.

David

BELOVED

Coming in to do God's will,
Before any deed was accomplished, He was
Beloved of Jehovah.

What was the Father's joy
To acclaim at the river or mountain,
"My beloved Son"!

And what His joy to take us
- Redemption being accomplished -
Into favour in the Beloved.

And the Spirit could designate
An assembly in God the Father
As "beloved of God".

Acacia wood endures.
Daniel purposed, prayed and prospered
To become "one greatly beloved".

Where Demas turned, all
Departed, there with Paul was
Luke. the beloved physician.

Leaning on Christ's bosom;
Enquiring, following, alert
To being loved
John remains to the end.

Old Bowenpally, 13/11/2018

GOSPEL

Within a world where gods are flam and fraud
God has a people owning one true God.

Christ as the first Man heaven could approve
Displayed nobility in every move.

Disowned, forsake, laid within earth's dust
He rose again to justify the just.

The blood and water are sufficient cure
For evil, and to purify the pure.

And now God's heart rejoices as He sees
His lovely tents spread out like aloe-trees.

While His advancing people understand
The good report about God's promised land.

18/11/18
Vala Janu Hotel, Mumbai

GENESIS 43: 11

What can I bring from pastures maimed by drought
As God afflicts creation for my sake?
Reaching for faith and, vanquishing the doubt
Which every day would dry my soul I take
From lands which are inordinately sunny,
A little balsam and a little honey.

Since my surrounding country is laid waste,
My flocks are failing and my herds decline
What can I bring to suit his royal taste
And nostrils through the sorrow that is mine?
A little fragrance, touching as I come,
Carrying tragacanth and ladanum.

Savour, refinement, fragrance: all are good
For that grand Lord and his sublime estate;
He has abundance for man's need of food
What could I give to one that is so great?
Going in faith, through this world's ifs and buts
I come with almonds and pistacia-nuts.


Coimbatore

INDIA

Off on my next trip to India; Pray for me with the Christians there for the next couple of weeks please!

MALACHI

He who endured the heat
In supreme intensity sits now
As a refiner of silver.  He knows
What we can endure.  He knows
That the silver will show His visage.

15/04/2018

This concludes my verses from meditations on the books of the Old Testament; very obviously all have much more of Christ than I have drawn out of them.

ZECHARIAH

God’s servant? We can understand
That. But it was a man – the Adam –
Who acquired as a bondman
From His youth the Man who was
Jehovah’s Fellow; how grace
Has condescended to slave for us!
29/05/2018

HAGGAI

All will be sealed by God
To bear the impression
That suits His will:
His Signet.
07/05/2018

ZEPHANIAH

The righteous Jehovah
  Is coming in might
To stand to the good, and
  Set everything right:
To bring us salvation
  And lighten our night;
To rest in His love, and
  To sing with delight.

10/05/2018

HABAKKUK

The Just walking this earth: the just
Shall live by faith.  Example of manhood
According to God: the just shall live
By faith.  He lived before God on God’s
Principle: the just shall live by faith.

NAHUM

Oh blessed feet
On the mountains - whether
The mount of legislation
   or of transfiguration
The mount of prayer
   or of pressure -
On all, He published peace.
05/05/2018

MICAH

A multitude like sheep will pour
Out of the gateway more and more
Resounding with a joyful roar:
The Breaker-through has gone before.
04/04/2018
See Micah 2: 12,13.

JONAH

A Man went down to
The bottom of the mountains;
The bars of the earth
Closed upon Him forever;
God brought Him up from the pit.

OBADIAH

Judgment will be judged; fire,
Jacob; flame Joseph:
And Edom stubble.  Zion
Will have its deliverer, and
The kingdom shall be Jehovah’s.


24/03/2018

AMOS

Hear the voice of the prophet
   How shall Jacob arise?
   For he is small;
Hear the voice of the Spirit of Christ
   How shall Jacob arise?
   For he is small.

04/04/2018

JOEL

There is a Man who’s Lord of all;
There is a Name on which to call.
24/05/2018

HOSEA

To suit our condition
The God of the universe
Came so near that He could draw us
   with the bands of a man,
   with cords of love.
23/05/2018

DANIEL

If the colossus looms
Someone who is true gold will arise,
Silver will have its true value,
Copper will resound in its resilience.
And an iron rod will rule.
After the fall to
                A stone cut without hands.

07/04/2018

EZEKIEL

If a Man in to shine
The bright spot of the expanse
That Man has to endure
Bearing His people’s iniquity.

02/06/2018

LAMENTATIONS

He was constrained to smite the One He loved;
He was constrained to love the One He smote. 



12/06/2018

JEREMIAH

“Upon this I awaked”, the bitterness
Past, “and behold” – a new day,
Every languishing soul replenished -
“And my sleep was sweet unto me”.

ISAIAH

Behold God’s servant,
One whose subjection delights God;
Behold the Sufferer,
The subject of man’s scorn and God’s wrath;
Behold the Sovereign,
His train filling the temple.
2/4/2018

THE SONG OF SONGS

Love rests: do not awake it till it pleases:
The voice of my Beloved, who comes leaping.
Love rests: do not awake it till it pleases:
She comes in all the fragrance of her spices;
Love rests: do not awake it till it pleases:
They come together: she leaning upon Him!
20/05/2018

ECCLESIASTES

“One man among a thousand have I found”:
A poor wise man” whose wisdom saved the city;
No man remembered “Him; none showed Him pity;
And yet God’s will is that His praises should resound.

19/04/2018

PROVERBS

Many were the offences:
   Denied by His disciples;
   Discarded by His people;
   Derided by their priests;
   Demeaned by Gentile curs:
It was His glory
To pass over a transgression.


Proverbs 19: 11
08/05/2018

THE BOOK OF PSALMS

Who is the Sufferer
From men’s power and God’s wrath?
Who is the Shepherd
Whose loving-kindness pursues me?
Who is the King of glory
Mighty in battle?
One and the Same.
24/04/2018

This one shows how tiny a dip in to each book of the Old Testament this is!

JOB

There is
An Umpire: a hand
On God
And a hand on man!

10/06/2018

See Job 9: 33.

THE BOOK OF ESTHER

One known for meekness
Now leads God’s people;
One men rejected
Now is accepted;
Where they knew warfare
He seeks their welfare;
He will speak peace
To all his seed.

16/04/2018

NEHEMIAH

If we observe a man
Within whispering-range of God
That brings Christ to our minds.

27/05/2018

EZRA

Start with the altar in its grandeur,
However small the day may seem:
There is a Man able to sustain all
That would delight the nostrils of God;
Thoughts of Him in His splendour
Cause God’s heart to rejoice.

St Bees
15/05/2018

Rosemary at St Bees

2 CHRONICLES

After the years of carrying,
The ark rests; all within it
Signifies custody of the law;
Levites and priests serving
Unconstrained, voices and instruments:
God endorses all with His presence.

1 CHRONICLES

A man after God’s heart
Has been found:
He will gather for God materiel
For His house,
Have from Him the pattern
Of building,
And create the instruments
For His praise.

22/04/2018

2 KINGS

Although the thing  that you desire is hard
God will provide  the blessing you have asked
If your eyes fix  on the ascending man! 

1 KINGS

If she found a man
To answer her enigmas,
Centre of an administration
Of happy servants,
Wisdom of the kingdom
God had conferred,
She found a man
With an ascent to God.

24/04/2018

2 SAMUEL

A man after God’s heart has been found
Reigning over His chosen people,
Showing in this the kindness of God
To a maimed pariah of Saul’s house,
Making him a son of his table,
Forming him to his own character.

1 SAMUEL

In Luke 24 : 27 the Lord beginning from Moses interpreted to His two wandering disciples in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.  Thinking of this I have looked at the Old Testament and tried to draw out from each a little impression of Christ. Obviously there is infinitely more in any one of them!
So here we begin with Genesis, posted several days ago.

A man after God’s heart has been found
Shepherding.  Not only gentling the flock,
But roughing the bear and lion, downing
Himself into the valley; stoning the giant:
Opening prospects of water and pasture.

01/04/2018

RUTH

Not following poor or wealthy youth
By brazenness of stealth
But in her faithfulness and truth
Portraying moral health
Until God’s goodness gave to her
The mighty man of wealth.
17/04/2018

WEDDING

Solemnly they have made their vows
Always to be faithful to each other,
Married in the Lord,
Until He comes for both or one;
Every day of their pilgrimage,
Lord, keep them under Thy hand.

And may they be rewarded,
Now together, for faithfulness
During their time of waiting!

Christ Jesus has come into their lives,
And taken a place in their hearts.
They move forward together,
Having one way of walking,
Eating their daily manna,
Reading the word jointly,
Invoking God as Father,
Nightly entrusting to Him
Every care from the day.

Lord, be their strength and wisdom!
O Holy Spirit, guide them!
Comfort and grace be with them
Knowing the Father’s love!

JUDGES

One man could confront and rend
   the power of death;
One man could carry with ease
   the gates of death;
One man could achieve victory
   by his own death.

14/05/2018

JOSHUA

If twelve stones from Jordan
   Stand in God’s land,
Twelve stones are set up
   In Jordan’s depths:
All bear witness to the place
Where the ark-bearers’ feet stood.

13/05/2018

DEUTERONOMY

Under Satan’s assault He picked
Words already written: “Man shall not
Live by bread alone”; “Thou shalt not
Tempt the Lord thy God”; “Do homage
To God alone”.  Who was better qualified
To forge new answers?  But as Man
According to God He used God’s words.
27/03/18

NUMBERS

It needed another sacrifice to
Portray something inherent in
One sacrifice; distinctive in
Subjection Christ; His the side
From which flowed not only
Blood, but water’s cleansing.

21/04/2018         Fife

LEVITICUS

God’s heart is satisfied
By the excellence of the blood
On the excellence of the gold:
My heart is gratified
By the One who went with the burden
Of my sins upon Him.

20/04/2018

EXODUS

Enslaved to toil in Egypt’s mud
Although they were God’s own they sighed:
The God of Israel replied
By telling them He is I AM
By valuing the precious blood,
And feeding them upon the lamb.

GENESIS

In Luke 24 : 27 the Lord beginning from Moses interpreted to His two wandering disciples in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.  Thinking of this I have looked at the Old Testament and tried to draw out from each a little impression of Christ. Obviously there is infinitely more in any one of them!
So here we begin with Genesis:

The father-beloved became
The brethren-rejected; thus
As called from man-bondage
Suitable to be
Life-sustainer, world-saviour,
Truth-declarer.

24/03/2018

LINK

The Spirit gives us
The sense in our souls that we
Have a link with God.

GREAT

Mercy is great to answer my great need;
And grace is great to win God His great seed.

AN UNSUSPECTING STATE

Our God, Thy grace is great,
And great Thy will to bless
And a mature believer knows
'An unsuspecting state
of conscious happiness
with Him from whom all blessing flows'.

RUNES

(Eve)

This beauty, replete, rare,

Is Woman.

(Rebecca)

Both in the willing and the working,

Captivating.

(Leah)

If not the first

This was the fecund love.

(Acsah)

Full of zest and thirst,

She springs with agility.

(Abigail)

Her soul bound with mine in

The bundle of the living.

(Shulamite)

Gracefulness and dignity,

Embrue each footstep.

(Woman of Worth)

More valuable than rubies

This woman I have found!

WEAVING

Since He came to relieve bearers,
The bereaved, blind, and dumb,
So that strangers should be retrieved;
Ears He opened - where first Eve
Let temptation enter; fever
He rebuked, and those who believed Him
Followed; and all He would achieve
Rooted from His excellence. God
Saw a heave-offering; men
A panacea for their peevishness.
See those who received Him, children
Of God - metal to magnet, cleaving
To Him - grace made them perceive
His worth, leave all for One
Weaving a seamless garment.

PSALM

The pious man is like a tree

            With amply-watered roots;

And in its season you may see

The richness of its fruits.

The righteous man is like a palm -

In freshness he disports

With dignity, without a qualm,

As planted in God’s courts.

Jehovah’s trees are satisfied,

            Planted by Him, and blest;

Through him each bird is now supplied

            With space to build its nest.

LAND iii

We will come to a land
Whose stones are iron, we
Escaped from the iron furnace.
For God will have a house fixed
By iron without weight:
Iron for things of iron.

He has given us what is best
From the ancient mountains; precious
From the everlasting hills.  He only
Placed them there before:
Up, let us mine these stores,
Let us dig copper.

LAND ii

A land of wheat
Borne from one grain,
Fit for an oblation
Or to garner,

Reaped after the barley-harvest,
That firstfruit, yet
Whose heap of corn
Is cause of rejoicing.

Oh the vines!
And their wine is
New wine, to suit new skins
To cheer God and man.

The sweetness of the figs!
And their healing, while
The tree with the vine
Forms each man’s bower.

Blossom and bloom
The pomegranates, till
Comely as a woman’s temple,
The juicy fruits burgeon.

The people of the land
Will shine in the unction
Of the fatness
Of the olive tree.

While honey they suck
Out of the rock
Will make them persons
With bright eyes.

LAND i

The God of the hills
And of the valleys
Gives you this good land:

A land of waterbrooks,
Rivers of living water.

A land of springs,
Fountains of water
Springing up.

A land of deeps
The depths of which have been
Searched out for you.


Deuteronomy 8: 7

FRAGRANCE

The broken flask
Set fragrance free; God
Will receive fragrance
From only a broken heart.

THE TREES OF JEHOVAH

Jehovah's trees are satisfied, because
He planted them, and tends each branch and shoot -
They are as men who contemplate His laws -
While His supply refreshes every root.

Look at the cedars burgeoning in might,
In spread, and girth, and groundedness, and height.

As for the stork, the fir-tree is her house.


See Psalm 104: 16-17

AWAKE!

I slept. And my Beloved knocked. Alas!
That my response was not alacritous.
How unlike, Acsah springing from her ass,
Or Abigail, my moves were ponderous.
I rose to open but He had withdrawn;
I rose and sought Him but I found Him not.
I asked,where had my Well-beloved gone?
And went to seek Him since I was distraught

The watchmen wounded me. The daughters asked,
What He is like? And then He filled my gaze
With all His loveliness, and as I basked
In all His excellence I told His praise.

Blest Spirit, let me fix my eyes on Him,
And days will not be dull nor I be dim.

ESTHER

If, being purified for her king

With oil of myrrh, with spices,

She could be found by the king

To be lovable,

And could bring solemn truth

To her king's attention,

And enact justice upon

Her people's oppressors,

All rooted in the nobility that said,

"If I perish, I perish".

BUILDING

(Nehemiah 3: 8-12)

He's a perfectionist, Uzziel:

Smooth stone clings to smooth stone,

Jointed together. He works slowly

Bringing to masonry

The goldsmith's carefulness.

You can smell it on his clothes,

He is not used to the dust of building,

Yet he works stolidly,

Hananiah the perfumer.

His muscles ache but grow firmer.

Strange to see Rephaiah,

Ruler of half Jerusalem,

Out of his council robes,

Grubbing among the rubble,

Hammer and chisel in hand.

With his house facing the danger

‑ Storms and stones and arrows‑

Jedaiah (his wife and children

Cowering in the yard)

Has the greatest incentive to labour:

He builds for strength, not beauty.

I know little of Hattush.

He is a reticent man.

He structured this rampart alone.

Malchijah was not content

‑ His own patch established‑

To lounge, watching his fellows

Still struggling at their tasks.

His energy and time

He spent on this wall and tower:

He had his friend Hasshub to help.

Look at those girls!

Shallum, the other ruler,

Having no son

Has his daughters labouring for him,

Measuring, chiselling, carrying:

They are forming a sturdy bulwark.

THE NAME OF JESUS

I love the Name of Jesus
Which tells of tenderness
Of God come near in manhood
To comfort and to bless;
It tells of constant mercy
And condescending grace
To poor and weak and needy,
To blind and lame and base.
 
I love the Name of Jesus
Which tells of One who came
To bear man’s brutal malice,
To bear the cross of shame,
But more, to bear God’s judgment,
Whose power did not relent,
That there might be salvation
For sinners who repent.

I love the Name of Jesus

Because He, every day,
Gives succour to sustain me
Upon my pilgrim way.
I long to see the visage
Of Him who died for me
When He shall come in glory
And all shall bow the knee.

MOSES

Trebly a wanderer - 
Born, a sojourning reject;
Fled from the king's wrath;
Sheep-leader, behind the wilderness - 
He arrived at the mountain of God.
God had marked each footstep.

Combating on the hilltop
Sustained by Aaron and Hur
He prevailed with Jehovah;
Until Joshua
Combating in the plain
Shattered Amalek's power.

He shepherded the people
He had led by still waters
And pastured on the Manna
To God's holy mountain,
To Sinai; yet God
Bore them to Himself.

If the first tables were as shattered
As the people's promise,
With newly-hewn tables
The intercessor stood on God's rock
Upon Sinai, under God's hand
To hear and see God's glory.

Israel's first great poet
He sang of the mountain
Of God's inheritance; of the best things
Of the ancient mountains; but also
Of the God who was
Before the mountains were brought forth.

So the king in Jeshurun,
In unimpaired vigour climbed
Pisgah, there to behold
God's populated domain;
There to die; and there to have uniquely
Burial by God in the valley.

But what goodness of God
To give him at last a venture into
His land; to stand with Jesus
To know His accomplishments,
More than all he foresaw, on
The mount of transfiguration.

MULTIPOEM

There was a Man

Amid a world lying

In the wicked one; all

He said was true.

This is a multipoem, or several poems.  You may follow route one for a series of considerations of the Lord Jesus in varied circumstances, tested against the features mentioned in Philippians 4:8.  Or you can follow route two for the series of poems, True, Noble, Just, Pure, Amiable.  Or you can wander your own way forward from this verse to create a poem that no one else may ever have read.  But there is no turning back.  I would love to hear how you get on the journey.


Route 1

Route 2

HANDS

If wicked hands fixed

Christ to the cross, loving hands

Lowered Him from it.

RONDEL

Psalm 33: 21

“For in Him shall our heart rejoice, because

We have confided in His holy name”,

And we are warmed by loves eternal flame

Which radiates to us through heaven’s gauze.

We love Jehovah and Jehovah’s laws
And know that He is evermore the Same,
“For in Him shall our heart rejoice, because

We have confided in His holy name”.

We do not seek to hear the world’s applause
Because our Lord endured the cross’s shame,

Atoned for us and left us free from blame;
We seek to walk contritely where He was
“For in Him shall our heart rejoice, because

We have confided in His holy name”.

“THIS MAN HAS SUCH A PLACE IN GOD’S AFFECTIONS”

The Lord was always in the Father’s favour
Because He had no fleshly predilections;
And since His incense rose in richest savour
This Man has such a place in God’s affections.

We love, and God loves more, Christ’s ”deep perfections”,
Whose worthiness fills heaven with rejoicing;
This Man has such a place in God’s affections
And we hear words of praise that God is voicing,

Because He has secured what God intended
This Man has such a place in God’s affections;
When all God’s work in time and space have ended
All will be cleansed by Him from sin’s infections.

This Man has such a place in God’s affections
That it will be to Him that all shall gather,
Between first and second resurrections,
Before love yields the kingdom to the Father.

CONCORD

A waiting people
Is on this earth; while above
Is the Coming One.

PROPHECIES

Before sin’s penalty left any dead
Eve knew her seed would bruise the serpent’s head.

Before the death of Adam Enoch knew

Christ coming with His wholly ones was true.

Long years before Christ’s birth the word can say
That Abraham rejoiced to see Christ’s day.

Jacob could utter his encomium
While conscious they must wait till Shiloh come.

Moses said God would “raise up unto thee”
A prophet from their midst “like unto me”

While David knew that God would raise up One
To rule whom He would designate “the Son”.

Isaiah saw a king upon a throne:
God’s servant who would suffer to atone.

Elizabeth and Zacharias knew
That God already had His Christ in view.

Anna and Simeon shared the belief
That God would send His Christ for their relief.

Before the Christ began to serve in grace
God sent His messenger before His face.

While travelling with His own the Lord began
To tell the sufferings of the Son of man.

And soon the Lord of glory will receive
Unto Himself the persons who believe.

He will not just receive us to a place
But will receive us to Himself in grace.

He will receive us to Himself above
Within the Father’s house, the home of love.

In Christ’s day He will come in power and might
To judge the world, and vindicate the right.

And He will come with those who are His own,
The overcomers who will share His throne.

Then He will reign with them a thousand years
Within a kingdom exorcised from fears.

But at the end the Son will yield the throne
To God the Father for God’s praise alone.

                                                                13/03/2018

That’s the final date on it, but it was written couplet by couplet over a few months.  I am tempted to boost my output by calling each couplet a poem!

PSALM 23

Jehovah is my Shepherd, therefore I
Shall have no wants; and He has made me lie
In verdant pastures; and led me beside
Still waters; He revives me; I abide
Under His care in paths of righteousness
For His Names sake.  Though shades of death oppress
Me on the pathway I will fear no harm
Since Thou art with me, and Thy rod and staff
Console me; Thou dost give on my behalf
A sumptuous meal despite my enemies;
Thou dost anoint my head with oil; always
My cup brims.  So I know that loving-kindness
And goodness will escort me when I roam
And that God’s house is my eternal home.

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.

REMAINING AT JESUSALEM

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.

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.

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.

THE ARK IN CAPTIVITY

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.