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.