URIJAH

Having betrayed his faithful warrior's trust
Both David's soul and intellect were dark;
He sought to hide the product of his lust
So that the birth would pass without remark.
 
Urijah's instincts swerved him from that tissue
Of plotting through devotion to the ark.

Fidelity will not confuse the issue.

The Firth of Forth near Bo'ness in winter

THE JOURNEY

Northumberland Coast, North England

If the lamb's blood around the door

Was answer to immediate need

God strengthened for what lay before:

They had the lamb on which to feed.

Christ has not only set me free

But been the food to nourish me.

God overwhelmed the Egyptians first

So that the victory was complete

Then satisfied His people's thirst

By water wood He showed made sweet.

Because Christ died to make me free

"Christ" sweetens what refreshes me.

Since the brass serpent held their gaze

Though serpent-bitten they could live

And reach soon, in Jehovah's ways,

The well He promised He would give.

Sin in the flesh has been condemned;

The Spirit's grace has been unstemmed.

The Jordan's flooding waters found

A force that they could not withstand,

And once they crossed it on dry ground

They ate the old corn of the land.

Christ and His cross have made me whole,

And Christ in glory feeds my soul.

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

THE ARK AT JERICHO

The sentries on the walls of Jericho

Would surely feel occasion to remark

On the procession they observed to go

Around them ‑ soldiers, Levites and the Ark.

Confiding in the structure of their wall,

They would not start to apprehend the power

Within that Ark to make their ramparts fall

And unbelievers of their city cower.

In outward weakness, but in secret might,

Those gathered to Christ's name now guarantee

The power of God will intervene to slight

Men's cities, and what they assume to be.

But, Lord, as Thou art cherished let me know

Within me this world's systems overthrow.

The waterfall at Inversnaid

Source for the poem by Gerald Manley Hopkins:

Inversnaid

THE ARK LEADING IN THE WILDERNESS

When Moses asked that Hobab should be eyes

To Israel in the paths they were to trace

Across the waste, God caused the Ark to rise

And guide His people to their resting place.

For three days' journey it was in the lead

And over them there was the cloud by day

That God might answer to the people's need

Whilst teaching them to follow in His way.

 

Still in the testimony Christ exerts

His right to lead His people into rest;

If we seek other pathways He asserts,

And shows us, that His way is always best.

 

Lord, give me help that I may not enmesh

My feet by following in the ways of flesh.

(This refers to Numbers 10: 33; normally the cloud led.)

Loch Lomond from Inversnaid

WITHIN THE ARK

Within the Ark the tables of the law

Which God had written on by His own hand

Were cared for ‑  in the Ark Jehovah saw

His testimony carried to the land.

There was the manna in the golden pot

And Aaron's rod which budded ‑  evidence

Of what was suited to Jehovah's thought

And of the good it pleased Him to dispense.

And thus God's law was treasured in Christ's heart

As all His will was perfectly expressed;

While blessings God in Christ chose to impart

Delight Himself and those whom He has blessed.

Oh blessed Spirit, help my soul rejoice

In what in Christ makes Him the Father's choice!

More of Loch Katrine

THE COVERING OF THE ARK

 

Hands of the priests alone could touch the Ark

To robe it in the glory of the veil
And safety of the badgers' skins to embark
Across the wilderness's arid trail;
But all was swathed in blue. The sombre tones
Of all around as it went forth to seek
A resting place through desert sand and stones
Show once again the Ark to be unique.

And thus the heavenly Man moved in a scene
Foreign to Him; but if He laid aside
Some of His glories His distinctive mien
Showed heavenly grace which flesh could never hide.

While each true Israelite, in heaven's view,
Should also wear a thread of heavenly blue.

Views of Loch Katrine

The poetic interest of Loch Katrine is that it was the scene of Sir Walter Scott's poem "The Lady of the Lake". SS Sir Walter Scott still sails the loch.