Struggling through the biting winds
He visited
Those about to perish.
Through harsh thorns and clogging mud
He sought
That which was strayed away.
In chilling nights and cracking rain
He healed the wounded,
Fed the sound.
He is the worthy shepherd
That does not leave his flock.
(Compare Zechariah 11:16)
Tottering forth she would have found
New lands to conquer every day;
And reaping in her fields of play
Have set her feet on firmer ground.
She would have brought her faculties
Within her ego's vassalage;
Like tropes deployed upon a page
She would have been her personal traits.
But, like us, going her own way
She would have trudged the wilderness
Till met by One intent to bless
Who bent her heart and knees to pray.
And as a shepherdess her skill
Might have secured her little fold:
Her fable was more briefly told,
Since this desire was not God's will.
See https://dcbverse.blogspot.com/2017/07/marina-i.html for the rest of this.
Of the ideal village, such as will inhabit
The world to come? These are the archetypes
Which would dwell there: firstly, the priest,
For I understand that priests on earth
Will officiate again. Then the head man,
To a Scot, the Laird. Under the shepherding
Of these two will be the ploughman or peasant,
Garnering abundance; the shepherd or fisher,
Folding abundance; and the soldier or sailor,
Wars now over, pensioner of the abundance.
There will be the pilgrim, the village’s journeyer
To Jerusalem – for the nations will flow to it.
Finally the poet, or psalmist, or bard.
From this developed the custom of testing
Persons against the archetypes. King David
Or King Charles, James Graham
Or Jacob – Rosalie, and Marina and me:
We have all been measured against this standard.
And since perfection in manhood is Christ
These have been measured rather against
Him. If He is priest we have to expand the title
To Great Priest, for the quality of His priestliness,
To High Priest, for the dignity of His priesthood,
And for the scope of His service – Minister
Of the holy places. To whom else could belong
The title, Prince of the princes of the Levites!
And He is Lord of all; certainly because
Of who His is in those other dimensions
He is at home in, but because, too,
Of His worth, of His walk and of
His achievements. He has displayed Himself as Sower – but all
Of the landsman’s crafts have correspondence
In the Lord’s activities; but He has exceeded
By graciously broadcasting seed irrespective
Of the quality of the ground.
As shepherd The Good Shepherd has expended His vigour
For us, and deliberately offered Himself;
As the Great Shepherd has forged through death
A path for us; and as Chief Shepherd engaged
Shepherds for our good.
But who is conqueror
Like Christ? That constrictor death, and that
Venomous serpent Satan both dungen:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro!
Someone questioned my referring to Christ
As a pilgrim. To me a pilgrim is a person
With an objective – and who fulfils the description
As fully as Christ? For He came from the heart
Of God to the cross and pioneered for us the path
From the cross to the heart of God.
But what
Of psalmist? Each production of the range
Of poet and hymn-writer from Pentecost -
And the ancient psalmists and prophets – were makars
At the hand of the great Maker.
"To Gislebertus" was a bit of a blog before blogs had begun. Not all of the snippets from it are so positive!
Pre-eminently David was a shepherd:
One with a heart his flock could all rely on.
He was no hireling but prepared to jeopard
His life to fight against the bear or lion
To lead his flock or lead his men to Zion.
But the Good Shepherd, Jesus, supersedes:
In love He suffered and in grace He leads.
Into the valley, humble yet defiant,
Confident in the way Jehovah led,
David went down to battle with the giant:
A skilful sling-stone smote Goliath dead
And David carried off his severed head.
Through greater depths and through exceeding woe
The Lord has quelled a more injurious foe.
Rejected and despised, a wanderer,
David found refuge in Adullam's cave;
And needy souls who gathered to him there
Because their debts were great or needs were grave
Found that he had ability to save:
Christ, who had once no place to lay His head,
Is Saviour now as risen from the dead.
As God's anointed David had dominion
That ranged from the Euphrates to the Sea;
Hundreds of judgments hung on his opinion,
Myriads of minions hung on his decree
While Israel was glorious and free.
But Christ will shoulder just administration
As King of every people, tribe and nation.
To build the house of God was his desire
And under God he was its architect;
It was most worthy that he should aspire
To serve God in a place he would erect
But God refused to give his will effect.
Only through Christ could God acquire a place
To dwell with men in righteousness and grace.
David went in to sit before the ark
To hear Jehovah in complacency;
He laid aside his realm's and household's cark
And heard the promise God had to convey:
Sustained by this he rose and went his way.
But in God's presence our High Priest remains –
All things by love and vigour He sustains.
Whether the waters by his feet were calm
Or he was bruised by torrents of oppression
From each experience David formed a psalm.
He raised a hymn to God through his confession
And found a song as carried through depression.
But Christ now leads a heavenly company
Surrounding Him to praise eternally.
Although all we like sheep had gone astray
And
wandered from the shelter of the fold
Our great
good Shepherd followed our bent way
Through
crags and hollows that cannot be told:
Good
Shepherd laying all down for the sheep
And showing
thus the wonders of God’s grace!
Great
Shepherd of the sheep whose grace will keep
All whom He
reaches to behold God’s face!
God laid
upon Him our iniquities:
The
iniquities of all who trust in Him
And find in
Him their Fortress and their Rest;
He suffered
once for these propensities
Which shut
up Eden by the cherubim
When to
man’s view the Saviour was oppressed.
