GLORY TO GOD ...

(Luke 2: 14; Judges 9: 8-15)

Glory to God,

Secured by God, in the highest;

 - be an olive tree

Its expressed fatness

Honouring God.

And on earth peace

In the Child who shall be peace

 - be a fig tree,

Bearing, already, sweetness

Of the day of the Prince of peace.

Good pleasure in men,

Through One it will please God to bruise;

 - be a vine

Producing that new wine

That cheers God and men.

(Ramsay Bing 20/12/2025)

More of Blackness Castle and the Firth of Forth

APPROACH TO THE TABERNACLE (XIV)

God chose boards of acacia to uphold

His tabernacle; an acacia rod

Bound it; and all was overlaid with gold,

For the humility of One who trod

Among the grief of man's hostility

 Is that alone which suit the heart of God,

Yet others formed in that humanity

Glorify God in their conformity.

Granton Harbour, Edinburgh

Where my father came every weekday to buy fish

THE OLIVE PLANT by Lucy Hutchinson

Of all the plants that spring up from the ground,

With more or richer blessings none are crowned

Than is the olive, which still feels that light

That makes the altar and the temple bright,

Gives lustre to the face, poisons expels,

All rankling wounds, all venomous biting heals,

Produceth softness, smoothness, suppless, ease,

Fattening all food, allaying all disease.

Such are the blessed effects the gospel hath

On sinners wounded with the sense of wrath

By fiery serpents stung; it cures their smart,

Rough nature smooths, softens the obdurate heart,

Feeds the internal temple's lamps of grace

And sets sweet lustre on the exterior face.

But where these glorious great effects are wrought

The olive must in the dove's mouth be brought,

For fruitless is the gospel remedy

Except the Spirit do the cure apply.

Order and Disorder Canto 8: 167-184

The Woods near home; 

no olive trees

THE TRUE

He is the true Light, who enlightens me, 

Exposing the ubiquity of sin, 

But bringing saving grace to set me free 

From sin's demands without and wiles within. 

The Greeks concocted par-boiled platitudes; 

The Sadducees served spreads the flesh would crave; 

The Pharisees hid leaven in tart foods: 

Christ, the true Bread, is what the Father gave. 

Secured by mercy and supplied by grace, 

Attached to Christ through love that is divine, 

It is my privilege to have my place 

Abiding as a branch in the true Vine, 

While in His realm of peace, or ours of strife, 

Knowing the true God and eternal life.

JOTHAM'S PARABLE

The trees resolved that they should choose   
Their own anointed king -                 
A king they would not dare refuse                
To serve in everything.                      

Asking the olive they began:             
“No I will not forsake            
My oil which honours God and man             
For my own title’s sake”.                  

The fig-tree they asked secondly:                  
“I will not leave fruit             
And sweetness for a king’s display   
Which will not contribute”.   

Thirdly, they spoke unto the vine:     
“I have new wine to please    
Both God and man, so I decline        
To wave above the trees”.     

But finally they asked the thorn:       
“Have confidence in me;       
Rest in my shade. But if you scorn    
Fire will devour each tree”.

DCB in Poet's Glen on the edge
of the Pentland Hills

 

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.

PLANTS

From the gnarled bush
Only another thorn: “Away with
This man!”

One quickly-fading leaf
From a dry tree: “I find no fault
In this man.”

But, in the rocks, a miracle -
One perfect bloom: “Have nothing to do with
That righteous man”.

Or from a dying thorn-tree
One tender flower: “This man
Has done nothing amiss.”

A stark tree puts out
One bud - “This man
Was just!”.

It blossoms:
“Truly this man
Was Son of God”.

A plethora of colour
Burgeons - “God has made this Jesus
Both Lord and Christ”.

Scenes in Midlothian

THE WOOD OFFERING

Help me, Lord Jesus, to provide

The wood offering - to maintain
What is for thy service, without
Pretension, to dependably
Supply unmemorable and
Unsung effort. As others have
Laboured, their names now known only
To God, make me expendable,
Reduced to ash. As Urijah
Would not act for his own comfort
If the Ark and God’s people were
In the fields, even if it meant
His death. As Naboth of Jizreel
Would not abandon his father’s land
Whatever the cost - even if
It meant his death. As Christ’s bondman
Paul spent and was spent, night and day,
That God’s service should continue,
That God’s testimony remain,
Even to the point of his death.

The wood-offering is mentioned in Nehemiah 13, which is the last historical chapter in the Old Testament, just before hidden years until the Lord's first coming.

GO UP TO THE MOUNTAIN

 Near West Linton

Go up to the mountain and bring wood
That the house of God may be built;
Long since should your sloth have been eschewed,
With your selfishness and your guilt.

Go bearing your axe to hew down trees
That the house’s beams may be strong.
Your vigour will not regret your ease
As you quit the place of your wrong.

How long will you sow but will not reap,
Have your gains in bags full of holes?
The house of your God lies waste, a heap -
Rise, for benefit of your souls.

Go, find there is wood to bear each weight,
There is wood whose scent is refined,
And wood to be carved to decorate
Till God’s house accords to His mind.

How soon will your blessing have accrued!
God will give your singing a lilt:
Go up to the mountain and bring wood
That the house of God may be built.

ACACIA WOOD

Whitehill House, Midlothian

To make the Ark  required acacia wood:

A supple wood,  well able to endure
And thus to bear  the testimony through.
The copper altar  required acacia too
To bear the fire  and all the heat produced
That God’s delight  should daily be ensured.
But this wood also  standing as it was hewn
Formed boards by which  the tabernacle stood
Since only this  in all its strength conduced
To form the tent  which God Himself would choose.

One kind of Man  could be before God’s heart:
Suited to God  within His inner Man.
Only the Christ  could be the perfect Ark,
One kind of Man  in sufferings and charm
Clears the approach  by which we may advance
To God’s abode  where we may boldly stand.
One kind of manhood  alone is consonant
With Christ Himself  and God can rest in that.
Men after Christ  now have their heavenly part
Which will remain  when death and sin are past.

TREES

 More of Glensax

Gopher wood had the capacity

To sustain life’s

Capacity for differentness.

“A vine was before me”

Purple with fruit for

Another.

Acacia wood could bear,

Could form unity

And could be borne.

Cypress gave its tone

To the instruments

Made from it.

Fruitfulness was the apple tree

Distinguished among

The trees of the wood.

Excellent as the cedars!

Dignity and stateliness

Amongst the twisted thorns.

What a grand entrance

Was through

The doors of olive-wood.

Was that too inferential for you?

Perhaps various qualities of wood

- Grains, textures, fragrances, strengths -

Interest or enlighten. History too,

Ancient sources and customs, might provoke

Emotions or thoughts. But that is below

My purpose here: as the cup-bearer

Had a vine before him I have a

Man: His qualities, mien, customs.

The grain always straight, the textures

Beyond man’s apprehension, the fragrance

What delighted God, the strength to break

Death’s power, to bear us through. Name

Once again - Man according to God.

WOOD AT MARAH

Exodus 15: 25

Jehovah showed Moses wood

Because
Without God showing us
We would not discern
The distinctiveness of His Man.

Jehovah showed Moses wood
Not distinguishing the variety
Because
No species can encompass
The distinctiveness of His Man.

Jehovah showed Moses wood
Because
Our bitterness
Would only be dispelled by
The distinctiveness of His Man.

Jehovah showed Moses wood
Because
It has always been His delight
To see, and to bring to our sight,
The distinctiveness of His Man.

Glensax, Scottish Borders

TREE

 

Amid man’s constant grappling,

His insolence and fraud

Christ was a tender sapling

Before the eye of God.

He did not take resources

From man’s domain of dearth -

But drew from heavenly sources

Untrammelled by this earth.

And God’s heart was observant

Of that exotic Shoot,

The One who was His Servant,

Who rendered God His fruit.

Here He was the Succeeder

In God’s eternal plan -

His bearing as the cedar,

Our Bridegroom, and God’s Man.

Nations will find Him tender

As He returns to stanch

Their wounds when come in splendour -

“The Man whose name is Branch”.

In power He will have finished

Man’s wilfulness and strife;

Men will taste undiminished

Fruit from the Tree of Life.

STAFFS: RESPONSE

Three Photos From East Lothian

You may know the interpretation

Of each passage. But for a moment
Think of it like this - each one
Clung to something of Jesus; whether
In peace or war, whatever they confronted
They clung to Him. Oh! let me follow their
Example, cling to Christ if in conflict,
Lean on Him in worship. And if we
Can speak of one who will keep us
Without stumbling, how are we sustained?
Depending on our Lord Jesus Christ. 

This and the previous are parts of a sequence I wrote some years ago on Wood.

STAFFS

Benaiah, the soldier,
Could use his staff as a weapon
To wrest the Egyptian’s spear.

David, the psalmist,
Knowing God’s staff and rod
Bore his own staff to the conflict.

Jonathan, gatherer,
Used his staff at the time of his triumph
To harvest honey.

The princes, princely,
Dug with their staves
The well in the plains.

Aaron, the priest,
Was possessor of the rod which
Budded, blossomed, and brought forth almonds.

Moses, shepherd,
Had the staff of God
For authority and supply.

And Jacob, wanderer,
Home at last,
Worshipped on the top of his staff.

THE TREE

The Tree of Life planted within the garden
Was even then attractionless to Adam
And when at length the Lord was seen in manhood,
One Sprout of green, within a desert landscape,
Men saw no beauty and found Him unattractive.
But by God's grace saved from the power of darkness
Our taste is changed with all our hearts' reactions
So that to Christ our new affections answer:
We are replete in scenes that once seemed barren.
We love the Olive Tree whence we gain fatness;
We love the sweetness hung in the Fig Tree's 
branches;
We love the Vine which moves our hearts to gladness.

Through One who came here with no worldly charm ...

 

In the Pentland Hills

Through One who came here with no worldly charm,

Who was not known by fleshly lordliness,

But who has come to save and not to harm,

God has determined He is going to bless.

Yet this is One who charmed the heart of God

Because of the perfection of His ways:

God saw Him with the grace of Aaron’s rod

Growing in loveliness through desert days.

 

He was a root that grew out of dry ground,

A tender sapling burgeoning in strength,

Then rendering its fruit to God again;

He drew His moisture from above, yet found,

Though He would reach for men to any length,

He was despised and left alone of men.

He shall grow up before Him ...

The Father had not before

Seen a holy Babe, a holy Child

Or a holy Youth, at each stage displaying

Wisdom perfect to His growth.

"He shall grow up before him ..."

In goodness that was perfect, perfection

That was divine.  Straight to the light

The sapling grows; straight too

To its source of moisture, for He

Was "as a root out of dry ground".

Not straight saplings but parts of His creation still! 

11/05/20