OFF TO INDIA

 For your thoughts and prayers - off to India tomorrow morning, if the Lord will.

Photos from earlier visits are at https://dcbindia.blogspot.com/

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.

THE MERCY-SEAT

 

The Ark of God upheld the Mercy‑seat
Where stretched the pinions of the cherubim:
From here the word of God, and men, can meet
Since God had found all suitable to Him.
All was of gold; and all God's righteousness
Set forth for men in mercy may unfold.
God has secured an avenue to bless
From this place forth: since blood was on the gold.

God's rights in mercy have been fully met
Because the blood of Jesus has sufficed
To satisfy the heart of God and set
Him free to speak to every man in Christ.

Eternally God has before His sight
The blood of Him in whom He has delight.

Aberfoyle; four from the bridge, and one of the bridge.

THE MATERIAL OF THE ARK

Out of the wilderness, yet sap‑embrued,

As if it grew where it did not belong

The acacia seasoned to acacia wood:

"How pliable, how durable, how strong!".

Yet see one's skilful workmanship enfold

Wood, measured to its own distinctive marque,

Inside and outside, with the finest gold

To integrate one vessel, God's own Ark.

We see perfection in humanity,

Suitable to sustain and to express

The glory inherent in divinity

Even while journeying in the wilderness.

Beholding One so near, and yet beyond

All human thought, we willingly respond.

THE ARK AT THE JORDAN

Why do the mighty Jordan's waters turn?
Does a great barrier thwart their onward urge
Or some vast tempest's concentration spurn,
For once, the vigour of its downward surge?
No. Just an Ark. Its littleness prevails:
Though men might deem it insignificant
Yet by God's power its presence countervails
Where flood before were always dominant.

Only a man to men's self‑holden sight,
The Christ advanced to meet death's awesome power;
And through God's strength and His inherent right
Quelled it and freed men it once forced to cower.

For while death's torrent rages as before
We stand with Christ upon the other shore.

An old one reposted from a sequence on the Ark.

Near Aberdeen, and the fishing boat named, I think, after my great-grandmother, the Lizzie Brown