60 YEARS

Some things remain through 60 years

Your married life has seen:

The PM's an Etonian toff,

Elizabeth's still queen.

Still Mr Hutson lovingly

Will whisper Hazel's name

And thinks his Hazel wonderful,

While Hazel thinks the same.

And by some miracle of grace

- Despite what some declare -

No shade of variation harms

The shade of father's hair.

Some trends reverse as Edith and

As Scilla will attest

Those ancient parents we once found

Now have a youthful zest.

But what has marked these sixty years

Through joy or pain or shock

This was a marriage founded on

Christ Jesus as the Rock.

Through joy and sorrows year by year,

Through pleasures or alarms

They know that underneath them are

The everlasting arms

Through sixty years' experience

Of God the Father's care

They can take up another's words

And joyfully declare:

God's perfect love by Christ made known

It sets our hearts aglow;

It gives us to respond to Him,

And makes our praises flow.

Written for the diamond wedding of my parents-in-law on 23 April.  The last verse was by my mother-in-law's father. 

FROM "TO GISLEBERTUS"

Did I ever go over with you my notion

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.  
 

WILDERNESS

Wanderings, tergiversations, vacillations.

I have trodden the wilderness,

Thirsted, hungered and murmured:

Stumbled back towards Egypt

(Through grace moated by the Sea);

Plunged headlong to Hormah

To force the land in my strength,

And trawled through sand and rock:

Even, in some seasons, followed

The Ark to our resting place.

For I have tasted the grapes of Eshcol

And seen in spirit the fertile land:

Milk and honey are to my taste:

And I, like Caleb, have the land in my heart.

But more - I know the One

Who bore me to this waste

Will plant me in His mountain,

His fixed and purposed place.

I LOVE THE FATHER

A Song

Because the work of grace is done,
I love the Father;
Because He did not spare His Son,
I love the Father;
Because He saw me in my need,
And watched and blessed and loved and freed,
And fitted me as love decreed
I love the Father.

Elect before time had begun,
I love the Father;
Drawn by His favour to the Son,
I love the Father;
Because He marked me out before
For joys that flourish evermore
Released to me from heaven's store
I love the Father.

Because my distance made Him run,
I love the Father;
Because He gave me to the Son,
I love the Father;
Since I am kissed, since I am blessed,
Since I am clothed in Christ, His best,
Since I am welcomed to God's rest
I love the Father.

ELEPHANT

In forest darkness,
Under the wilderness glare
Or on the pleasant grasslands,
Acme of strength, He moves,
Breaking straight paths to
The watercourses.

Hearing, beyond the ear of man,
Scenting, beyond the scent of man,
Touching, as man cannot
He senses ‑ superior
In feeling as in power.

His preciousness,
His shining strength,
Intrinsically grand in life
Becomes available
Only in death.

And men collude,
Rulers, soldiers, silver‑touts;
He is betrayed, encompassed,
Who is
"Chief of God's ways".


Job 40: 19 refers to the behemoth as "chief of God's ways".

SOLOMON

Almighty God  - give judgments to the King
And He will judge  according to Thy will!
He will do justice to those whom sin afflicts:
By righteousness  peace will flow from the hills;
He will descend  as a delicious smirr
While grace and truth  will both be flourishing;
Kings of the earth  will render precious gifts
And all mankind  will own His rulership.
Each day He shall be blessed:  and He shall live
While corn shall pullulate  from fertile tilth
Even upon  the mountain’s loftiest ridge:
Seeing His glory  let all the people sing!

TO SOLOMON

You had them all ‑ the ivory throne
With guardian lions; the palace of the house
Of Lebanon; vast revenues of gold;
Widespread domains and exotic embassies;
Each day's thirty oxen, its hundred sheep,
Harts and gazelles; a splendid palanquin
Enhanced by your sixty swordsman escort;
You had them all ‑ but not these only ‑
To probe a matter, the glory of kings,
One sword for wisdom and for justice,
Solutions to enigmas, three thousand proverbs,
With your own ascent to your God's house,
And desire and skill for songs and psalms ‑
All the accoutrements of monarchy.

And of these songs one only was the Song of Songs,
Depiction of love and beauty, the incomparable ode
To rapture of love, loveliness, cruel jealousy ‑
The symbols apt in their sensuousness, apt to love,
Apt in their spirituality ‑ breathed through the love of God.

Not gardens only, nor beds
Of spices, interested you ‑
You knew the value of tillage:
"He who tills will be satisfied
With bread"; "Manual labour
Will increase wealth"; "Truth
And mercy will attend those
Who plough good". These were
Your kind of adage. But,
Did you follow your own advice?

STAFFS - COMMENT

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 "Staffs" come from a general contemplation of wood: see
Wood.