Christianity,  Personal

A Meditation on Psalm 19

I thank You for this piece of sky
Which often I’ve let fly right by
Without a single thought from whence
It came or by it what is meant.
For day to day it pours forth speech
In words within my soul’s short reach.
And night to night its knowledge pours
Of You Who reigns forevermore.
Its line has gone through all the earth
To tell Your glory and Your worth.

And now Your grace has stirred my heart
To see Your glory in the art
That You have wisely strewn above
To stir the hearts of those You love.
For I can see on this cool night
A picture painted of Your might,
A picture hung among the clouds
That preaches words that make no sound.

Just now the brilliance of the sun
Is humbled as the evening comes
And wipes away the brighter rays
Which ruled the sky throughout the day.
And as the blue expanse gives way,
The air is filled with golden haze
Which lightly falls like salty tears
To gently salve the atmosphere.
And I can feel that salve’s embrace
As it designs to lift my face
To see the splendid tapestry
Which You have hung for me to see.
For now, in most resplendent rays,
The sun pokes holes right through the haze
Which lifted from this morning’s dew.
And once again I think of You.

So now I thank You for Your sky
Which often I’ve let fly right by
Without a single thought from whence
It came or by it what is meant.
For day to day it pours forth speech
In words within my soul’s short reach.
And night to night its knowledge pours
Of You Who reigns forevermore.
Its line has gone through all the earth
To tell Your glory and Your worth.

And I can see the city’s heights
Now shrink beneath the sun’s great light.
For all above those steel-framed peaks
A million crown-like sunbeams reach
And race their way through all of space
As if to try and reach Your place.
In vanity they make their trip
Through starfields vast and infinite.
For if the stars combined their light,
They’d never reach that lofty height
Where You have set Your brilliant throne
To reign and rule that which You own.

But ev’ry day those sunbeams race
To see which one might reach Your place.
For these creations seem to know
That pleasures from Your presence flow,
That one who in Your presence stands
Finds treasures streaming from Your hand.

So Lord, the great and only God,
Please take me past where sunbeams trod
That I myself might feel those rays,
Which graciously shine from Your face,
Until the falling shroud of death
Lays rightful claim to my last breath.
Then raise my soul and make it fly
With this my body close beside.
Resurrect me whole, complete
That I may revel at Your feet.

And on that day I’ll speak again
The gratitude I’ll feel within
Because You set a piece of sky
Above me so you could remind.
For day to day it poured forth speech
In words within my soul’s short reach.
And night to night its knowledge poured
Of You who reigns forevermore.
It’s line went out through all the earth
And told Your glory and Your worth.

And as my thanks turns back to praise,
I’ll sing Your worth with my voice raised.
For when I see You face to face,
The One who bought me with great grace,
I’ll make my song forever be
Of You who makes the skies to speak.

2 Comments

  • Christiane Smith

    “And I have felt a Presence that disturbs me with the joy
    Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns . . . ”

    (Wm. Wordsworth)

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