Help of the Ages

An original translation from Psalm 90 for New Year's

(1) A Prayer of Moses, Man of God:
Lord (Adonai), You are a Safe-Haven;
YOU are ours from generation to generation.
(2) Before the mountains were given birth
Or You brought forth the earth and the world---
From everlasting to everlasting
You are God.
(3) You return humanity unto dust
When You say, "Return, sons of Adam [man]."
(4) For a thousand years in Your eyes
Are as a day just passed
Or as a watch served in the night.
(5) You flush them away in sleep
And they are in the morning
As new green grass passed away---
(6)In the morning,
It springs up as new grass;
In the evening,
it is withered and dried out.

(10a) The days which we are given--
In them is seventy years;
Or if there is strength,
Eighty years.
(12) Teach us our days thus to reckon
So that we may obtain a heart of wisdom.

Once in Royal David's City

Once in royal David's city
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her Baby
In a manger for His bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ her little Child.

He came down to earth from heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all;
And His shelter was a stable,
And His cradle was a stall.
With the poor, the scorned, the lowly,
Lived on earth our Savior holy.

And our eyes at last shall see Him,
Through His own redeeming love;
For that Child who seemed so helpless
Is our Lord in heaven above;
And he leads His children
Onto the place where He is gone.

---Cecil Frances Alexander,1848

KEE L'Oh-LAHM CHas-DOE

...For His lovingkindness lasts to eternity. (Psalm 136:10). 

As I went for a walk 

On legs that are able, 

I praise You, 

For I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

I revel in leaves 

And a family picnic table. 

Your works are wonderful, 

How rightly I realize this! (Ps. 139:14) 

...His lovingkindness lasts to eternity.

High above arches the pale blue dome 

On which billowy white clouds have been hung; 

He causes the clouds to rise 

From the ends of the earth... 

I breath in autumn 

With clear, healthy lungs. 

And brings out the wind 

From within His storehouses. (Ps. 135:7) 

...His lovingkindness lasts to eternity.

Eichhörnchen, Albrecht Dürer (1492)
(Two Squirrels [eating hazelnut])

Fuzzy brown squirrels 

Are storing up food... 

The eyes of all look unto You, 

For You give them their food in the right season. 

And I munch an apple~ 

Sensing all that is good. 

You open up Your Hand 

And satisfy the wants of all living things. (Ps. 145:15-16) 

...His lovingkindness lasts to eternity. 

My health is restored 

As only He could; 

Who forgives all my sins 

And heals my diseases; 

My strength is as birds' wings 

Going south as they should. 

He satisfies my desires with good things 

So that my strength is renewed like the eagle's. (Ps. 103: 3, 5) 

...His lovingkindness lasts to eternity. 

Tiny purple asters and once-lush green grass 

Now ready for fall are dying away. 

Man ~ his days are as grass, 

He flourishes as a flower of the field; 

Autumn reminds me that I, too, shall die 

To live again in a glorious new day. 

The wind blows over it and it is not, 

And its own place remembers it no more. (Ps. 103:15-16) 

...His lovingkindness lasts to eternity. 

The cold nips my nose 

As I kick about leaves... 

He spreads His snow as soft wool 

And scatters the frost as if ashes; 

Thinking about winter 

With drifts to my knees. 

He hurls down His ice like pebbles~ 

Who can stand before His cold? (Ps. 147:16-17) 

...His lovingkindness lasts to eternity. 

I trust in my Father 

Who looks out for me; 

Create in me a clean heart, O, God 

And renew an upright spirit within me. 

He takes away my sins, 

And I'll praise Him eternally. 

O, my Lord, open up my lips 

So that my mouth might declare Your praise. (Ps. 51:10,15) 

Deep inside, I let out a sigh, 

For You, O, Jesus, are always close by. 

Because I know You, 

I sense You all around me 

And on a day like today, 

I'm just "happy to be." 

Praise Yahweh! Give thanks unto Yahweh, For He is good; For His lovingkindness Lasts to eternity. (Ps. 136:1) ---(c) C. Marie Byars, 1984; Winfield, KS

Farewell

[for the upcoming observances of "All Hallows' Eve" & All Saints' Day]

Tie the strings to my life, my Lord,
Then I am ready to go!
Just a look at the horses---
Rapid! That will do!

Put me in on the firmest side,
So I shall never fall;
For we must ride to the Judgment,
And it's partly down hill.

But never I mind the bridges,
And never I mind the sea;
Held fast in everlasting race*
By my own choice and thee.

Good-bye to the life I used to live,
and the world I used to know;
And kiss the hills for me, just once;
Now I am ready to go!
----Emily Dickinson

*It's really God who chooses us. (John 15:16)

Vivaldi's Autumn

[This is the "Autumn" sonnet that Antonio Vivaldi wrote to accompany the "Autumn" Concerto of his "Four Seasons" Cycle. The other three seasons are in earlier posts.]


ALLEGRO
The countryman celebrates with dance and song
The sweet pleasure of a good harvest,
[The "drunkard"; LENTO]
And many, fired by the liquor of Bacchus,
[Allegro assai; adagio molto]
End their enjoyment by falling asleep.


Everyone is made to abandon singing and dancing
By the temperate air, which gives pleasure,
And by the season, which invites so many
To enjoy the sweetness of sleep.

ALLEGRO
The huntsmen come out at the crack of dawn
[The fleeing prey; LEGATO]
With their horns, guns and hounds;
The quarry flees and they track it:

Already terrified and tired out by the great noise
Of the guns and hounds, the wounded beast
Makes a feeble effort to flee but dies in agony.
----Antonio Vivaldi

The Call of the Desert

 

Ah. . . 

I can laugh,  

And my echo laughs back with me.  

I can run,  

And only the wind runs with me. 

I can leap,  

And I can land gracefully. 

I see beauty: 

A beauty I always see. 

I am alone,  

For I came to be free.  

The earth speaks, 

And I hear, for it's a part of me.  

Gallup, New Mexico

Who am I    

That God should open my eyes to see 

The deep beauty  

Of what imperfect earth can be?  

The thorns poke,  

But even they cannot stop me; 

For I laugh,  

And You, O, LORD, laugh back with me. 

 ---C. Marie Byars, 1985; New Mexico

Prickly Pear Cactus

Yucca

  

Praise to God, Immortal Praise

Praise to God, immortal praise,
For the love that crowns our days;
Bounteous Source of every joy,
Let Thy praise our tongues employ.
Flocks that whiten all the plain;
Yellow sheaves of ripened grain;
Clouds that drop their fattening dews,
Sun that temperate warmth diffuses.
All that Spring with bounteous hand
Scatters o’er the smiling land;
All that liberal Autumn pours
From her rich o’erflowing stores.
These to Thee, my God, we owe,
Source whence all our blessings flow;
And for these my soul shall raise
Grateful vows and solemn praise.

Yet, should rising whirlwinds tear
From its stem the ripening ear;
Should the fig tree’s blasted shoot*
Drop her green untimely fruit,
Should the vine put forth no more,
Nor the olive yield her store;
Though the sickening flocks should fall,
And the herds desert the stall,
Yet to Thee my soul shall raise
Grateful vows and solemn praise;
And, when every blessing’s flown
Love Thee for Thyself alone.**
---An­na L. Bar­bauld, 1772 (adapted c.m.b. 2008)

*Habakkuk 3:17-19 (a near paraphrase). After chapters of asking "How, God?" and "Why, God?"---and getting answers from God!!---Habakkuk makes this statement of faith. [Habakkuk ties another as my favorite book of the Bible]
**Christian thinkers, C.S. Lewis included, have said that as we mature in our faith, we love God for who He is and not just for the great benefits of heaven which we get from Him

The Moon

The Moon was but a chin of gold*
A night or two ago,
And now she turns her perfect face
Upon the world below.

Her forehead is of amplest blond*;
Her cheek like beryl* stone;
Her eye unto the summer dew
The likest I have known.

Her lips of amber* never part;
But what must be the smile
Upon her friend she could bestow
Were such her silver will.

And what a privilege to be
But the remotest star!
For certainly her way might pass
Beside your twinkling door.

Her bonnet is the firmament,
The universe her shoe,
The stars the trinkets at her belt,
Her dimities** of blue.
---Emily Dickinson

*Imagery for the moon is usually "silvery." This uses more of the "yellow", and sometimes the Moon (esp. when full) does have a yellowish cast
**Dimity: A sheer, crisp (double-threaded; "di") cotton fabric. It is woven with raised stripes or checks and was used mostly for dresses or curtains.

Children of the Heavenly Father

Children of the Heavenly Father
Safely in His bosom gather;
Nestling bird nor star in heaven*
Such a refuge e'er was given.

God His own doth tend and nourish
In His holy courts they flourish.
From all evil things He spares them**;
In His mighty arms He bears them.

Neither life nor death shall ever
From the Lord His children sever**.
Unto them His grace He showeth
And their sorrows all He knoweth.

Though He giveth or He taketh
God His children ne'er forsaketh***;
His the loving purpose solely
To preserve them pure and holy.

---Karoline Sandell-Berg (Swedish), 1858; translated Ernst W. Olson

*Jesus said, "Aren't two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. And even the hairs of your head are numbered. So stop being afraid: you are worth much more than many sparrows." Matthew 10:30. (Another song verse not given here--because it was clumsy in its translation---speaks of the numbering of the hairs.)
**Romans 8:28-39. God brings good out of all things and nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even death.
***When Job's first troubles came, he responded by saying, "Naked came I from my mother's womb and naked shall I return there [the dark "womb" of the grave]. Yahweh gives and He takes away; blessed be the Name of Yahweh." Job 1:21.

If Only...

[This prose is almost poetic.]

If only Adam hadn't sinned, humanity would have recognized God in all creatures and would have love and praised Him so that even in the smallest blossom they would have seen and pondered His power, grace, and wisdom. But who can fathom how from the barren earth God creates so many kinds of flowers of such lovely colors and sweet scent, as no painter or alchemist could make? Yet God can bring forth from the earth green, yellow, red, blue, brown, and every kind of color. All these things would have turned the mind of Adam and his kin to honor God and glorify and praise Him and to enjoy His creatures with gratitude. ---Martin Luther ("Table Talk" 4.198, Weimar)

But through sin and the fall we humans have become so weakened, so poisoned and corrupted in body, soul, eyes, ears and everywhere that our sense are not the 100th part as sharp as were Adam's before the fall. Our bodies are unclean, and all creatures have become subject to futility (Romans 8). The [16th century!] sun, moon, stars, clouds, air, earth and water are no longer so pure and beautiful and lovely as they were [before sin]. But on that [last] day, all things will be made new and will once more be beautiful, as St. Paul says, Romans 8: "Creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." ---Martin Luther (Weimar 44.231ff)

America the Beautiful

(These sentiments are more noble---and certainly more Christian*---than modern America deserves. And, yet, pockets of America still live this out beautifully.)

O beautiful, for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace* on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood**,
from sea to shining sea.

Colorado Rockies front range (see below)

O beautiful, for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw*;
Confirm thy soul in self control**,
 thy liberty in law!

O beautiful, for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy* more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine**,
'Til all success be nobleness,
and ev'ry gain divine**!

O beautiful, for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years,
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
 God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood**,
from sea to shining sea! --- Katharine Lee Bates, English professor at Wellesley College around 4 July, 1893  (on a trip from the east coast to Colorado Springs)

*While "Jesus" & being "saved from sin" are not clearly spelled out in this poem/song, they underlie these thoughts quire clearly
**The work of the Holy Spirit, who works in Christians to do better things and creates a true brotherhood

Change & the Comfort of the Resurrection

(from the longer poem "That Nature is a Heraclitean (1) Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection.")

...Vastness blurs and time beats level. Enough! the Resurrection
A heart's clarion (2)! Away grief's grasping, joyless days, dejection.
Across my foundering deck (3) shone
A beacon, and eternal beam. Flesh fade, and mortal trash
Fall to the residuary worm; world's wildfire, leave but ash (1):
In a flash, at a trumpet crash (4)
I am all at once what Christ is, since He was what I am, and
this Jack(5), joke poor potsherd, patch(6), matchwood, immortal diamond
Is immortal diamond.(7)
---Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1888

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Manley_Hopkins

(1) Heraclitus [(c) 535-(c) 475 B.C.); Greek philosopher who taught that the basis of all existence was change or "fire." "Strife" changes fire into water, water into earth, and then the process reversed. Hopkins didn't truly believe this philosophy but used it to symbolize the change of the corrupted nature and of the corrupting body in the grave into something immortal & beautiful (Diamonds also come out of the earth & are processed by fire.)
(2) Clarion--a clear, trumpet-like, beckoning call
(3) Foundering deck: shipwreck as a symbol of death. (Again, the "water.")
(4) Trumpet: borrowed directly from II Corinthians 15:25.
(5) "Jack": common fellow; this name was well-used in England.
(6) Patch (archaic): fool, ninny; also, a detached piece, a make-shift fragment, such as the potsherd Job used to scrape his sores (Job 2:8)
(7) "Immortal Diamond": Hopkins, as a Roman Catholic, believed that people carried the "scintilla", the spark of original good, within themselves, even after Sin entered the world. As a Lutheran, I take the immortal diamond, already there alongside the corrupt things, to be the new person that is created in Christ when the person is saved. (The term "immortal diamond" has also been used as a title for Hopkins himself.)

Holy God, We Praise Your Name

[a hymnodic paraphrase of the ancient chant, the Te Deum]

Holy God, we praise Your Name;
Lord of all, we bow before You!
All on earth Your scepter claim*,
All in Heaven above adore You;
Infinite Your vast domain,
Everlasting is Your reign.

1760 Anglican Book of Common Prayer, adapted

Hark! the loud celestial hymn
Angel choirs above are raising,
Cherubim and seraphim,
In unceasing chorus praising;
Fill the heavens with sweet accord:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord.

Lo! the apostolic train
Join the sacred Name to hallow;
Prophets swell the loud refrain,
And the white robed martyrs** follow;
And from morn to set of sun,
Through the Church the song goes on.

You are King of glory, Christ:
Son of God, yet born of Mary;
For us sinners sacrificed,
Bringing us a sanctuary:
First to break the bars of death,
You have opened Heaven to faith.

Therefore do we pray You, Lord:
Help Your servants whom, redeeming
By Your precious blood out-poured,
You have saved from Satan’s scheming.
Give to them eternal rest
In the glory of the blest.

Spare Your people, Lord, we pray,
By a thousand snares surrounded:
Keep us from falling away,
Never let us be confounded.
See, I put my trust in You:
Guide my footsteps in all that I do.

Holy Father, Holy Son, Holy Spirit,
Three we name You;
While in essence only One,
Undivided God we claim You;
And adoring bend the knee,
While we own the mystery.
---Ignaz Franz (German), 1774; adapted Marie Byars, 2008

*more specifically, all of nature & all the saved acknowledge Him willingly now; someday, everyone will be made to acknowledge Him
**"martyrs": those who died as a result of their faith, giving a powerful Christian witness. ("Martyros" in Greek originally meant "witness.")

Vivaldi's Summer

[This continues the series of sonnets Antonio Vivaldi wrote to accompany & explain each of his "Four Seasons" concertos.]

[ALLEGRO NON MOLTO; "brisk but not fast"]
In a harsh season burned by the sun,
Man and flock languish,
And the pine tree is scorched;

[ALLEGRO e tutto sopra il canto; "brisk, lively, all on the A string (modern tuning G string"]
The cuckoo unleashes its voice, and soon

[ALLEGRO NON MOLTO]
We hear the songs of the turtle-dove and the goldfinch.

Sweet Zephyr* blows, but Boreas** suddenly

Opens a dispute with his neighbor;
And the shepherd laments his fate,
For he fears a fierce squall is coming.

[ADAGIO & PRESTO, alternately; "slow tempo" & "rapid tempo"]

His weary limbs are robbed of rest
By his fear of fierce thunder and lightning
And by the furious swarm of flies and blowflies.

[PRESTO]
Alas, his fears are only too real:
The sky fills with thunder and lightning,
And hailstorms hew off the heads of proud cornstalks.

*A sweet, gently warm west wind
**A cold, fierce north wind (in large, flat countries, the collision of these two can brew tornadoes)
[obviously, Vivaldi was not a big fan of summer]

Goin' Home

(adapted from a Black Spiritual)

Goin' home, goin' home;
I'm a-goin' home.
Quiet-like, some still day:
I'm just goin' home.

It's not far, just close by,
Through an open door;
Work's all done, care laid by:
Going to fear no more.

A [former] Slave Cabin near Eufaula, Alabama.  
Photo taken between 1936 & 1938; public domain

Nothing's lost, all gain;
No more fret nor pain.
No more stumbling on the way
No more longing for the day:
Going to roam no more.

Morning star* lights the way;
Restless dream all done.
Shadows gone, break of day:
Real life just begun.

Goin' home, goin' home;
I'm just goin' home:
It's not far, just close by,
Through an open door.
I'm just going home.

* Jesus is called the "Morning Star" in Revelations 22:16 & elsewhere

(used by Anton Dvorak as the basis for the "Largo" in his New World Symphony)

The Starlight Night

Look at the stars! look. look up at the skies!
O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air!
The bright boroughs*, the circle-citadels* there!
Down in the dim woods the diamond delves**! the elves' eyes!
The grey lawns cold where gold, where quickgold*** lies!...
Ah, well! it is all a purchase, all is a prize.****
---from Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1877

*city images, as if the constellations were fortified cities
**the diamond-like stars dive down to the "land of elves"; (Hopkins nor I really believe in elves--it's just a fanciful & joyful flight of poetic symbolism)
***the light of the heavenly bodies is like "free gold" to anyone who takes the trouble to take it in, but it's gold in motion---it won't be there forever
****the prize comes from the purchase made by Jesus Christ; He died for your sins so all this, too, can be yours, along with the forgiveness and life you have in Him

Vapory Mists

[HEH-vell heh-vah-LEEM]
Vapor of Vapors*:

 [Hah-KOHL HAH-vell.]

 All is (vanishing) vapor
[Mah--yith-ROHK lah-ah-DAHM**]
What profit is it for a man
[B'kohl--eh-mah-LOH sh-yah'-ah-MOHL]
In all his labor which he does
[TACH-ath ha-SHEMM-esh.]
Under the sun? (Ecclesiastes 1: 2a-3)

     Kind of "bleak" taken on its own! But the 12th chapter of Ecclesiastes reminds us we get all of our meaning by remembering our Creator in the days of our youth. And we know that in Jesus, we shall have begun and shall more perfectly live that life in heaven which knows of no vanity or uselessness or futility.

*Often translated as "vanity of vanities"; the Hebrew really says "vapor" because, no matter how much you clutch at vapor, you cannot hold it; in Hebrew, this is the same as the name "Abel"
**"Adam", a man

What a Waste!

Our Solid Waste Problem

     Already in the 1980s, National Geographic alerted readers that so-called bio-degradables don't really break down in landfills. They studied lettuce, for instance, that was nearly 20 years old and still not broken down. And there is much more in the way of thrown-out foodstuffs and yard waste. 

     More recently, William L. Rathje of University of Arizona wrote in his book, Rubbish! the Archeology of Garbage,  "They [landfills] are not vast composters; rather, they are vast mummifiers." He went on to write, "Well-designed and well-managed landfills, in particular, seem to be far more apt to preserve their contents for posterity than to transform them into humus or mulch."

     Solutions? Compost at home. If you can't create a compost heap, try mini-composting: place food waste on the ground right near plants & partially hidden by the foliage or between plants & slightly spaded into the soil. Use a mulching lawn mower. So far, the U.S. has been blessed with enough space not to worry about this, but the time will come.
      Coupling people's desire to become more "green" with episodic economic downturns and concerns about creating quality, well-paying jobs could spur creation of jobs & technology in green fields. Maybe we could invent giant "rakes" to go in and occasionally turn over detritus in existing landfills so that the bio-degradables will compost. We Americans with our so-called "Yankee ingenuity" have been falling down on the job, so to speak, for some decades now. And we Christians have not followed our first pre-sin injunction to take care of this earth.

USDA Blog
Bio Waste & Greenhouse Gases