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Category: Prayer and Poetry

Whose Name Was Writ In Water

I am not a poetry expert by any means, but my favorite stanza of all the poetry I have read is from John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale:

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
         No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
         In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
         Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
                She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
                        The same that oft-times hath
         Charm’d magic casements, opening on the foam
                Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.
I read a short biography of Keats this past week and learned for the first time of the words he requested to be written on his tombstone:

Here lies one whose name was writ in water.

Keats died at 25 years old. His accomplishments as a writer are amazing when you consider how young he died. He had a strong sense of the brevity of life, and his epitaph reflected that. His skylark was immortal but he knew that he was not. Consider therefore the shortness of your life and where your name is written:

  • So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom (Ps. 90:12).
  • He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it (Rev. 2:17).

Parrot-Prayers, Parrot-Science (John Owen)

John Owen comments that prayer and scientific discussion can have something in common – many do both simply by repeating what they have heard or what they think they should be saying. And in so doing, they give up their humanity.

…Just as birds are taught by men to say ‘Goodbye,’ or ‘Farewell,’ or ‘God bless you.’ Such prayers and desires are uttered by birds without the semblance of emotion or humanity, and with no notion of what they are saying – it is but an exercising of their tongues. In this exact way, many men are trained for the sciences and seem to be most wise.

-John Owen, Biblical Theology, p. 92

From Rivers full of Thy Delights Thou dost Their Drink Provide

Psalm 36:5-12 from The Book of Psalms for Singing:

Thy mercy, LORD, extends to heav’n; Thy faithfulness to the sky.
Thy justice is like the mounts of God; Thy judgments depths defy.
LORD, Thou preservest man and beast. How precious, God, Thy grace!
Beneath the shadow of Thy wings Men’s sons their trust shall place.

They with the bounty of Thy house Shall be well satisfied.
From rivers full of Thy delights Thou dost their drink provide.
Because the fountain filled with life Is only found with Thee;
And in that purest light of thine We clearly light shall see.

To them that know Thee, evermore Thy lovingkindness show,
And still on me of upright heart Thy righteousness bestow,
Let not the food of pride crush me, Nor wicked hand detain.
There evildoers fall; thrust down, They cannot rise again.

Even These May Forget, Yet I Will Not

  • Isaiah 49:14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

My poetic paraphrase and expansion:

Zion says, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken?’
But God says, ‘Zion, Zion, you are mistaken.’

‘Can a mother forget her nursing child?
As she cries for food will she be reviled?

Even these may forget, yet I will not.
For my covenant with your fathers I have not forgot.

I have burned you into the palms of my hands.
And your walls before me continually stand.

See the holes in my hand and the wound in my side.
How can I forget those for whom I have died?’

The Gospel is like Wordsworth’s Skylark (MLJ)

The gospel is, as Wordsworth says of the skylark, ‘true to the kindred points of heaven and home.’ It always presents doctrine, and yet it is concerned about the smallest details of life and living.

– D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, p. 232 (from the sermon, The Christian and the Taking of Oaths).

Perhaps you could say, in other words, that the gospel is heavenly and homely, or timeless and timely. It soars and it condescends. It brings heaven to earth (the incarnation) and earth to heaven (the ascension and heavenly session at the right hand of God the Father).

And here’s the context of the line from Wordsworth:

Leave to the nightingale her shady wood;
A privacy of glorious light is thine,
Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood
Of harmony, with instinct more divine;
Type of the wise who soar, but never roam;
True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home!

You can read To a Skylark HERE.

Pastoral Prayers of Martyn Lloyd-Jones

The MLJ Trust has made a recording of some of Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ pastoral/congregational prayers available for free at their website. You can listen or download the audio HERE.

I’ve wanted to hear this recording since reading about it years ago in Tony Sargent’s book, The Sacred Anointing. I am thankful that the Trust has made them available online. They were a balm to my soul tonight.

Prayer is not simply about speaking, it is about listening. Corporate and pastoral prayer are vital for precisely this reason. Prayer is a response to God’s revelation of himself, and a response that to a great degree is learned and conditioned. What better way to learn than to go to the school of prayer with men like the Doctor who know their Father quite well, and have such liberty in his presence.