Green Patches

My Top Four July Posts (3): The Heffalump Psalm

To July 2008 and good old Psalm 27.  Some might argue that the link between poor Piglet's encounter with a 'horrible Heffalump' and the psalmist's affirmation of trust in God is how shall we say...tenuous. I beg to disagree. 

Darkness and thin places

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
        Whom shall I fear?
        The Lord is the strength of my life;
        Of whom shall I be afraid?
        When the wicked came against me
        To eat up my flesh,
        My enemies and foes,
        They stumbled and fell.  
    Though an army may encamp against me,         My heart shall not fear;

        Though war may rise against me,
        In this I will be confident.


        One thing I have desired of the Lord,
        That will I seek:
        That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
        All the days of my life,
        To behold the beauty of the Lord,
        And to inquire in His temple.
        For in the time of trouble
        He shall hide me in His pavilion;
        In the secret place of His tabernacle
        He shall hide me;
        He shall set me high upon a rock.


       And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me;
        Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle;
        I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.
       Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice!
        Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
        When You said, "Seek My face,"
        My heart said to You, "Your face, Lord, I will seek."
        Do not hide Your face from me;
        Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
        You have been my help;
        Do not leave me nor forsake me,
        O God of my salvation.
        When my father and my mother forsake me,
        Then the Lord will take care of me.


        Teach me Your way, O Lord,
        And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
        Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries;
        For false witnesses have risen against me,
        And such as breathe out violence.
        I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
        That I would see the goodness of the Lord
        In the land of the living.


        Wait on the Lord;
        Be of good courage,
        And He shall strengthen your heart;
        Wait, I say, on the Lord!                         - Psalm 27 (New King James Version)

Musing today on one of my favourite psalms, which also happened to be the one set to be read in yesterday's service.  We heard it again during the second of our church's Lent series on the use of psalms as 'pillars of prayer.'I've collected together just a few of the many different ways in which  Number 27 has been set to music - (psalms were intended to be sung):First off - Alitsen's arrangement, The Lord is My Light and My Salvation, sung here by Rhys Ritter.Then John Rutter's setting,  with its haunting clarinet solo, sung here by Achill Choral Society.More familiar to most may be the Taize version - The Lord is My Light.Rutter's arrangement in particular, puts me in mind of Dr Agnes Norfleet's description of these words as a 'psalm of thin places.'[Currrently experiencing turbulence with software. Font adjustment to follow!]

Angelic Choirs

Following on from my gardening tips  Greenpatch dog and I made a happy discovery the other night. You can read all about it here.  With their melifluous tenor tones, our hairy horrors could set up as a double act. Heavenly music indeed! Even if our neighbours might beg to differ. 

Gardening tips

Believe in the voice God has given you: It is the voice of an apprentice angel. Believe in the voices God has given other people.

John Bell, Iona Community, in Heaven Shall Not Wait

Singing, stats and tacks

I've discovered yet  another procrastination tool over on my other, Wordpress blog. The best part of the  new wibsite stats package as far as I'm concerned is the listing of the most popular search terms used by visitors. As I've said here  I seem to be the blog of the week with the cycling fraternity, judging by the number of folk who've discovered me via searches for the Etape Caledonia of tacks on the road fame.  Poor things, they must have been sorely disappointed to encounter my muddled musings. Still, now I've discovered the secret,there'll be no stopping me.

Unfortunately, my attempts to spread a little culture  round the blogosphere appears to have fallen on deaf ears. Maybe if I'd learnt to sing 'Daisy, Daisy' instead of Purcell it'd be another story.