The tribes go up

A song after Psalm 122 

The tribes go up

to Jerusalem’s gates,

the tribes go up

to stand within.

The tribes go up

to Jerusalem’s gates,

to give thanks 

to the name

of the Lord.

 

And as we sing,

we offer our thanks,

we pray for peace,

we pray to be safe,

safe within the gates

of Jerusalem.

 

Pray for the peace

of Jerusalem;

pray for the peace

within our hearts.

Pray for the peace

of Jerusalem,

we pray for the house

of the Lord.

 

Photograph by Robert Bye via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

An Unexpected Specter – poem by Josh Bishop at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern. 

 

‘Sunshine’ and ‘A Kiss Across Time’ – poems by Martin Rizley at Society of Classical Poets.

 

A Bird in the Hand: Fifty Holy Wells, #18 – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

 

Things Worth Remembering: Breaking Bread with the Dead – Douglas Murray on Seamus Heaney.

 

On the way to Jerusalem

A song after Psalm 121 

On my way to Jerusalem,

Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

on my way to Jerusalem,

I will sing my song.

 

I lift my eyes on the way,

I see the hills on the way,

I sing my song on the way,

on the way to Jerusalem.

 

He does not sleep on my way,

he does not slumber on my way,

he does not sleep on my way,

on the way to Jerusalem. 

 

He is the shadow on my right hand,

on the way, on the way;

he is the shadow on my right hand,

on the way to Jerusalem.

 

He watches over me in the day

he watches over me in the night,

he protects me from all evil things,

on the way to Jerusalem. 

 

Photograph by Dariusz Kanclerz via Unsplash used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Astounded and amazed: A sermon on a reading on Mark 1 – Dan King at Bibledude.

 

363 – poem by Petrarch at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

Is the Book of James Really ‘An Epistle of Straw’? – Michael Kruger at Canon Fodder.

 

Plato’s Big Mistake – Louis Markos at The Imaginative Conservative.

A Sonnet for Candlemas -- Malcolm Guite.