Poems and Short Features

Praise ye the Lord! My spirit praise
Thy God through all thy length of days;
I’ll praise him with the breath he gives;
I’ll praise him while my spirit lives.

Trust not the pow’r of earthly kings,
Nor strength that man’s vain succor brings;
His breath departs: he sinks to clay,
His thoughts shall perish in that day.

O blest the man whose hope for aid
On God, on Jacob’s God is stayed,
Who made the heav’n the earth and main,
And all the fullness they contain.

Whose truth forever stands secure;
Who saves th’ oppressed, and feeds the poor;
Who gives them bread with bounteous hand,
And breaks the captive’s iron band.

The Lord unseals the sightless eyes,
And gives the weary strength to rise;
The Lord dispels the stranger’s fears,
And guards the widow’s lonely years.

The Lord maintains the orphan’s cause,
And loves the man who loves his laws;
But those in paths of sin that stray,
The Lord shall overturn their way.

Jehovah shall his throne maintain,
And through eternity shall reign;
Thy God, O Zion, be adored
Through ev’ry age: praise ye the Lord.

—The Psalms of David in Metre

For Your New Year
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With a solemn step and stately
Draws the old year to a close.
Day by day it has recorded
Joys and blessings, trials and woes.

Has it wrought in you some progress
Toward the Father’s blest design
That his work perfected in you
Should reflect his power divine?

Is faith stronger and hope brighter
Than it was a year ago?
Does desire for God’s approval
Burn with fervent steady glow?

Solemn questions, all important,
Yes, ’tis not with slavish fear
That you face the hidden problems
Of another opening year.

Not alone you tread life’s pathway,
Our deliverer walks beside.
Promised guidance, peace and comfort
To the end he will provide.

Strengthen thus your faith and courage
And the love that casts out fear.
Then with peaceful expectation
You will enter your new year.

—Songs of the Nightingale, p. 118

Count Your Blessings
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Do not count, when day is o’er,
   Daily loss from life’s rich store;
But the gains, however small,
   Count them daily, one and all:
Every sweet and gracious word,
   Every pleasant truth you’ve heard;
Every tender glance and tone,
   Every kindly deed you’ve known;
Every duty nobly done,
   Every rightful victory won—
Treasure all, and count them o’er
   As a miser counts his store.

But if bitter word or thought
   Have a bitter harvest brought;
If some foeman hath assailed you,
   Or the friend most trusted failed you;
If unkindness and untruth
   Have to you brought saddest ruth,
Blot the score without delay—
   Keep no record of the day.
Keep no record of the care,
   Loss and cross we all must bear;
On the page of memory write
   Only what is fair and bright.

Let all evil things go by;
   Still, with brave endeavor, try
   Simple joys to multiply.
Thus you’ll learn how large a sum
   Will with faithful reckoning come.
Long as after cloud and rain
   Blessed sunshine comes again,
Long as after winter’s gloom
   Summer roses bud and bloom,
Long as we have with us here
   One sad heart that we may cheer,
Long as love gilds sorrow’s cross,
   Life’s rich gain o’erpays the loss.

—Poems of Dawn, pp. 131, 132

Concluding Admonition
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I would, in conclusion, have all godly souls (whom Satan, without ceasing, harasses with temptations), to bear in mind that all the laudatory psalms, or psalms of thanksgiving, are also promises of God, designed to lift up, to sustain, and to refresh afflicted consciences, and to furnish them with arguments against the devil; assuring them that God is the God of peace, of life, of consolation, and not the God of misery, cruelty, and damnation. For when David and other saints thus joyfully, and with all possible abundance of expression, praise God, they thereby show forth unto all the afflicted, that God never forsakes his own in their temptations, but pities all such; and that he gives them breathing-times in their conflicts, succors them in their distresses, beholds their contrite hearts, gives them in due time an end of their afflictions, delivers them from all evils, and oft-times most sweetly and marvelously comforts them.
Wherefore, every thanksgiving in the psalms, is at the same time, a promise of grace, and a sweet doctrine to the tempted and the afflicted: because thereby is shown, by the example of David and of others, that God regardeth the afflicted, heareth all that call upon him, and giveth peace unto them in all the various afflictions under which they labour.

—Martin Luther, A Manual of the Book of Psalms, p. 389

Thou crownest the year with thy goodness.
Psalm 65:11
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AS we review the leadings of divine providence during the year that is past, let God’s goodness and mercy stimulate our faith and ..confidence in him as respects the incoming New Year. A proper retrospect on the part of a proper child of God will enable him not only to render thanks for the past, but to look up and lift up his head, realizing that our deliverance is nearer than when we first believed; and that he that began a good work in us is both able and willing to complete it, if we will but continue to submit our wills, our lives, our all, to his wisdom and loving care.

—Reprints, p. 2738

The Serenity Prayer
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God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

—Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)
(see The Essential Reinhold Niebuhr: Selected Essays and Addresses, page 251.)