New Day; Altar and Battlefield

Raven, tree-silhouettes are sketched

Etched on a backdrop of new day

New day is like an altar stretched

Upon time’s rudiments of clay

And we who bear the yoke of toil

Lay on it, shrines of loss and spoil

Skylines and front-lines reappear

We refer to sight, sound and touch

But battle with bonds that adhere

To elements of faith and trust

As modern-day goliaths jeer

And we tremble with doubt and fear

The Name that David lifted high

Bestowed courage to see him through

With that same Name, ah, you and I

Can face our greatest giants too

And march into life’s battlefield

The name of God our strength and shield

© Janet Martin

 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.  This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,  and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.” 1 Sam.17:45-47