For Your Name's Sake (some sonnets)

You drape the dell with scarves of silver tulle...

You carve the curving course of brook-song hue...

...the earth is full Of the glorious handiwork of You

You drape the dell with scarves of silver tulle

You carve the curving course of brook-song hue

That shimmers out to sea; the earth is full

Of the glorious handiwork of You

You fill and whet the seed that leaps to life

Fruit and flower reply; ah, who are we

That we should doubt Your ways while earth runs rife

With Your mercy, glory and majesty

You stir within the human heart a sense

Of holiness and power undeterred

A Culmination, awesome and immense

That eye has not yet seen nor ear yet heard

Oh Lord, let no path I pursue or take

Be for a lesser cause than Your name’s sake

***

Ps.23:3

...he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

***

You wake and rouse the earth from winter’s clutch

With ways we love and have come to expect

With daffodils and robin trills and such

With plumes and blooms sun-kisses resurrect

You tune four-season’s steadfast carousels

Sun, moon and stars their ordained circuits stay

And never stray; not one planet rebels

Your perfect law and order they obey

Nothing and no one can usurp Your will

Ancient oracles have not slipped your ken

Heaven and earth will not pass away till

Each jot and tittle is fulfilled. Amen

Behold! where autumn’s auburn petals fell

Springtime’s unfailing hallelujahs swell

***

Ps.24:1

The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof;

***

The earth is Yours, and its fulness thereof

The greedy forget this and want for more

Than Your goodness, mercy, kindness and love

Offering wealth that pales this world’s brief store 

Your righteousness and truth are of great price

The wise covet its fortune earnestly

Striving to be a living sacrifice

Lest worship be a show of vanity

You rend the dark; cut mercy’s legions loose

You bend heavens and earth with evidence

Of You; thus, we are all without excuse

When it comes to devotion’s recompense

Dear Lord, whatever life may bring our way

Help us endeavor to trust and obey

***

Ps.103:8

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

***

Compassionate and slow to anger, You

Withhold judgment, but not forever, oh

Someday total accounting will come due

Pity the one who heard You and said 'no'  

You, who held nothing back but gave Yourself

Because salvation has no other name

Pity the one who prizes prideful pelf

Above the love that robs death/hell of its claim

Time's four-season circuit spins round and round

Some sense its sacred toll, some scoff and sneer

But someday Time's Veneer will run aground 

And all earth's tribes will mourn with holy fear

Then, hope and grace and faith will be no more

When who we chose to serve settles the score 

© Janet Martin

***

Matt.24:30

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, 

and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, 

and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven 

with power and great glory.

***

Behold! where autumn’s auburn petals fell...

Springtime’s unfailing hallelujahs swell