Category: Love

Songs Across The Storm

“A harp stood in the moveless air,

Where showers of sunshine washed a thousand fragrant blooms;

A traveler bowed with loads of care
Essayed from the morning till the dusk of evening glooms

To thrum sweet sounds from the songless strings;

The pilgrim strives in vain with each unanswering chord,
Until the tempest’s thunder sings,    
And, moving on the storm, the fingers of the Lord
A wondrous melody awakes;

 

And though the battling winds their soldier deeds perform,

 

Their trumpet-sound brave music makes

 

While God’s assuring voice sings love across the storm.”

                                    anonymous


The Snares of Death

I love you, O Lord, my strength.

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.

He is my shield

and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and I am saved from my enemies.

The cords of death entangled me;

the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.

The cords of the grave coiled around me;

 

the snares of death confronted me.

In my distress I called to the Lord;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into his ears.

The earth trembled and quaked,
and the foundations of the mountains shook;
they trembled because he was angry.    Psalm 18: 1-7

“What then can a thundering legion of such praying souls do? It was said of Luther, iste vir potuit cum Deo quicquid voluit, That man could have of God what he would; his enemies felt the weight of his prayers; and the church of God reaped the benefits thereof.

The Queen of Scots professed she was more afraid of the prayers of Mr. Knox, than of an army of ten thousand men. These were mighty wrestlers with God, however {contemned} and vilified among their enemies.

There will a time come when God will hear the prayers of people who are continually crying in his ears, “How long, Lord, how long?”

John Flavel (1627-1691)

The Treasury of David (Classic Reflections on the Wisdom of the Psalms)

by Charles H Spurgeon page 254

Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his mouth,

burning coals blazed out of it.

He parted the heavens and came down;

dark clouds were under his feet.

He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.    Psalm 18: 8-10

When God comes to punish his foes and rescue his people, nothing has ever surprised his friends or foes more than the admirable swiftness with which he moves and acts: He flies “upon the wings of the wind.”
William S. Plumer (1802-1880)

  The Treasury of David (Classic Reflections on the Wisdom of the Psalms)

by Charles H Spurgeon page 256.

He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the sky.

Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.

The Lord thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.    Psalm 18:11-13

He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies,
great bolts of lightning and routed them.    Psalm 18:14

-“Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them,” etc. O that you who are now strangers to God would but consider these things! O that you would but think what the battle may be, where the combatants are so unequal! Stand still, O sun, in the valley of Ajalon, till the Lord have avenged him of his enemies! Muster yourselves, O ye stars, and fight in your courses against those miserable sinners that have waged war against their Maker; plant your mighty cannons, shoot down huge hailstones, arrows of fire, and hot thunderbolts! Oh, how do the wounded fall ! How many are the slain of the Lord, multitudes in the Valley of Decision, for the day of the Lord is terrible.

James Janeway (1636-1674)

The Treasury of David (Classic Reflections on the Wisdom of the Psalms)

by Charles H Spurgeon page 257

   The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at your rebuke, O Lord,
at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.

He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.

They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the Lord was my support.


He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.   Psalm 18:15-19