Poetry to Glorify God
By Maria Fontaine
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I want to present you with something a little different—an array of poems, some written more recently, some older.
Poetry may not be “your thing,” and if that’s the case, you can decide to just come back next time. However, even people who don’t care so much for poetry can benefit from the way principles can be articulated so beautifully. And who knows, the Lord may bring along someone for whom the message of a poem may be exactly what they need.
The Will of God
The will of God will never take you
Where the grace of God cannot keep you,
Where the power of God cannot endow you,
Where the riches of God cannot provide for you,
Where the strong arms of God cannot support you.
The strength of God will never take you
Where the love of God cannot enfold you,
Where the mercies of God cannot sustain you,
Where the peace of God cannot calm your fears.
Where the authority of God cannot overrule for you.
The peace of God will never take you
Where the Word of God cannot feed you,
Where the presence of God cannot find you.
Where the miracles of God cannot be done for you,
Where the compassion of God cannot dry your tears.
The love of God will never take you
Where the hands of God cannot mold you,
Where the army of God cannot protect you,
Where the wisdom of God cannot teach you,
Where the Spirit of God cannot work through you.
—Author Unknown
*
Some years ago someone gave me an old book entitled Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul.1 It was published over a hundred years ago. I thought you might enjoy a little glimpse into several of them.
How Did He Die?
Did you tackle that trouble that came your way
With a resolute heart and cheerful,
Or hide your face from the light of day,
With a craven soul and fearful?
O, a trouble’s a ton, or a trouble’s an ounce,
Or a trouble is what you make it,
And it isn’t the fact that you’re hurt that counts,
But only—how did you take it?
You were beaten to earth. Well, well, what’s that?
Come up with a smiling face.
It’s nothing against you to fall down flat,
But to lie there—that’s disgrace.
The harder you’re thrown, why, the higher you bounce;
Be proud of your blackened eye!
It isn’t the fact that you’re licked that counts;
It’s how did you fight—and why?
And though you be done to the death, what then?
If you battled the best you could,
If you played your part in the world of men,
Why, the Critic will call it good.
Death comes with a crawl or comes with a pounce,
And whether it’s slow or spry,
It isn’t the fact that you’re dead that counts,
But only—how did you die?
—Edmund Vance Cooke2
*
If none were sick and none were sad,
What service could we render?
I think if we were always glad,
We scarcely could be tender.
If sorrow never claimed our heart,
And every wish were granted,
Patience would die, and hope depart,
Life would be disenchanted.
—Author unknown3
*
What is the use of worrying,
And flurrying and scurrying,
And breaking up one’s rest;
When our great God is teaching,
In patience beseeching,
That quiet ways are best.
—Author unknown4
*
The following poem approaches the topic of faith and trust as perceived by an unbeliever, to whom it is mere foolishness. Nevertheless, even the unbeliever is influenced in the end to smile and wonder.
The Ridiculous Optimist
There was once a man who smiled
Because the day was bright,
Because he slept at night,
Because God gave him sight
To gaze upon his child;
Because his little one
Could leap and laugh and run;
Because the distant sun
Smiled on the earth, he smiled.
He smiled because the sky
Was high above his head,
Because the rose was red,
Because the past was dead!
He never wondered why
The Lord had blundered so
That all things have to go
The wrong way, here below
The overarching sky.
He toiled, and still was glad
Because the air was free,
Because he loved, and she
That claimed his love and he
Shared all the joys they had!
Because the grasses grew,
Because the sweet winds blew,
Because that he could hew
And hammer, he was glad.
Because he lived he smiled,
And did not gaze ahead
With bitterness or dread,
But nightly sought his bed
As calmly as a child.
And people called him mad
For being always glad
With such things as he had,
And shook their heads and smiled.
—Samuel Ellsworth Kiser5
*
I came across the following poem at the same time as I heard about a friend’s serious accident. The Lord led me to send this to him. He wrote back and acknowledged that the Lord had used it to speak to him. He expressed that it was the best time for him to receive it, because he could now relate to it in ways that he couldn’t have before.
The original poem was written in the 1700s, and there is debate over who the author is. There were several updated versions in the late 1800s by unknown artists. This version contains a beautiful illustration of how Jesus, through the things He suffered, created a way for His disciples to follow.
Maybe you are going through things that you can’t understand. You can’t figure out why God would have allowed these things in your life that you can hardly bear. You may feel like the man in the poem who lifts up “beseeching hands.” It may be that you too are being drilled and distilled, or purified by the fires, but God has given us a living example in Jesus of overcoming.
When God Needs to Drill a Man
When God needs to drill a man,
Distill a man,
Fulfill a man,
When God for good must mold a man,
To play the noblest part;
He hammers him and hurts him,
With mighty blows converts him,
To shape so great and bold a man,
That all the world shall praise,
“Watch God’s methods, watch His ways!”
As God lovingly accepts a man,
And royally elects a man;
And purifies this clay,
To conform to His best way.
When God in love must squeeze a man
And seize a man,
And grieve a man,
While his broken heart is crying,
And he lifts beseeching hands!—
Till at last he understands,
God’s loving, grace-filled plans.
When God works and beats and forms a man,
With tool and hand, with purpose planned
Till he bends, but never breaks,
And God’s good he undertakes,
Knowing full what it’s about
And without a shred of doubt,
Seeks to try God’s splendor out.
When God wants to take a man,
And shake a man,
And wake a man;
When e’re God wants to mold a man,
Who great things will fulfill.
God shapes that man in mind and soul,
Implants a heart both large and whole.
With tests in love prepares him!
With challenges He dares him,
He lovingly disjoints him,
While He sacredly appoints him,
And with wisdom He anoints him,
Never minding what betide him
God in love will ever guide him.
God styles men, like His perfect one;
His Son.
Who leads us,
And exceeds us.
He ran the race,
And set the pace,
To show us how within His grace,
To give forth His full story
And follow Him to glory.
His plan is wondrous, kind:
Giving sight to those so blind.
He has walked the path we tread,
Bore our suffering in our stead.
God sent Him to restore us,
To implore us,
To mentor us,
And with feet all torn and bleeding,
As his spirit mounts unheeding,
All his higher powers speeding,
Blazing newer paths and fine;
With His force that is Divine.
Lo, the crisis! Lo, the shout!
That has called our Leader out!
When the people need salvation,
He has formed a heav’nly nation.
So does God reveal His plan,
For in Him we’ve found—The Man!
—Author unknown
Originally published June 2019. Excerpted and republished August 2022.
Read by Debra Lee. Music by John Listen.
1 James Mudge, ed., Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul (New York: Abingdon Press, 1907).
2 Unless otherwise noted, poems in this post are from Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul. Page 5.
3 Mudge, Poems with Power, 114.
4 Mudge, Poems with Power, 94.
5 Mudge, Poems with Power, 140.
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