Psalm 62 seems a particularly appropriate psalm to read and pray through during Advent, a season of waiting, of prayerful anticipation, for the psalm opens:
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MY SOUL truly waiteth still upon God: for of him cometh my salvation.
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He verily is my strength and my salvation: he is my defence, so that I shall not greatly fall.
And so in my poem, which will appear in my next book David’s Crown, I allude obliquely to the title of my current Advent Book Waiting On The Word:
Draw back the veil until my spirit sings
And teach me how to wait upon your word,
Content beneath the shadow of your wings,Gathering strength in you
The psalm makes a clear and simple contrast between the certain strength we find in God, and the wavering uncertainties of the world, which is compared to a tottering wall and a broken hedge. This is true as far as it goes but of course the Christian praying this psalm brings another insight to bear: this world for all its brokenness and vanity is still the world that God so loved that he gave his only son to save it. So we must learn to love it with him, and long for its redemption, even as we try not to be snared in the traps and trappings of its present fallen state, and that is the balance and paradox I seek to explore in my poetic response.
As always you can hear me read the psalm by clicking on the play button or the title.
These poems will all be gathered together and published on January 30th under the title David’s Crown. I am just working on the proofs now and there is already an amazon page for the book if you wish to pre-order it Here
Draw back the veil until my spirit sings
And teach me how to wait upon your word,
Content beneath the shadow of your wings,
Gathering strength in you, until I’ve heard
The word that sends me back into the world
With all its tottering walls, with all its scarred
And ruined landscapes, raggèd flags unfurled,
Its broken promises, and compromises,
The world you love and suffer for, the world
You lift to God, the world that still devises
Its own destruction, in its vanity
Selling its living soul for passing prizes.
I am to love this world as tenderly
As you do, to risk everything for love,
For love lifts time into eternity.
If you would like to encourage and support this blog, you might like, on occasion, (not every time of course!) to pop in and buy me a cup of coffee. Clicking on this banner will take you to a page where you can do so, if you wish. But please do not feel any obligation!
Malcolm Guite 
Hi Malcolm I’ll see your poem and raise you a poem. More Stanley Holloway than Shakespeare. Regards Geoff Turner
I am wondering if the comments you have written will be included in the book, or if not, if they could be added as a download pdf. I find them so helpful. Thank for your labour of love
Thanks Anne, that will not be part of the book, for reasons of space, though I’ve written a general preface to the whole collection. ButI would like to gather these little commentaries together at some point, maybe for a future edition, but a PDF, available through my blog, might be another good way to do it. I’ll give it some thought.
I’d love to buy you a coffee Malcolm. Next time you are in Toronto and after Covid. I love your poems and gain strength from them. God Bless. Dennis Bruce