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Tag Archives: John Donne

Air and Angels

27 Wednesday Aug 2014

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Air and Angeles, John Donne, poem, Poet, Poetry

By John Donne

Twice or thrice had I lov’d thee,
Before I knew thy face or name;
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame
Angels affect us oft, and worshipp’d be;
Still when, to where thou wert, I came,
Some lovely glorious nothing I did see.
But since my soul, whose child love is,
Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,
More subtle than the parent is
Love must not be, but take a body too;
And therefore what thou wert, and who,
I bid Love ask, and now
That it assume thy body, I allow,
And fix itself in thy lip, eye, and brow.

Whilst thus to ballast love I thought,
And so more steadily to have gone,
With wares which would sink admiration,
I saw I had love’s pinnace overfraught;
Ev’ry thy hair for love to work upon
Is much too much, some fitter must be sought;
For, nor in nothing, nor in things
Extreme, and scatt’ring bright, can love inhere;
Then, as an angel, face, and wings
Of air, not pure as it, yet pure, doth wear,
So thy love may be my love’s sphere;
Just such disparity
As is ‘twixt air and angels’ purity,
‘Twixt women’s love, and men’s, will ever be.

Twice or Thrice

21 Friday Mar 2014

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Air and Angels, John Donne, Literature, poem, Poetry

AIR AND ANGELS

By John Donne

Twice or thrice had I lov’d thee,
Before I knew thy face or name;
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame
Angels affect us oft, and worshipp’d be;
Still when, to where thou wert, I came,
Some lovely glorious nothing I did see.
But since my soul, whose child love is,
Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,
More subtle than the parent is
Love must not be, but take a body too;
And therefore what thou wert, and who,
I bid Love ask, and now
That it assume thy body, I allow,
And fix itself in thy lip, eye, and brow.

Whilst thus to ballast love I thought,
And so more steadily to have gone,
With wares which would sink admiration,
I saw I had love’s pinnace overfraught;
Ev’ry thy hair for love to work upon
Is much too much, some fitter must be sought;
For, nor in nothing, nor in things
Extreme, and scatt’ring bright, can love inhere;
Then, as an angel, face, and wings
Of air, not pure as it, yet pure, doth wear,
So thy love may be my love’s sphere;
Just such disparity
As is ‘twixt air and angels’ purity,
‘Twixt women’s love, and men’s, will ever be.

Thou Hast Made Me, and Shall Thy Work Decay

10 Thursday Oct 2013

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Death, John Donne, poem, Poetry, Resurrection, Thou Hast Made Me

HOLY SONNETS: THOU HAST MADE ME, AND SHALL THY WORK DECAY?

By John Donne

Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?
Repair me now, for now mine end doth haste,
I run to death, and death meets me as fast,
And all my pleasures are like yesterday;
I dare not move my dim eyes any way,
Despair behind, and death before doth cast
Such terror, and my feebled flesh doth waste
By sin in it, which it t’wards hell doth weigh.
Only thou art above, and when towards thee
By thy leave I can look, I rise again;
But our old subtle foe so tempteth me,
That not one hour I can myself sustain;
Thy grace may wing me to prevent his art,
And thou like adamant draw mine iron heart.

John Donne: A Hymn to God the Father

29 Thursday Aug 2013

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A Hymn to God the Father, John Donne, poem, Poetry

I.

WILT Thou forgive that sin where I begun,
Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin, through which I run,
And do run still, though still I do deplore?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,
For I have more.


II.

Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won
Others to sin, and made my sin their door?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun
A year or two, but wallowed in a score?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,
For I have more.


III.

I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore ;
But swear by Thyself, that at my death Thy Son
Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore ;
And having done that, Thou hast done ;
I fear no more

Batter my heart

25 Sunday Aug 2013

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Holy Sonnets, John Donne, Literature, poem, Poetry

HOLY SONNETS: BATTER MY HEART, THREE-PERSON’D GOD

By John Donne

Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp’d town to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Translation and Notes Psalm 6.3

18 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Bruce Waltke, Charles Spurgeon, Psalms

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Affliction, Bruce Waltke, Charles Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon, Hebrew, John Donne, Psalm 6, Psalms, Translation

Psalm 6:4 (BHS/WHM 4.2) English: 6:3

4וְ֭נַפְשִׁי נִבְהֲלָ֣ה מְאֹ֑ד וְאַ֯תָּ֥ יְ֝הוָ֗ה עַד־מָתָֽי׃

 

Psalm 6:4 (LXX)

4 καὶ ἡ ψυχή μου ἐταράχθη σφόδρα, καὶ σύ, κύριε, ἕως πότε;

Psalm 6:4 (VGCLEM)

4 Et anima mea turbata est valde ; sed tu, Domine, usquequo ?

Notes:

וְ֭

Why the Waw here? The preceding two verses begin without a conjunction.  However, these preceding verses begin with a plea. In the second verse, the plea gives an explicit cause of the plea. The first clause of verse 4 (Heb; English 3), acts as amplification of the preceding colon thus functioning in two coordinate ways: It amplifies the preceding colon and gives the basis for the consequent plea (But you, O Lord, how long?).  The tie to the preceding verse is made stronger the repetition of the verb to be in horror, quake. Leupold actually links the first colon with the preceding verse. Bratcher and Reyburn note:

Since verse 3a goes so closely with the last part of verse 2b, TEV, NEB, NJB, and others join it directly to verse 2 instead of making it a separate sentence, as RSV does. That is, line a of verse 3 should be translated as if it were line c of verse 2. Here the image of being exhausted is extended from the bones to the nefesh, the soul, but the psalmist has reversed the word order in the Hebrew to provide still greater extension of the image of exhaustion.

Robert G. Bratcher and William David Reyburn, A Translator’s Handbook on the Book of Psalms, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1991), 60.

Jouon and Muraoka note:

Quite often the Waw, like and in our languages, expresses a nuance of emotion rather than a logical link (§177m, 652).

Which seems to give the force of the Waw in this instance:

His plea is reinforced by three considerations that set forth his misery: “I am weak,” “my bones are terrified,” “my soul is exceedingly terrified.”…Paralyzing fear might be a good commentary on what was felt. All who take sin lightly may well weigh what true children of God have felt when God’s Spirit wrought repentance in their heart. The peak of suffering is expressed by, “My soul is terrified exceedingly” (Leupold, 85).

נַפְשִׁי

My soul.

2. LN 26 heart, the inner self, i.e., the essence of life, including thinking, feeling, willing, desiring (Ge 34:3); 3. LN 23.88–23.128 life, i.e., that animate part of a person existing until the state of death (1Sa 19:11); 4. LN 9.1–9.23 person, i.e., a human being as a living person (Ex 16:16); 5. LN 23.88–23.128 unit: מַפָּח נֶפֶשׁ (mǎp∙pāḥ ně∙p̄ěš) dying, formally, exhaling gasp of the soul, i.e., the very beginning of the state of no longer being alive (Job 11:20+);

James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament), electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

Waltke in his Proverbs (NICOT) commentary writes of the word:

But in the Old Testament nepes refers to the passionate drives and appetites of all breathing creatures, including their hunger for food and sex….Nepes is often used with words denoting yearning. The craving for God, however, distinguishes human nepes from animal nepes ….Since it refuse to the basic nature of a human being as having and being “passionate vitality,” it is better glossed according to context by “hunger”, “self”, and “life” (Proverbs, vol. 1, p. 90).

Accordingly, something like “life” or “desire” or “heart” may be more appropriate as a translation than “soul”.

נִבְהֲלָ֣ה מְאֹ֑ד

She quakes/is horrified exceedingly.

וְאַ֯תָּ֥ יְ֝הוָ֗ה

But you, O Lord.

The you here is interrupts the flow: there are you two vocatives in a row, But you, Lord ….

עַד־מָתָֽי

Until when.

De Burgh writes, “Wilt thou delay?” beautifully expressive of failing strength, causing the sentence to be imperfect.”

And thou, O Jehovah, how long? This elliptical form of expression serves to express more strongly the vehemence of grief, which not only holds the minds of men bound up, but likewise their tongues, breaking and cutting short their speech in the middle of the sentence. The meaning, however, in this abrupt expression is doubtful. Some, to complete the sentence, supply the words, Wilt thou afflict me, or continue to chasten me? Others read, How long wilt thou delay thy mercy? But what is stated in the next verse shows that this second sense is the more probable, for he there prays to the Lord to look upon him with an eye of favor and compassion. He, therefore, complains that God has now forsaken him, or has no regard to him, just as God seems to be far of from us whenever his assistance or grace does not actually manifest itself in our behalf. God, in his compassion towards us, permits us to pray to him to make haste to succor us; but when we have freely complained of his long delay, that our prayers or sorrow, on this account, may not pass beyond bounds we must submit our case entirely to his will, and not wish him to make greater haste than shall seem good to him.

John Calvin, Psalms, electronic ed., Calvin’s Commentaries (Albany, OR: Ages Software, 1998), Ps 6:3.

Spurgeon in the Treasury of David quotes John Donne as follows:

Ver. 3. O Lord, how long? As the saints in heaven have their usque quo, how long, Lord, holy and true, before thou begin to execute judgment? So, the saints on earth have their usque quo. How long, Lord, before thou take off the execution of this judgment upon us? For, our deprecatory prayers are not mandatory, they are not directory, they appoint not God his ways, nor times; but as our postulatory prayers are, they also are submitted to the will of God, and have all in them that ingredient, that herb of grace, which Christ put into his own prayer, that veruntamen, yet not my will, but thy will be fulfilled; and they have that ingredient which Christ put into our prayer, fiat voluntas, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven; in heaven there is no resisting of his will; yet in heaven there is a soliciting, a hastening, an accelerating of the judgment, and the glory of the resurrection; so though we resist not his corrections here upon the earth, we may humbly present to God the sense which we have of his displeasure, for this sense and apprehension of his corrections is one of the principal reasons why he sends them; he corrects us therefore that we might be sensible of his corrections; that when we, being humbled under his hand, have said with his prophet, “I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him” (Mic 7:9), he may be pleased to say to his correcting angel, as he did to his destroying angel, This is enough, and so burn his rod now, as he put up his sword then. John Donne.

 

Translation:

Yes, my life shakes in  horror

But you – Lord … until when?

Horror as an adjective horribly means “a lot” in common usage.  However, “shakes in horror” is odd enough as to avoid the common misuse.  I have changed the rhythm here to slow down and draw out the imagery. The accented first syllable is to capture the emotional effect of the initial Waw

Mercy Lord – I break

Heal Lord – my soul does quake

Yes, my life shakes in  horror

But you – Lord … until when?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How Jesus as the Temple Affects our Sex Life

28 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Corinthians, Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Hebrews, John, Spiritual Disciplines

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1 Corinthians, Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Father, Hebrews, John, John 4, John Donne, sexuality, Spiritual Disciplines, temple, Worship

The first two references by Jesus to the Father both entail correction. In the first instance he corrects a defective understanding of the temple:

16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”
17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

John 2:16-17. He then refers to his own body as the temple (which is developed in Hebrews).

In chapter 4, he corrects the defective understanding of the Samaritans who have set up an alternative temple. Here Jesus directs attention to true spiritual worship of the Father:

21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

This leads to an interesting parallel in 1 Peter and 1 Corinthians:

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,
5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

1 Peter 2:4-9. Jesus is the cornerstone of the true temple (made without hands – being made by hands means an idol). Believers are being built up as the temple to offer spiritual sacrifices to the Father – which is what the Father sought in sending Jesus.

Finally in 1 Corinthians 6 we are told that our status as the body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit controls our sexual behavior:

15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!
16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”
17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 6:15-20.

The coming of the Christ has profound affects and effects in the world. Our very existence is bound up with the worship of the Father- which fact controls our existence in all respects. Since we are being built up into a single temple, I am not an island (to allude to John Donne); my sin affects you and your sin me. We are called to a holy priesthood, and thus we must encourage one – another in this work.

I am constantly amazed at how seemingly disparate elements of theology weave together. It is almost like there was a single mind behind the Scripture.

John Donne, Divine Meditations 1

28 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in John Donne, Meditation, Prayer, Quotations, Spiritual Disciplines, Study

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A.C. Dixon, Devil, Divine Meditation 1, E.M. Bounds, Father, humility, image of God, John Donne, Meditation, poem, Poetry, Prayer, Quotations, Satan, Son, Spiritual Disciplines, Study

 

As due by many titles I resign
Myself to thee, O God.   First I was made
By thee ; and for thee, and when I was decay’d
Thy blood bought that, the which before was thine.
I am thy son, made with thyself to shine,
Thy servant, whose pains thou hast still repaid,
Thy sheep, thine image, and—till I betray’d
Myself—a temple of Thy Spirit divine.
Why doth the devil then usurp in me ?
Why doth he steal, nay ravish, that’s thy right ?
Except Thou rise and for thine own work fight,
O !  I shall soon despair, when I shall see
That thou lovest mankind well, yet wilt not choose me,
And Satan hates me, yet is loth to lose me.

Notes on the poem:

Donne prays  to surrender himself to God, which is God’s due. He notes that God possesses “many titles” to man.

First, God made man: Thus, God is Creator. Gen. 1:27.

Second, God made man for God (“for thee”). Thus, man is God’s by purpose and intention.  Rom. 11:36

Third, God bought rebellious man by the death of Christ, “Thy blood bought that”. Acts 20:28.

“Before was thine”, that is prior to the Fall (Gen. 3:6-7).

He then notes four ways in which he is God’s possession: son, servant, sheep, image. The last of these is a fascinating meditation in itself. The first three could all be understood to see man as an autonomous being: I could have a son, or servant or sheep which was mine but also something wholly separate from me.

However, the right of Image is far different: The stamp of God upon the human is the image of God – albeit defaced in the Fall (how and what that means is not for now).  I cannot exist as an autonomous being: the very stamp of my nature is a stamp of image of God.

The final element of God’s possession is as a temple of the Spirit. The many members of the Church are now the temple of God (1 Cor. 6:19: Paul’s argument here is not that individual people are each their own temple of the Spirit, but that the Church is the temple). This is the one portion of the poem which is not necessarily explicit in Scripture (that Adam was the temple of the Spirit prior to the Fall).

Having established the undoubted right title of God to man, Donne moves to the predicament: The enemy of God has “usurped” God’s rightful place in man.  Donne uses horrifying images of the work of the Devil: First, the Devil “steals” human beings, that is, he kidnaps them. Second, the Devil rapes (“ravishes”) human beings.

In raising the complaint, Donne takes the prayerful position of the Psalmists who plead their desperate straits as the basis for God’s help (e.g., Ps. 3:1, O Lord, how many are my foes!”).

Donne’s helplessness is the basis for his prayer: I cannot prevail and unless you, God, save me I am lost.

He then ends with the paradoxical: Satan hates me, yet he wants to keep me.

Application:

First, like Donne, a serious consideration of God’s right to one’s life brings the world into clear focus. Our constant temptation, as a result of the Fall, is to believe that we are utterly independent, autonomous from God. Donne having prayed for God’s help in his surrender – a not uncommon prayer among earnest Christians – then meditates upon the various elements of God’s rights to man as listed in the Bible.

Even the first observation – that God created us – is sobering and powerful. While we may say that we believe God created us, we all too easily live as if we were created ourselves.  Paul lays the refusal to recognize this fact at the very heart of human rebellion (Rom. 1:18-25).  Just to remind oneself repeated throughout the day,  I have been created by God changes the complexion of all actions.

In Donne’s poem we see the various elements listed in rapid fire. However, the practice of writing the poem must have entailed sustained deliberate meditation. Donne’s poetical structure is notoriously complex: the interplay of rhythm, sound, structure, imagery required tremendous attention to detail. Thus, while the poem appears to move quickly over these points, Donne could not but have moved slowly. Indeed, a value in his poem is the difficulty it takes to read and digest.

We, like Donne, should carefully consider each element of God’s possession.

Second, our problem is the result of our own rebellion. While Adam was the first in the line, his posterity have shown themselves to be rebellious in their own turn. This is a cause for humility, which is a supreme grace given by God to rightly understand God.

Our problem is complicated by the fact that we have an enemy of our souls who hates us and yet refuses to lose us. The reality of spiritual evil is a great blindness of our day. Even sincere Christians are excessively reluctant to admit this fact. Conversely, those most apt to speak of such things are least serious of Christians are more functioning Gnostics than Christian.

Third, our only hope is God’s sovereign salvation. Donne’s painting of the dangerous place of our soul highlights the fact that salvation is well salvation. The words “saved” and “salvation” are used without much thought being saved from danger.

In short, Donne’s poem helps demonstrate proper Christian study (which necessarily preceded this poem), meditation and prayer (which are demonstrated in the poem).

A final note, Donne’s plea of his weakness in prayer, reminded me of this excerpt from E.M. Bounds in The Necessity of Prayer (quoting a story from A.C. Dixon):

A dear friend of mine who was quite a lover of the chase, told me the following story: ‘Rising early one morning,’ he said, ‘I heard the baying of a score of deerhounds in pursuit of their quarry. Looking away to a broad, open field in front of me, I saw a young fawn making its way across, and giving signs, moreover, that its race was well-nigh run. Reaching the rails of the enclosure, it leaped over and crouched within ten feet from where I stood. A moment later two of the hounds came over, when the fawn ran in my direction and pushed its head between my legs. I lifted the little thing to my breast, and, swinging round and round, fought off the dogs. I felt, just then, that all the dogs in the West could not, and should not capture that fawn after its weakness had appealed to my strength.’ So is it, when human helplessness appeals to Almighty God. Well do I remember when the hounds of sin were after my soul, until, at last, I ran into the arms of Almighty God. — A. C. DIXON.

 

 

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