psalm 19… a response

At our first prayer station this week – “Celebrating Creation: Unspoken truth is spoken everywhere” – we are inviting people to write their own psalms or responses… here’s one we did earlier! It’s an unashamed celebration of Ilkley and Wharfedale and how much of God’s goodness, beauty and strength is shown in the environment and the people of the valley the Sanctuary’s centre calls home:

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Day after day my valley pours forth speech…

Unspoken truth is spoken everywhere as you write and paint your revelation new each morning in hills and woods and river and sky.

I love how you are displayed here. Above me the moors rise in majesty and splendour, shifting light and colours to reflect your glory. Glimpses of kaleidoscope light awaken my heart to the promise of higher hills and brighter lights to come.

Unshakeable. Impregnable. Permanent. The moor echoes your solid rock reliability – I’m in love with your faithfulness.

I scramble, climb, walk – even run for joy – for hours and I never come to the end of them, or you.

My lungs fill with air and deep in the pit of my stomach comes a swelling awareness of your presence; of the hugeness of you. A beauty so magnificent it cannot be contained, captured or expressed.

As the view opens up, so does my perspective. I survey the wide-open spaces and sing for joy at this new place – this new life – you have made for me, aware that when you sculpted these hills of my home, you lay treasures in store for me knowing how my eyes would thrill at each contour and how you would inspire me to create here like never before.

The wind blows my misconceptions away and the waters silence my cycling thoughts and I breathe… and my very core is stilled. And I know you are God like never before.

For you water the valley and bring each season and your grace plays like light upon the moor. And I walk in a living, vibrant testimony – in nature and in life – of the most creative, careful Father there has ever been.

How much do you love me that you brought me here? To places and people of such beauty and passion and purity. Jesus I’m in love with your name – painted on dramatic skies, whispered in heather and written forever on my heart.

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