Friday, January 25, 2019

Pscottish Psalm?

This blog has extolled the virtues of poet Robert Burns, the blog author's love of the Scottish part of his ethnic heritage and his miring in traditional Christian theism.

To mesh them all, on the anniversary of Robert Burns' birth in 1759, we present his paraphrase of Psalm 1:

THE MAN, in life wherever plac’d,
Hath happiness in store,
Who walks not in the wicked’s way,
Nor learns their guilty lore!


Nor from the seat of scornful pride
Casts forth his eyes abroad,
But with humility and awe
Still walks before his God.

That man shall flourish like the trees,
Which by the streamlets grow;
The fruitful top is spread on high,
And firm the root below.

But he whose blossom buds in guilt
Shall to the ground be cast,
And, like the rootless stubble, tost
Before the sweeping blast.

For why? that God the good adore,
Hath giv’n them peace and rest,
But hath decreed that wicked men
Shall ne’er be truly blest.

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