Photo: "While the sky whirls away" by Derek Finch via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) - reminds me of George Herbert poem

Poems as Prayer: ‘The H Scriptures II’ (Herbert)

Poem by George Herbert (Public Domain)
Episode by Kyle Oliver for prayr.cc (CC BY 2.0)
Music: “Dragon Country (Apple & Clove)” by Alexander Westmacott via Free Music Archive (CC BY 4.0)
Photo: “While the sky whirls away” by Derek Finch via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Photo: "While the sky whirls away" by Derek Finch via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) - reminds me of George Herbert poem

Media links: Podcast subscription, SoundCloud audio, direct audio, music only

This summer my friend and mentor Roger Ferlo introduced me to a wonderful George Herbert poem entitled “The H Scriptures II.” It’s a meditation on how scripture hangs together as a whole and also how, in a sense, scripture reads us.

In this episode I read the poem a couple of times with some quiet guitar music for reflection time in between.


“The H Scriptures II” by George Herbert

OH that I knew how all thy lights combine,
And the configurations of their glorie!
Seeing not onely how each verse doth shine,
But all the constellations of the storie.

This verse marks that, and both do make a motion
Unto a third, that ten leaves off doth lie:
Then as dispersed herbs do watch a potion,
These three make up some Christians destinie:

Such are thy secrets, which my life makes good,
And comments on thee: for in ev’ry thing
Thy words do finde me out, & parallels bring,
And in another make me understood.

Starres are poore books, & oftentimes do misse:
This book of starres lights to eternall blisse.


You can support Creative Commons Prayer by buying this design as a card on Zazzle or by purchasing related media on Amazon

The Complete Works of George Herbert (only $1 on Kindle!)

Sensing God: Reading Scripture with All of Our Senses by Roger Ferlo