Today is Palm Sunday, the day on which Christians throughout the world celebrate the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem less than one week before His Crucifixion. For the occasion, I offer an excerpt from the poem "Palm-Sunday" by the Welsh poet Henry Vaughan (1622-1695) (thanks to thefunstons.com for making me aware of this poem):
Hark! How the children shrill and high
Hosanna cry.
Their joys provoke the distant sky
Where thrones and seraphim reply.
And their own angels shine and sing
In a bright ring:
Such young, sweet mirth
Makes heaven and earth
Join in a joyful symphony.
No doubt here Vaughan is alluding to Matthew 21:15-16:
But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant.
"Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him.
"Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read,
"'From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise'?" (NIV)
Actually, Matthew's account makes it clear that the event he describes took place some time after Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, perhaps not even on the same day. Nevertheless, I suppose we can allow Vaughan to exercise some poetic license in this situation, as he tries to evoke for us something of the joy of that great occasion that we celebrate today. Interestingly, the biblical passage that Vaughan alludes to in his poem contains a quotation to a line in another poem, Psalm 8 (verse 2 in the Septuagint, the Greek language version of the Old Testament that was current in Jesus' time). I wonder if that occurred to Vaughan...hmm. There is also an allusion ("their own angels shine and sing/In a bright ring") to Matthew 18:10: "See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven" (NIV).
And so, I wish all my readers a wonderful Palm Sunday.
Image of Henry Vaughan from poemhunter.com