At the beginning of 2016, the Society of Historical Poets composed a list of the ten greatest poems ever written. From the greatest to the least were the following: (1) “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare (1564-1616), (2) “Holy Sonnet 10: Death: be Not Proud” by John Donne (1572-1631), (3) “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth (1770-1850), (4) “A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth (1770-1850), (5) “On His Blindness” by John Milton (1608-1674), (6) “The Tiger” by William Blake (1757-1827), (7) “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats (1795-1821), (8) “Ozymandias” by Percy Byshess Shelley (1792-1822), (9) “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), and (10) “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost (1874-1963).
Immediately upon reviewing the list, my mind took another one of those departures to another place, and I thought, “Hmmm? Many of these could serve as good sermon titles and with a little Biblical research, I know we could preach on: “The Road Not Taken,” “The Blindness,” and a “Psalm of Life.” Being that I am a graduate of the famous Crispus Attucks High School, I could have preached about “The Tiger” and focused on the perseverance and godliness of many great men and women who came out of this school and how the Lord saw then through. You tend to take such departures when you are constantly looking through a God-conscious prism.
I took yet another detour which really could be a source of debate and asked, “Why isn’t there any works of African American poets such as Rita Dove, Claude McKay, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes and other famous and contemporary Black poets?” And where are the poems of Asian-American poets like Jane Wong and Monica Younn?” The Society putting their list together, by their own admission, left off many great poems and the great poets who composed them. Perhaps they were not considered “classical” enough. Well if “classical” has any association with the word “old,” the society missed the greatest poem of all, regardless of what they set as the selection criteria. The greatest poem that they missed was written centuries before the dates associated with the list they provided! The author was David and he wrote words as inspired by God in Psalm 1. And the best thing about this poem, which should be rated #1, is that it is applicable for men and women of every decade, generation, and cannot be bound by any time in history. One will never get tired of reading it or reciting it because of its real value. So, I will publish it in this meditation from the King James Version for your edification today. Read it, respond to it, and be really blessed!
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Still committed to the climb,
Dr. Mark L. King