01B*
A Call to Worship
Advent 1B 2017
Psalm 80: 1-7, 17-19

As we come to God: “A cry is heard in the wilderness…your people are stumbling…
“O that you would tear the heavens asunder! Come down to us, O God…come…”¹

As we come crying out: “…O God, how long must we wait to see your face and live…?
O that you would tear the heavens asunder! Come down to us, O God…come…”¹

We come in tears because of our pain: “...tears are falling in barren, trembling hearts…
how we long for you, your presence is all we desire…O hear your people’s cry…
O that you would tear the heavens asunder! Come down to us, O God; comfort your
people, come, be with us… Come down to us…come…your presence is all we desire…”¹

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Psalm 80: 1-7, 17-19
For the choir director: A psalm of Asaph,
to be sung to the tune “Lilies of the Covenant.”

1 Please listen, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph’s descendants
like a flock. O God, enthroned above the cherubim, display your radiant glory
2 to Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh.
Show us your mighty power. Come to rescue us!
3 Turn us again to yourself, O God. Make your face shine down upon us.
Only then will we be saved.
4 O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies, how long will you be angry with our prayers?
5 You have fed us with sorrow and made us drink tears by the bucketful.
6 You have made us the scorn of neighbouring nations.
Our enemies treat us as a joke.
7 Turn us again to yourself, O God of Heaven’s Armies.
Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.

17 Strengthen the man you love, the son of your choice.
18 Then we will never abandon you again.
Revive us so we can call on your name once more.
19 Turn us again to yourself, O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies.
Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.

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Prayers of Lament and Petition
Advent 1B 2017
Psalm 80: 1-7, 17-19

We come to you, O God, with a lament over our situation of isolation and separation
from God, because we: “…Your people are stumbling in darkness, and tears are
falling in barren hearts, the broken pray for their wounds to be healed, O hear your
people’s cry...” In the wilderness of our pain and despair, we come now to the Holy One,
whom “…No eye has seen and no ear has heard of One whose glory compares with
yours…”¹ asking that God will do something drastic to restore our relationship again:
“…Come down to us, O God; comfort your people, come, be with us …your presence
is all we desire…”¹ so that we may again hear your words of healing grace and mercy.

As we come crying out: “…O God, how long must we wait to see your face and live…?
O that you would tear the heavens asunder! Come down to us, O God…come…”¹ our
cries and needs are just as relevant today as those were of those original people so
many centuries ago. We can’t help but feel that maybe God is not hearing our prayers;
or that we don’t pray the right words, or that our worship is not sincere enough to register
with God! Perhaps God does not care about us anymore, and whether we are faithful or
not to God; yet our past experiences of God assures us that cannot be so! The God we
worship is compassionate and holy, generous and gracious towards us – whoever we are
and whatever are our circumstances. We need to hold on to that and trust always in God.

We come in tears because of our pain: “...tears are falling in barren, trembling hearts…
how we long for you, your presence is all we desire…O hear your people’s cry…
O that you would tear the heavens asunder! Come down to us, O God; comfort your
people, come, be with us… Come down to us…come…your presence is all we desire…”¹
We come to you, Caring God, longing for some evidence of your presence with us to help
us through this crisis of faith. We long for your nearer presence with us; to feel your arms
of love embracing and supporting us through this trauma. We feel like the psalmist as he
prayed in Psalm 31: “O LORD, I have come to you for protection; don’t let me be disgraced.
Save me, for you do what is right. Turn your ear to listen to me; rescue me quickly. Be my
rock of protection, a fortress where I will be safe. You are my rock and my fortress…”² It is
because you are our Rock and Fortress, that we cling to you for security and signs of hope.
“…the LORD protects those who are loyal to him… all you who put your hope in the LORD..!² Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Advent 1B 2017
Psalm 80: 1-7, 17-19

Sometimes the set Lectionary Psalm and the Old Testament reading are so aligned
that the links cannot be ignored – as are the Lectionary readings for this week, as
Isaiah 64: 1-9 shows: “Oh that you would burst from the heavens and come down!
How the mountains would quake in your presence! As fire causes wood to burn and
water to boil, your coming would make the nations tremble….Don’t be so angry
with us, LORD. Please don’t remember our sins forever. Look at us, we pray, and
see that we are all your people….” Today, we place our pleas beside the three-times
refrain in verses 3, 7, and 19. “…Turn us again to yourself, O God. Make your face
shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved....” For the first plea, God is named
as “O God”; the second plea as “O God of Heaven’s Armies”; and in the final plea
God is named as: “LORD God of Heaven’s Armies”; as the intensity of their situation
pressed more heavily down on that community. The “Sermon Brainwave” podcast refers
to this as Israel’s “impatient waiting” or their “desperate longing” for God to again act.



This communal prayer for God to hear their prayers and act is described by Professor
Rolf Jacobson thus: “Three verbs dominate the refrain: restore, shine, and save. The
psalm exploits a dual meaning of the first word. In the refrain, the word means "restore",
and is a plea that God would change the circumstances of the people. But in v. 14, the
word means "turn," or "repent"; and is a plea for God to change God's will concerning
the people's situation. The poetic play on these two meanings of the word amounts to
a faith assertion by the community - the solution to the people's situation rests in the
heart of God. The people cannot change their own circumstances, but God can - simply
by willing that the situation be reversed….” “Restore, shine, and save us” – what a prayer!



The theme for the first Sunday in the Advent Season is “HOPE”, and when personally in
a situation of desperate need, utter helplessness and longing, I have repeatedly found
how the words of hymns express so well the hope I have for changed circumstances; and
my yearning for God’s guidance and blessing. One example that was very special to me
have been these words: “Guide me, O thou great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren
land; I am weak, but thou art mighty; hold me with thy powerful hand…”³ My situation was
indeed barren in those times; and the psalmists description of my neediness is summed
up well when he prayed: “… You have fed us with sorrow and made us drink tears by the
bucketful..!” But God did smile on me and blessed me from the rich bounty found in the
sanctuary of God’s mercy and the blessedness of God’s healing grace to turn us around.



1 From “Comfort my people” CD track 3
“O that you would tear the heavens asunder!”
Words and music by Sister Monica Brown
© 2002 Monica Brown & Emmaus Productions
Used with personal permission

2 Psalm 31: 1-2, 24 (NLT)

3 From “Together in Song” #569
“Guide me, O thou great Redeemer"
© Words by William Williams (alt)
Words are in the Public Domain

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Acknowledgements:
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation,
copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

*Revised Indexing Scheme from 'Consultation on Church Union' (COCU).

I acknowledge and give heartfelt thanks for the theological help and inspiration so frequently available from the writings of Professor Walter Brueggemann and Professorial brothers Rolf and Karl Jacobson; and the resources from "The Text this Week" (Textweek).

If the Prayers and/or Meditation are used in shared worship, please provide this acknowledgement:
© 2017 Joan Stott –‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year B. Based on verses from Psalm 80.
Used with permission.

jstott@netspace.net.au
www.thetimelesspsalms.net

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: advent1b_2017.pdf