10A*
A Call to Worship
Epiphany 2A 2011
Psalm 40: 1-11

O God, you called us by name to come,
and we respond with delight and gladness
In joyful obedience,
we come to worship our God.

Rising out of the depths of despair,
we gratefully gather for worship.
In joyful hope,
we come to worship our loving God.

Our God had given us a new song
of praise to sing to our Awesome God!
In joyful trust,
we come to worship our God. Amen.

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Prayers of Praise
Epiphany 2A 2011
Psalm 40: 1-11

O Lord our God, we are gathered here to worship and
praise you, and in anticipation, to receive your words
of mercy in response to our cries for help and blessing.
Generous God, you have never let us down, and once
again, you have heard us and lifted us out of our despair.

Listening God, there are times when we feel that there is no
solid ground under us; when life seems to send us hurtling
down hill, and we have nothing to hold on to other than our
trust in you. We praise you that you are always there for us,
ready to hear our cries and to rescue us from our troubles.

Righteous God, day and night we are surrounded by things
that distract us, that seem to offer us easy answers to life’s
challenges, and things that invite us to look for other sources
of satisfaction in life. Loving God, through your mercy, you help
us to understand that we will find no lasting satisfaction in the
peripheral things of life – we discover these only through trusting in God,
and offering genuine acts of worship and praise to the One True God.

Holy God, we sing a new song of praise to you, as once
again, we make further new discoveries of God’s generosity
and love. As we come in trust to God in prayer, we are
amazed by the miraculous acts of grace God offers to us,
and we respond to God with glad songs of praise and joy.

Trustworthy God, as we worship and praise your holy name,
we seek reasurrance from you that your tender mercies will
continue to be with us, because we know that our only hope
in life, in health, in sickness, and in death, is in your unfailing
love and faithfulness towards us. Loving Lord, in your grace
and mercy, hear our prayers of praise and thankfulness. Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Epiphany 2A 2011
Psalm 40: 1-11

O Lord my God, my life seems to be one succession
after another of times spent in the depths of despair!
Just when I think I have found solid ground upon which
to stand, it moves again, and once more I am floundering!
I am waiting patiently, my God, hoping and trusting that
you can hear my cries for help, and that you will again
come to me, to take me by the hand and lead me to safety.



Just as I hoped and prayed, God did hear me, and took
my hand to lead me to security again. Every time this
happens to me, it is a new experience for me, and
another example of the many new things I have yet to
learn about my God. How amazing and miraculous is
my God! Whenever this happens, a new song bubbles
up within me, wanting to burst out of me in joy and praise!



It is only when I come in sincere worship and praise of my
great God, that I hear and learn what God really seeks from
me. Despite this, I must be very slow in understanding things
about God, because God is always teaching me new lessons
of life and living, and what it means to be trusting and faithful.



Slowly the message filters through my brain and into my
consciousness! God does not want garbled or gabbled
words of praise or elaborate or meaningless acts of worship!
What God wants from me is very simple! I need to honestly
and reverently offer all I am to God; to continue in the hope
that I have in God; and in obedience to God’s Holy Word;
and to trust in God’s goodness and mercy. It’s all so simple!

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Acknowledgements:
Unless stated otherwise, all Bible readings and extracts used in these weekly Prayers and Meditations are from
‘The New Revised Standard Version’ Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

*The additional weekly numbering is from the Revised COCU Indexing Scheme
COCU = ('Consultation on Church Union'); as it offers an easy sequential numbering
for the Revised Common Lectionary for the Church Calendar.

If any part of these Prayers and/or Meditations is used in shared worship, please provide
the following acknowledgement:
© 2011 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year A. Used with permission.

jstott@netspace.net.au

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: epiphany2a_2011.pdf

© 2011 Joan Stott - " The Timeless Psalms" RCL Psalm Year A