56A*
A Call to Worship
Pentecost 14A [Ordinary 24A] or [Proper 19A] 2014
Psalm 114

Holy God of the past, present and future, we celebrate your faithfulness.
We come to give thanks for our shared experiences of God’s goodness.

Abiding God, you have been our Guide, and we celebrate your presence.
We come to remember and give thanks for God’s many life-long blessings.

God, the Father of all peoples throughout all time, we celebrate your joyful
and inspirational involvement with your people from their birth to their death.
We come to worship and honour our God, who is the Father of all generations,
and whose presence amongst us delights and encourages our commitment. Amen.

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Psalm 114

1 When the Israelites escaped from Egypt –
when the family of Jacob left that foreign land –
2 the land of Judah became God's sanctuary,
and Israel became his kingdom.
3 The Red Sea saw them coming and hurried out of their way!
The water of the Jordan River turned away.
4 The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs!
5 What's wrong, Red Sea, that made you hurry out of their way?
What happened, Jordan River, that you turned away?
6 Why, mountains, did you skip like rams?
Why, little hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Israel.
8 He turned the rock into pools of water;
yes, springs of water came from solid rock.

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Prayers of Thankfulness
Pentecost 14A [Ordinary 24A] or [Proper 19A] 2014
Psalm 114

Holy God of the past, present and future, we celebrate your faithfulness—
and that we can trust in your constant and generous care of your people.
We give thanks that we can express our joy in your faithfulness with all
our creativity and imagination, so that with people of every age, we share
inspiration and delight in our God. Just as the Psalmist delighted in singing
that the waters hurried away from God’s holy presence and the mountains
and hills skipped with joy because of their Creator; so we too can sing and
celebrate with all of God’s saints: “...You shall go out with joy and be led
forth in peace, and the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing.
There’ll be shouts of joy, and the trees of the field shall clap, shall clap their
hands…”¹ We rejoice in God’s wonder and beauty, as we gladly celebrate
the majesty of God’s eternal commitment to all that God has ever created.

Abiding God, you have always been our Guide and Counsellor, and we
come to remember and give thanks for God’s many life-long blessings and
to give thanks and to celebrate your presence with us, and with all those
people who have gone before us. We also remember and give thanks for
the way we have come to know something of God’s-Own-Self through the
many great blessings that have transformed our lives. We give thanks for
the healing with which God has blessed us; for the defeat of sorrow and
mourning that has been turned into holy peace; and for the renewing powers
of God that have transformed so many broken lives and damaged relationships.

God, the Father of all peoples throughout all time, we celebrate your joyful
and inspirational involvement with all your people from birth to death; and
for all the events of our life, our living and our loving. We give thanks that
we have learned about loving because we are loved by God; that we know
about mercy and generosity because of God’s merciful generosity; and that
we understand forgiveness because God is a forgiving God. We come too,
to acknowledge and give awed thanks for the wonder and majesty of God’s
creative powers, so that even the hills and mountains tremble like little lambs
before their Creator; and the waters that are powerless before the will of their
Maker. Help us to never under-estimate or take for granted God’s glory, or of
God’s holy sovereignty over all creation! We humbly offer God our sincere thanks. Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Pentecost 14A [Ordinary 24A] or [Proper 19A] 2014
Psalm 114

At first glance, this amazing psalm seems to be a whimsical record
of Israel’s defining moments in history, and the way God guided and
blessed Israel’s peoples over countless generations. Throughout the
words of this psalm, all creation delights and celebrates God’s majestic
powers over creation with unlikely actions and patterns of behaviour.
Yet this psalm also has a very clear message that God’s purposes will
be fulfilled; that God is supreme over all that has been created; and that
when God chooses to act, God does become involved in the affairs of
people. The psalm also reminds us that as powerful and immovable as
mountains and hills appear to be, before God they are just dust; and
before God the mighty waters of creation are just a series of water drops.



“…The land of Judah became God's sanctuary, and Israel became his
kingdom…” In maps of Old Testament Palestine, Judah was the southern
kingdom and Israel the northern kingdom; and a “sanctuary” was a place
where God’s presence was especially experienced or a holy place, a place
to worship God. After Moses led the people of Israel out of their slavery in
Egypt, those two nations became the place where God’s presence was
experienced as where God reigned supreme with dominion over the region.
Later in Jewish religious history, a holy place of God’s presence was in
either the Tabernacle, or the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem.
In a different reference to “sanctuary”, history shows that in medieval times,
fugitives were often granted an immunity from arrest in a sacred place.
A sanctuary can also mean a quiet place of peace and rest in a busy world.



The Psalmist urged: “...Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at
the presence of the God of Israel..”. Professor Walter Brueggemann writes
in “The Message of the Psalms” thus: “...Psalm 114 is an invitation for each
new generation to participate in this world-transforming memory, to be
identified with the tradition and given life by it…... The psalm intends to
enhance Yahweh at the expense of all other gods (e.g. sea, river)… we
suggest that the psalm means to contrast Yahweh, the agent of freedom,
with every structure, agent , and power of the status quo. The psalm makes
available a radical reading of reality for those who want to join in. No part
of the world is in fact as it appears, for all of it must face the decisive
sovereignty of God, whose will it is for transformation.”² Considering the
current world situation, such a transformation brought about through the
return to worship and honouring of the One True God would be wonderful!



1 From “Together in Song” #755
You shall go out with joy (Trees of the field)
Words by Steffi Geiser Rubin
©1975 Lillenas Publishing Company
Used By Permission CCL Licence #221735

2 Text by Professor Walter Brueggemann
from “The Message of the Psalms”
[chapter 4 / page 143]
©1984 Augsburg Publishing House
Minneapolis MN 55440, USA

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Acknowledgements:
Unless stated otherwise, all Bible readings and extracts used in these weekly Prayers and
Meditations are from the ‘New Living Translation’, © 1996. Copyright. All rights reserved.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189 USA.

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

I acknowledge and give heartfelt thanks for the theological inspiration available from the writings of Professor
Walter Brueggemann; and through the resources from the internet and “The Text this Week” (Textweek).

If the Prayers and/or Meditations are used in shared worship, please provide this acknowledgement:
© 2014 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year A. Used with permission.

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

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: pentecost14[24]a_2014.pdf

© 2014 Joan Stott - " The Timeless Psalms" RCL Psalm Year A