60A*
A Call to Worship
After Pentecost 19A [Ordinary 28A] or [Proper 23A] 2017
Psalm 106: 1-6, 19-23

Forgiving God: we come to worship you and give you thanks for your mercy.
“...Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever...”

Generous God: we come to celebrate the news that you forgive and bless us.
“...There is joy for those who deal justly with others and always do what is right...”

Gracious God: with joy-filled hearts and minds we come to thank and bless you
for your loving response to our confessions of sin; and your healing touch on us.
“...Who can list the glorious miracles of the LORD? Who can ever praise him
enough?... Let me rejoice in the joy of your people; let me praise you... LORD...” Amen.

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Psalm 106: 1-6, 19-23

1 Praise the LORD!
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
2 Who can list the glorious miracles of the LORD?
Who can ever praise him enough?
3 There is joy for those who deal justly
with others and always do what is right.
4 Remember me, LORD, when you show favour to your people;
come near and rescue me.
5 Let me share in the prosperity of your chosen ones.
Let me rejoice in the joy of your people;
let me praise you with those who are your heritage.
6 Like our ancestors, we have sinned.
We have done wrong! We have acted wickedly!

19 The people made a calf at Mount Sinai;
they bowed before an image made of gold.
20 They traded their glorious God
for a statue of a grass-eating bull.
21 They forgot God, their saviour,
who had done such great things in Egypt—
22 such wonderful things in the land of Ham,
such awesome deeds at the Red Sea.
23 So he declared he would destroy them.
But Moses, his chosen one, stepped between the LORD
and the people. He begged him
to turn from his anger and not destroy them.

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Prayers of Confession and Trust
After Pentecost 19A [Ordinary 28A] or [Proper 23A] 2017
Psalm 106: 1-6, 19-23

Forgiving God: we come to worship you and give you thanks for your mercy.
“...Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever...”
It is because of God’s faithful and trustworthy love that we have the courage
to make our confessions to God, and to ask for and claim God’s great gift of
forgiveness. We know that deep within our inner selves that we failed to be
faithful in our commitment to worshipping God; that we have failed to be true
to our committed relationships with other people; and that we have also failed
to love our neighbours. O God, in your mercy, hear our prayers and forgive us.

Generous God: we come to celebrate the news that you forgive and bless us.
“...There is joy for those who deal justly with others and always do what is right...”
We give thanks for the gift of joy we know, when being faithful to God’s holy way
of living; but we also give thanks for the unique gifts of regret and sorrow, when
we know we have failed God, our loved ones and ourself. We give thanks for the
special blessing of the gift of forgiveness, that renews and revitalises our faith
and trust in our God. Healing God, in your mercy, hear our prayers and forgive us.

Gracious God: with joy-filled hearts and minds we come to thank and bless you
for your loving response to our confessions of sin; and your healing touch on us.
“...Let me rejoice in the joy of your people; let me praise you... LORD...” We come
to you, LORD and God, to make confession of our secret sin; and for the way we
try to keep those failings to ourselves. We pray for the gift of a realistic knowledge
of ourselves; and the admission to ourselves of our own failed humanity. We also
pray that we will not allow the burden of guilt to diminish us in any way; and to
accept the blessing and renewal of God’s loving forgiveness. May we also learn
to forgive ourselves. Loving God, in your mercy, hear our prayers and forgive us. Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
After Pentecost 19A [Ordinary 28A] or [Proper 23A] 2017
Psalm 106: 1-6, 19-23

The ‘normal’ pattern for the psalms praising God usually commenced with a call to
praise God, then followed by the reason for that praise. For example in Psalm 106:
“Praise the LORD! Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures
forever...” The response from the people was that the faithfulness of God was shown
through God’s actions, with the linking word/s being “for” or “because of” God’s gracious
activity on their behalf. The psalmists asked two relevant questions: “...Who can list the
glorious miracles of the LORD? Who can ever praise him enough...?” One answer was
given: “...There is joy for those who deal justly with others and always do what is right...”
The psalm’s beginning appears to be both a shared and personal response; but when
we are already blessed by God, is it selfish to want to receive so much more from God?



At our Thursday group, we recently had a discussion on God’s “Kingdom Values” and
how they impact on our own lives; along with what are our own personal values. At a
significant time in my life, the personal value of fidelity was very important. Some of the
synonyms of ‘fidelity’ includes faithfulness, reliability, devotion, constancy, commitment,
honesty, loyalty, and trustworthiness – all of which are basic characteristics of God’s
“Kingdom Values”; which had often gone missing in the day-to-day life of the people of
Israel. Whilst we may not go to the extent of creating “...a statue of a grass-eating bull...”
made from the gold the people of Israel smuggled out of Egypt; we often replace God at
the centre of our life and living with something as equally inappropriate and as spiritually
destructive as did those Israelites. Thankfully, we each can pray: “My only hope is in God!”



Psalm 106 is different to the other “memory” or “historical” psalms, in that while it began
by praising God; it changed emphasis as to how Israel responded to God’s wonders and
miracles of God’s grace. This psalm highlighted Israel’s abject failure to be faithful to God!
Through Moses’ intervention, God acted to forgive and not to destroy the people of Israel.
Professor Walter Brueggemann wrote: “...The hope of prayer is that YHWH will intervene
in effective ways yet one more time exactly as the psalms says YHWH has regularly
intervened in the past when Israel has engaged in massive self-destruction... Israel has
done nothing in its long history to sustain its life with YHWH. And yet, for that very reason,
finally and yet again, Israel must entrust itself to YHWH’s long-suffering generosity.... The
long story of Israel, as remembered in Psalm 106, is a drama of refusal and dependence...”¹
This is also our hope and prayer, that despite our own “refusal and dependence”, that our
Gracious God will also generously forgive us of our sincerely repentant sin and failures!



1 Text by Professor Walter Brueggemann
from “From whom no secrets are hid”
Chapter 15, page 137
© 2014 Westminster/John Knox Press
Louisville Kentucky USA

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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 A. Based on verses from Psalm 106.
Used with permission.

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

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: pentecost19[28]a_2017.pdf