40A*
A Call to Worship
After Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Year A 2017
Psalm 8

“O LORD, our LORD, your majestic name...” is so worthy of our thankful praise!
In awed praise, we each sing and praise our God for life’s many blessings!

“O LORD, our LORD...what are mere mortals that you should think about them...”
In utter amazement and wonder, we come to celebrate God’s creative love!

“O LORD, our LORD, your majestic name fills the earth. Your glory is higher than
the heavens...! We are blessed to be able to offer God our worship and praise!
In speechless and awed worship, we marvel at God’s holy presence with us,
as we contemplate all that God has given to us! We are all so very blessed! Amen.

---

Psalm 8

1 O LORD, our LORD, your majestic name fills the earth!
Your glory is higher than the heavens.
2 You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength,
silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.

3 When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
the moon and the stars you set in place—
4 what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?

5Yet you made them only a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honour.
6 You gave them charge of everything you made,
putting all things under their authority—
7 the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals,
8 the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
and everything that swims the ocean currents.
9 O LORD, our LORD, your majestic name fills the earth!

---

Prayers of Thankfulness and Praise
After Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Year A 2017
Psalm 8

“O LORD, our LORD, your majestic name...is higher than the heavens...” and in
utter amazement and wonder, we come together to celebrate God’s creativity
and generosity towards us all! We offer to God our personal and shared thanks
and praises, for all the gracious gifts of creation that so enhances our lives and
our living! Every day and night, we are surrounded by light and darkness; and
beauty that can only be described as being awesome, extravagant and inspiring!
Yet these physical experiences are only a minute example of the awesome and
holy majesty of God’s-Own-Self, and expressed in ways we can try to understand;
and to which we can only offer our own inadequate responses of thankful praise.

“O LORD, our LORD...what are mere mortals that you should think about them...”
and so we come to celebrate God’s creative love that is so worthy of our thankful
praise! Today, we come in awed astonishment as we gather to sing and praise
our God for all of life’s many blessings; and especially for the love God has made
known to us throughout our entire life, in ways we can believe in and appreciate.
The psalmist sang about God’s joy in humanity, singing that God “crowned them
with glory and honour...”; and yet O God, we know there have been many times
when we have not been glorious or honourable; and instead, have been weak and
open to manipulation by the forces of evil in this world. We know we have failed
to fulfil our God-given responsibility to take “...charge of everything you made...”
and to cherish these gifts you have entrusted to us. Forgive and renew us, we pray.

“O LORD, our LORD, your majestic name fills the earth. Your glory is higher than
the heavens...! We are so blessed to be able to offer God our worship; and so in
speechless and awed worship, we marvel at God’s Holy Presence with us, as we
contemplate all that God has given to us! We are all so very blessed by God’s glory
and grace that has been revealed to us through the splendour of God’s creativity!
We give thanks for the tangible signs God’s glory and grace; but also for the little
and intangible extras that God gifts us with that inspire creative sparks within our
own hearts, spirits and minds. We give thanks for your extraordinary gifts to us of
human compassion, generosity, forgiveness, love and grace; all gifts that displays
God’s own many graces and mercies, and which reveal to us insights into our God.
“...O LORD, our LORD, your majestic name fills the earth!” and we are called to allow
this gracious majesty and holy awe to shine through our lives and in all our living. Amen.

---

A Personal Meditation
After Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Year A 2017
Psalm 8

It seems that since the beginning of time, humanity has looked towards the heavens
and wondered about the patterns the sun, moon and stars make as they seem to move
across the skies. The author of Psalm 8 obviously also pondered about these things,
and his place in the universal scheme of things: “...When I look at the night sky and see
the work of your fingers - the moon and the stars you set in place - what are mere mortals
that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them..?” The
Psalms are usually considered to be from the 1000 BC era, although some are known to
be much older than that. Many archaeological discoveries have been dated many hundreds
of years earlier than that, with many of the most primitive calendars recording the assumed
movements of the sun and the moon across the sky; and the apparently varying patterns
the stars and planets make across the skies. Yet the ancient teachers and philosophers still
believed in a three-tiered structure of the earth, the lower level being the oceans that had
pillars to prop the earth as the next layer, and finally the over-arching dome of the heavens
as the third layer of creation. The psalmist declared as he addressed God: “...Your glory
is higher than the heavens...”, assuming that God’s throne was in the fourth unseen layer!



In that era, many of the ancient Canaanite religious beliefs were linked to the gods and
spirits whom people believed oversaw all the weather, be it rain or drought; the seasons
and even the tidal flows. Two weeks ago, I wrote about the part the god’s played in the
history of the people of Israel and the lingering importance to many people of the god
Baal; even whilst they professed to worship YHWH. We hear again about the influence of
Baal in 1 Kings 18: 18-40 and the holy battle between the prophet Elijah and the 450
prophets of Baal. Once again, astronomy and ancient superstitious beliefs had a large
influence on their day to day living, especially the rural workers of that time, as they looked
on the priests of the gods such as Baal as being the ‘educated’ people, and therefore to
be trusted. Prophets such as Elijah had a hard time convincing the people of Israel to
believe only in the One True God; and to celebrate and revere only that One God, YHWH.



The psalmist sang of the wonders of God, which even little children can and do accept as the
truth of God, but they are not interested in explanations or lengthy sermons which somehow
make them seem irrelevant, because they know that God made all things and loves them,
and that is quite all right with them! I know many people who would claim to have a ‘simple’
and ‘trusting faith’ in God, which in many instances are quite profound; and do not worry very
much about theological debates on the use of the ‘right’ words in Creeds; or even refuse to
repeat some sections of the Apostles’ or Nicene Creeds, because the words or theological
understandings mean very little to them. Is that wrong? Would you rather trust and believe
in the compassionate and forgiving God revealed to us in Jesus and not be bothered about
what is ‘right’ or ‘flawed’ beliefs? Or is this simply a matter of trusting between you and God?

---

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 8.
Used with permission.

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

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: pentecost1a_2017.pdf