40C*
A Call to Worship
Pentecost 1C Trinity Sunday 2013
Psalm 8

“O Lord, our Lord, the majesty of your name fills the earth!
Your glory is higher than the heavens.” We gather to praise you!
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...”.¹

“O Lord, our Lord, the majesty of your name fills the earth!
Your glory is higher than the heavens.” We gather to celebrate you!
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...
And God saw that is was good…” We gather to celebrate our God.

“O Lord, our Lord, the majesty of your name fills the earth!
Your glory is higher than the heavens.” We gather to worship you!
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...
And God saw that is was very good…” We gather to worship our God!
All praise, honour, majesty and power belongs to our Creating God! Amen.

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Prayers of Praise
Pentecost 1C Trinity Sunday 2013
Psalm 8

Breath and Power of God, we gather this day to praise you
for the wonders of the works of your hands, that teach us so
much about our Creating God. Even as we gather together,
we wonder once again about the eternal question: “Who and I?”
“Who are we?”- that this our Amazing God thinks about us and
cares for each of us individually and collectively? From deep
within us, there is often a sense of being nothing and of being of
no worth before God. Yet we are God’s creation, both human and
divine, because of God’s holy presence within our inner beings.
How excellent is God’s name in all the earth and in all creation.

Creating God, we recognise how miraculously we have been
created, how wonderfully our bodies function day after day! As
human beings we are truly miracles of our God’s love and grace.
God, the Breath of Life itself, we come to praise you for the gift
of our life, and for the purpose in this life that God has given to us.
Our vocations as God’s children here on this planet Earth, are to
nurture and care for all God’s creation – but not only the animals,
the trees, waterways and the air we breathe – but for each other;
we are to care for and nurture our brothers and sisters in God. We
praise you our God, for giving us this mission to love and be loved.
How wonderful is God’s name in all the earth and in all creation.

Eternal and Everlasting God, we gather in our shared humanity to
be still before our God, in reverent awe and joy-filled praise; to join
in our songs and prayers of praise, because we know and believe
that we worship a God who also renews and restores that which we,
in our carelessness, have spoiled or destroyed. Once again, we gather
to celebrate our God, and to respond to that inner yearning we have
to be with God, and to be with each other as we share in worship—
and to offer who and what we are to God – in gratitude and praise.
How glorious is God’s name in all the earth and in all creation.
All praise, honour, majesty and power belongs to our Creating God! Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Pentecost 1C Trinity Sunday 2013
Psalm 8

Every time I read Psalm 8 and the words: “When I look at the night sky
and see the work of your fingers – the moon and the stars you have set
in place....” I am taken back to an incredible night in a rural area in Ghana
in West Africa. I was attending a conference there, and in those moments
of remote quietness, I looked up to the sky – to behold a miracle! I have
never, ever seen stars quite like that night sky. There was no moon, and all
around me was absolute stillness and uncounted numbers of stars. Seeing
such extravagant magnificence, who could fail to wholeheartedly believe in
a God that is absolute Love, Grace, Beauty, Peace, Mercy, Joy and Power.



In many ways for me, that particular journey and conference was quite life-
changing! As I travelled through that remote area to reach the venue for the
conference, I came to better understand the meaning of “community”. As my
driver and I travelled through that black darkness of the night, far off it the
distance, there was an occasional light. I eventually realised that the single
light was a focal point for a family or community to be together. Each of those
individual lights was the hub for community life. The yearning need for the light
as the central hub that gathered people together in harmony and community—
to and for each other - is a major God-given purpose for each of us in life. The
“Community” that is God, is the pattern for all life lived within a community. Each
of us are called to gather around that Light, that Hub, to learn from each other,
to share in our common life’s purpose – to know God and be known by our God.



I love the way many of the Old Testament writers knew the value of repetition,
to emphasise an important message. As I read the opening verse of Psalm 8,
I always marvel at its truth and beauty: “O Lord, our Lord, the majesty of your
name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens....” As I read through
that Psalm, I discover even more truth and beauty; and then I come again to that
same message! “...O Lord, our Lord, the majesty of your name fills the earth!
Your glory is higher than the heavens....” Those intervening words set the tone for
a final prayer of praise and thankfulness, with even greater meaning because by
then, I recognised my place, and each individual’s place, in God’s grand scheme.

¹ Genesis 1: 1, 4, 31 (NLT)

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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.

*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:
© 2013 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year C. Used with permission.

jstott@netspace.net.au

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