61B*
A Call to Worship
After Pentecost 22B [Ordinary 29B] or [Proper 24B] 2018
Psalm 104: 1-9, 24, 35c

We come, “all that we are” – our body, mind and soul: to praise our Maker.
“…O LORD my God, how great you are! You are robed with…majesty…”

We come, “all that we are” – our relationships, commitments and capacities:
to sing our doxology of praise to God – who makes us and all things well.
“…O LORD my God, how great you are…You are dressed in a robe of light…”

We come, “all that we are” – our choices, convictions, emotions, frailties,
and failings: all of which makes us uniquely ourselves - to praise our God.
“…O LORD, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have
made them all. The earth is full of your creatures… Praise the LORD! Amen.

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Psalm 104: 1-9, 24, 35c

1 Let all that I am praise the LORD.
O LORD my God, how great you are!
You are robed with honour and majesty.
2 You are dressed in a robe of light.
You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens;
3 you lay out the rafters of your home in the rain clouds.
You make the clouds your chariot;
you ride upon the wings of the wind.
4 The winds are your messengers;
flames of fire are your servants.

5 You placed the world on its foundation so it would never be moved.
6 You clothed the earth with floods of water,
water that covered even the mountains.
7 At your command, the water fled; at the sound of your thunder, it hurried away.
8 Mountains rose and valleys sank to the levels you decreed.
9 Then you set a firm boundary for the seas,
so they would never again cover the earth.

24 O LORD, what a variety of things you have made!
In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures.
35c Praise the LORD!

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Prayers of Praise
After Pentecost 22B [Ordinary 29B] or [Proper 24B] 2018
Psalm 104: 1-9, 24, 35c

We come, “all that we are” – our body, our mind and our soul: to praise our Maker—
the Holy One, who has gifted us with our own body: with all its unique strengths
and weaknesses; with our diversity of size, shape and colour; and who has gifted
us with the blessings of our minds: with all their quirks and fanciful ideas, their wisdom
and experience, and their memories of joys and sorrows. And above all, we have
been gifted with our soul: that individual element within that so often determines the
people we are and how we respond to the LORD God our Maker; and the ways in
which we worship and praise our God; as expressions of who we are as God’s gifted
ones – people blessed with the personal knowledge of God in our life, living and loving.

We come, “all that we are” – our relationships, our commitments and with all our varied
capacities to praise our God, our Creator, Sustainer and Liberator. We are so blessed
to have so many relationships that we have inherited; relationships that are as dear to
us as our breath; and relationships of various depths that all add to the joy of life and
living. We praise our God that we can make commitments of our time, intellect, graces,
and our life experiences that are valuable to worthy causes and community well-being.
We especially praise our God for our unique capacities, that training, those skills, and
that giftedness in creativity, planning, design or management; all of which can be offered
to God as a crescendo of praise and thankfulness for God’s creative generosity to us.

We come, “all that we are” – our choices, our convictions, our many faceted emotions;
our frailties and failings: all of which makes us uniquely ourselves - to praise our God.
We praise our God for the gift of choices, which we freely make – wisely or foolishly;
for our convictions that grow from informed thought or ignorance, but which are ours to
make; for our emotions that vary from eruption to serenity; from rage to quiet approval.
We give special thanks for those gifts that make us so deeply human – our frailties and
failings; and we give thanks that God mercifully forgives us our confessed faults and sin.
“…O LORD, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all.
May I: “…sing to the LORD as long as I live. I will praise my God to my last breath!
May all my thoughts be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD…. Praise the LORD!” Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
After Pentecost 22B [Ordinary 29B] or [Proper 24B] 2018
Psalm 104: 1-9, 24, 35c

Do you still sing a Doxology as part of your worship liturgy? A Doxology is described
as being a formula that offers the opportunity to worship God by a community of faith
singing a hymn praising God. The traditional Doxology is the last verse Thomas Ken’s
hymns: “Glory to thee, my God this night, for all the blessings of the light…”,¹ and
“Awake, my soul, and with the sun thy daily stage of duty run…”² The closing verse
for both these hymns are the all inclusive recognition of God - the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit: “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, praise God, all creatures here
below, praise God above, you heavenly host, praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.³ Of
course, there are many doxological hymns in all the various hymn publications, but the
sole purpose of these hymns and songs is for people to share together in praising God.



Psalm 104 is a doxological psalm of praise to the LORD God - the Creator and in verse 1
the Creator of all things is immediately acknowledged: “Let all that I am praise the LORD.
O LORD my God, how great you are..!” When we think about the words: “…all that I am…”
that is very inclusive of every element of who we are; our body with its mind, soul, intellect,
emotions, frailties and failings; together with all our relationships, choices, commitments,
convictions and capacities. All of those things that make us who we uniquely are centred
on praising God! As Professor Walter Brueggemann writes about Psalm 104: “…The
inventory of verses 2-23 moves from the largest elements of creation to the most concrete
and particular. It begins with the three-storied world that is conventionally assumed in the
ancient texts, the heavens (vv.2-4), the earth (vv.5-9), and the waters under the earth
(vv.10-13)…“you stretched out the heavens (v. 2); you set the earth on its foundations (v.5);
you make the springs to gush forth in the valley (v.10)….The divine name is uttered in
verse 1 and again in verse 24 at the conclusion … It is gladly referred back to YHWH on
whom the singing community is focused…”⁴ Not included in today’s selected verses are
important faith statements in verses 33 and 34 : “…I will sing to the LORD as long as I live.
I will praise my God to my last breath! May all my thoughts be pleasing to him, for I rejoice
in the LORD.” May we each of us always rejoice in all that the LORD God is, was, and will be.



After the poetic expressions of Psalm 104 and the simplicity of the language of traditional
and ancient “Doxology”; we turn to contemporary hymn writers such as New Zealand’s
Colin Gibson with his hauntingly beautiful hymn: “Nothing is lost in the breath of God, nothing
is lost forever…”;⁴ or Australia’s Elizabeth J Smith’s descriptive hymn of praise to God:
“Where wide sky rolls down and touched red sand, where sun turns to gold the grass of the
land, let spinifex, mulga and waterhole tell their joy in the One who made everything well.
Where rain-forest calm meets reef, tide and storm, where green things grow lush and oceans
are warm, let every sea-creature and tropical bird exult in the light of the life-giving Word.…”⁵
Whether our personal preference is for traditional or contemporary expressions of singing
praises to God, verse 24 sums up the extraordinary extravaganza of God’s creativity thus:
“…O LORD, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all…
Praise the LORD!” as God’s Holy Name and God’s-Own-Creative-Self is joyfully celebrated!



1 From “The Australian Hymn Book” #468
“Glory to thee, my God this night”
Words by Thomas Ken
Words are in the Public Domain

2 From “Together in Song” #557
“Awake my soul, and with the sun”
Words by Thomas Ken
Words are in the Public Domain

3 From “Together in Song” #768
“Praise God, from whom all blessings flow”
Words by Thomas Ken
Words are in the Public Domain

4 From “Songs for a rainbow people”
“Nothing is lost on the breath of God”
© 1994 Words & music by Colin Gibson
Used with personal permission

5 From “Together in Song” #188
"Where wide sky rolls down"
© Words by Elizabeth J Smith
Used with personal permission.

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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:
© 2018 Joan Stott –‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year B. Based on verses from Psalm 104.
Used with permission.

joanstott16@gmail.com
www.thetimelesspsalms.net

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