64B*
A Call to Worship
After Pentecost 24B [Ordinary 31B] or [Proper 26B] 2018
Psalm 146

God of hope and God of glory, we gather today to sing our praises to God!
God of unmeasurable compassion and care: we gather now to praise you!

God of patience and God of joy, we gather to offer you our reverent prayers!
God of unequalled powers of comfort and peace: we gather to worship you!

God of faith and God of mercy, we gather together in shared fellowship; and
to discover more about the Eternal One; whom we worship with all our being.
God of unchartered depths of love and grace, of mercy and forgiveness; we
gather to rejoice in our Gracious and Holy God; and to offer you our thanks. Amen.

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Psalm 146

1 Praise the LORD!
Let all that I am praise the LORD.
2 I will praise the LORD as long as I live.
I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.

3 Don’t put your confidence in powerful people;
there is no help for you there.
4 When they breathe their last, they return to the earth,
and all their plans die with them.

5 But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper,
whose hope is in the LORD their God.
6 He made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them.
He keeps every promise forever.
7 He gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry.

The LORD frees the prisoners.
8 The LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are weighed down.
The LORD loves the godly.
9 The LORD protects the foreigners among us.
He cares for the orphans and widows, but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.

10 The LORD will reign forever. He will be your God, O Jerusalem,
throughout the generations. Praise the LORD!

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Prayers of Praise
After Pentecost 24B [Ordinary 31B] or [Proper 26B] 2018
Psalm 146

God of hope and God of glory, we gather together today to sing our praises to God!
We celebrate for this opportunity to offer God our praises with joy and with thankful
hearts and minds as a shared sacrifice on the altar of God’s love. God of unmeasured
compassion and care: we gather now to acknowledge that we will never understand
or properly appreciate the quality and quantity of God’s involvement with humanity and
all of creation; yet we do offer you our heart-felt praises. We praise God too, for the
reassurance that God “…keeps every promise forever…”; and that at the heart of God—
there is only love, mercy, grace and forgiveness. Praise be to God, who reigns forever!
“God of mercy, God of grace, shine upon us…shine, and fill your church with light divine…”¹

God of patience and God of joy, we gather to offer you our reverent prayers, confident
in the hope and belief that God hears and answers our prayers of petition; and accepts
our thanks and praises. God of unequalled powers of comfort and peace: we gather to
worship you: because you offer us forgiveness for our confessed sin; and in addition,
you offer each of us your healing grace when we are vulnerable, alone, weary or grieving.
“…Let the people praise you, LORD! Be by all that live adored; let the nations shout and
sing glory to their Saviour King; at your feet their tribute pay, and your holy will obey…”¹

God of faith and God of mercy, we gather together in shared fellowship; and to discover
more about the Eternal One, whom we worship with all our being – body, mind, strength
and soul. God of unchartered depths of love and grace, of mercy and forgiveness - we
gather to rejoice in our Gracious and Holy God; and to offer you our sincere thanks for the
many blessings you have showered upon us. We praise you for family and friendly love;
for the joy of healthy relationships; and for the freedom to together worship you in our familiar
sanctuary. We celebrate in hope the Eternal God, who has promised us to reign forever.
“…Let the people praise you, LORD! Earth shall then its fruit afford; God to us his blessing
give…your saving health extend…we to God devoted live…one in joy and light and love…”¹ Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
After Pentecost 24B [Ordinary 31B] or [Proper 26B] 2018
Psalm 146

Psalm 146 opens with a loud burst of praise, which joyfully celebrates the psalmist’s
relationship with the LORD God: “Praise the LORD! Let all that I am praise the LORD.
I will praise the LORD as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God with my dying
breath…” Professorial brothers Rolf and Karl Jacobson writing about the psalms and
to introduce the chapter “Who is the King of Glory?” write thus: “The psalms are about
life. But even more so, the psalms are about the life of faith. They are about life in
relationship with God, about life in the midst of God’s good-but-fallen creation, about
life in the midst of God’s good-but-sinful people…the psalms consistently assert that
God does see, God does hear, God does perceive, and God does act…” The psalmist
urges us not to “…put your confidence in powerful people…”. It is a waste of time!



“…The psalms maintain, again and again, that God is the active agent in the world.
God answers prayers, God is at work, guiding history toward a final chapter that
God has authored. At times this means that God intervenes in history in order to
accomplish what the psalms often call God’s ‘wondrous works’…” Those ‘wondrous
works’ include: “…the LORD…keeps every promise forever. He gives justice to the
oppressed and food to the hungry. The LORD frees the prisoners. The LORD opens the
eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are weighed down. The LORD loves the
godly. The LORD protects the foreigners among us. He cares for the orphans and
widows…”² The reality of those promises were all realised and completed by Jesus.



The psalmist was quite blunt in his understanding of God’s reaction to the collective
wickedness and evil in the world; and individually in human hearts and minds, the
LORD God: “…frustrates the plans of the wicked…” “…But God’s activity in the world
is not always disruptive. God’s interventions are not always in the midst of crisis for
the purpose of making a major course correction. The psalms also affirm activities
such as blessings, forgiveness, and covenant keeping as actions God regularly takes.
God’s blessing activities are powerful actions whereby God transfers his own power
into another party for the sake of life…In forgiveness, God re-knits a relationship that
has been torn in half. God restores community and thus provides a means by which
relationships can thrive…”³ “…joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their
helper, whose hope is in the LORD their God…The LORD will reign forever. He will be
your God, O Jerusalem, throughout the generations. Praise the LORD!” Amen and Amen!



1 From “Together in Song” #452
“God of mercy, God of grace”
© Words by Henry Francis Lyte
Words are in the Public Domain

2 Text by Professors Rolf A & Karl N Jacobson From “Invitation to the Psalms –
a readers guide for discovery & enlightenment” © 2013 Chapter 6, Page 149,
Baker Academic, a Division of Baker Publishing Group
Grand Rapids MI 49516-6287, USA

3 ibid Chapter 6, Page/s 172/3

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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 146.
Used with permission.

joanstott16@gmail.com
www.thetimelesspsalms.net

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: pentecost24[31]b_2018.pdf