45A*
A Call to Worship
Pentecost 3A [Ordinary 13A] or [Proper 8A] 2014
Psalm 13

Within our personal and shared isolation we ask: “Where are you, God, I can’t feel near?”
We come in faith and hope that God will hear our questions and will turn towards us.

Within our personal and shared distress we ask: “How long will you be gone far from me?”
We come, trusting in our past experiences of God, and look in anticipation of your love.

Within our faith and hope we ask: “Wherever you are, God, look on us all with love and
come near to us; so that we may grow in trust, that your unfailing love is confirmed for us?”
We come, to sing and celebrate the enduring and patient love of God, who knows our
fears and despair, and who answers our fear-filled questions in ways we can understand.
Together, we will rejoice and sing about the goodness and mercy of our Faithful God. Amen.

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Psalm 13
For the choir director: A psalm of David.

1 O LORD, how long will you forget me? Forever?
How long will you look the other way?
2 How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,
with sorrow in my heart every day?
How long will my enemy have the upper hand?
3 Turn and answer me, O LORD my God!
Restore the light to my eyes, or I will die.
4 Don't let my enemies gloat, saying, "We have defeated him!"
Don't let them rejoice at my downfall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love.
I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
6 I will sing to the LORD because he has been so good to me.

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Prayers of Lament and Petition
Pentecost 3A [Ordinary 13A] or [Proper 8A] 2014
Psalm 13

Faithful and Generous God, we come to worship you, even though we are filled with
questions, doubts and fears. We are disappointed that our sincere prayers have not
been answered; we have called on your name to act to bring change in this our troubled
world; and we have served you as best we can, yet people scorn and laugh at us.
Justice and mercy seem to be “dirty words” in most of our society, and no one seems
to care about the senseless violence and selfish greed that drives so many people’s
actions. Holy God, we are deeply troubled by all these experiences. When we call on
you to hear our prayers, it is as if you are deaf or far away from us, and so we have
become anxious about God’s apparent neglect of the world, God created in such love
with which to bless us all. Trustworthy God, come to us now, to reassure us of your
enduring love, and of your unfailing mercy towards people in need of your protection.

How long, O God, will we have to wait for an answer to our prayers? How long will it be
before we feel again the warmth of your abiding presence and your encouragement?
How long will it be before the light of your love and mercy is experienced again by your
faithful people. Yet, O God, it is because we have known your faithfulness and unfailing
love in the past that we hang on to our faith in you; that we wait with as much patience
as we can muster, to know the answers to our prayers. God of steadfast love, guide and
bless us through this waiting time, and help us to be truly faithful to you in our daily living.

Unchanging God, look with mercy on us if we are the cause of our shared distress and
our yearning for confirmation of your faithfulness. In faith and hope, we come together to
worship and thank you; to honour and praise your Holy Name; and to sing and celebrate
the enduring and patient love of God, who knows all our fears and our despair, and who
answers our fear-filled questions in ways we can understand. Together, we will rejoice
and sing about the goodness and mercy of our Faithful God, and we look in anticipation
for new signs of encouragement to help us in our worship, witness and service for you. Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Pentecost 3A [Ordinary 13A] or [Proper 8A] 2014
Psalm 13

I find waiting for something or someone a very difficult challenge, as I like
to know where I am going, and what I need to do next. If I am challenged
by an issue or a problem, after prayer and very careful thought about what
I believe is needed to achieve an agreed outcome, I like to act as quickly
as possible to bring that project to fulfilment. Yet, however carefully I pray
and plan; however diligently I research issues and community challenges—
that does not mean I am right! I have discovered this painful lesson several
times, and waiting for the “dust to settle” is especially hard, and can be very
isolating. I think the Psalmist felt something of this pain as he sang: “...How
long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every
day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand…?” Whilst “enemy” may
a strong word in my personal experiences, active negativity can wear away
patience, and even any hope for a better outcome! So, I need to learn the
secret of faithful waiting, of trusting waiting to allow the opportunity for growth
of new insights and discernment, as I wait on God for guidance and blessing.



In the silence and isolation of my waiting, it has been very easy to forget that
I do not wait alone. Because I initially received no answers to my prayers or
my meditations, it was very easy to imagine that God was not there beside me
in my waiting. After waiting with all the patience I could muster, with an active
hope that my waiting will not be in vain, it was amazing how many new blessings
awaited me just around the next corner of my life! At my age, you would think I
had learned a lesson or two about waiting and leaving God to open doors for me!
And what amazing doors they have been, which led into most unexpected and
unexplored horizons. The words of the Taizè chorus have been a blessing to me:
“Wait for the Lord: keep watch, take heart!”¹ So I am learning to patiently wait…



The tone of the Psalm changed after the anguish of isolation and waiting, and
the pain of apparent separation from God, and yet it proved to be the best long-
term result for the author. With a renewal of confidence in God and in his own
abilities, and a change of direction, he could sing: “... But I trust… I will rejoice…
I will sing…. because….” That was both the Psalmist’s and my own experiences!
I could again trust and accept the guidance I had been given; I could hope in the
new direction in my life; and I could finally leave the past behind, having learned
a lesson from it, because God had been so very good to me again, and yet again.



1 “Wait for the Lord…”
Words by Berthier Jacques
© Ateliers et Presses de Taizè Ltd
Used with Permission,
Word of Life International License #2425T

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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.

*Revised Indexing Scheme from 'Consultation on Church Union' (COCU).

I acknowledge and give heartfelt thanks for the theological inspiration available from the writings of Professor
Walter Brueggemann; and through the resources from the internet and “The Text this Week” (Textweek).

If the Prayers and/or Meditations are used in shared worship, please provide this acknowledgement:
© 2014 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year A. Used with permission.

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

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: pentecost3[13]a_2014.pdf

© 2014 Joan Stott - " The Timeless Psalms" RCL Psalm Year A