45A*
A Call to Worship
After Pentecost 4A [Ordinary 13A] or [Proper 8A] 2017
Psalm 13

Merciful God, we cry out: “How long” and wring our hands in fretful anxiety.
We come in despair, because God seems so far away from all our troubles.

Pilgrim’s God, our self-centredness has narrowed our understanding of God.
We come in humility, seeking forgiveness for ever doubting God’s presence.

Nurturing God, despite our impatience and doubts, we come to worship and
praise our God; because God’s-Own-Self and Being always remains faithful.
We come to worship our God in thankfulness and praise, because God does
remain faithful and trustworthy, and is always filled with grace, love and mercy. 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 sparkle 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 is good to me.

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Prayers of Confession and Petition
After Pentecost 4A [Ordinary 13A] or [Proper 8A] 2017
Psalm 13

Merciful God, we come to worship you and to make our confessions for the way
we have failed to trust in you. We cry out: How long” and wring our hands over
and over in fretful anxiety; wondering all the time what we have ‘done’ to deserve
being treated in such a way! Today, we come to worship you whilst still wallowing
in despair, because God seems so far away from all our troubles. Generous God,
we know that faith, hope and trust in God does not work that way – yet sometimes
we still wonder! The ancient psalmist cried out: “...Turn and answer me, O LORD
my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes…” and we resonate with those cries.

Pilgrim’s God, our self-centredness has narrowed our understanding of our Loving
God; and our selfishness cannot move past our own struggles. We have allowed
our fears and doubts to overwhelm us, instead of taking those very same fears and
doubts and laying them on the altar of God’s merciful grace. We come in humility,
seeking forgiveness for ever doubting God’s presence with us that surrounds and
lifts us up above all that separated us from our Holy God. In quiet faith and trust, we
ask our God to reveal a new truth about God’s-Own-Self to us, so that with renewed
faith, hope and trust in God, we may more truly worship, praise and thank our God.

Nurturing God, despite our impatience and our many doubts, we come to worship and
praise our God in thankfulness and praise, because God does remain trustworthy and
faithful, and is always filled with grace, love and mercy. Even though our impatient cries
and prayers have echoes through the recent days and night, we have known to whom
we must go with these issues; even if we have some reluctance to admit that. Forgive
and renew us in love, trust, faith and hope – so that instead of being a victim of our own
foolishness; may we always be children of our Father’s grace and hope in this world. Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
After Pentecost 4A [Ordinary 13A] or [Proper 8A] 2017
Psalm 13

The Psalms are very honest expressions of faith, hope and trust, but also of deep
outpourings of despair, anguish, anger and grief! Psalm 13 seems to fit almost all
those outpourings of emotion and all are directed towards God! I did a random
search in the Psalms for some more of those expressions – and in my own words
they plead: “come closer and listen to me, God”; “come to me now, God”; “help and
bless me, God”; “where has all your loving-kindness gone, God?”; “don’t hide from
me, God”; "don’t push me away, God as I need you - now!” And in today’s psalm:
“O LORD, how long will you forget me? Forever?...” David, the attributed author of
this psalm, is described in both the Old and New Testaments as having “...found
favour in the sight of God...”,¹ yet it appears that he dared to be critical of God’s
failure to fulfil God’s-Own-Self’s responsibilities – or even God’s ‘job description’!



The psalmist was experiencing isolation and separation from God, believing that
God had let him down; yet he still believed that God was central to his life and being.
Because of that separation, his entire life was out of balance. The very descriptive
words used to express his feelings are “struggle”, “anguish of the soul”; "sorrow of
the heart”; “gloating enemies” and “downfall.” It seems almost as if the psalmist felt
the need to motivate God to act; so he gave God several reasons why God should
take some action, suggesting that with the psalmist’s enemies “gloating” over God’s
failures, that it would damage God’s reputation in the world! The psalmist longed
for some sense of consistency from God; because when his relationship with God
was under threat his personal world was damaged; but also, he believed that the
rest of the world was out of balance with its Creator – hence his ‘gloating enemies’!
When we protect God’s ‘reputation’ is it because of our faithlessness or faithfulness?



The psalm concludes thus: “..But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because
you have rescued me. I will sing to the LORD because he is good to me.” Once again,
God was present and active to him and his own world was balanced again. Professor
Walter Brueggemann wrote about this apparent ‘about-face’: “…In part, the lament
is a cry of desperation…But characteristically the entire sequence complaint-petition-
motivation is to be understood as an act of faithfulness. That act is premised on the
reliability and accessibility of God, on a vision of the way the world is supposed to be
and is not....”² Those times of struggle and feeling of isolation from God can be helpful
or destructive, all depending on the ‘health’ of our faith, hope and trust in God’s mercy.



1 Acts: 7: 46a (NLT)

2 Text by Professor Walter Brueggemann
“The Psalms and the Life of Faith”
Chapter 3, page 71
©1995 Augsburg Publishing House
Minneapolis MN 55440, USA

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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:
© 2017 Joan Stott –‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year A. Based on verses from Psalm 13.
Used with permission.

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

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: pentecost4[13]a_2017.pdf