47B*
A Call to Worship
After Pentecost 8B [Ordinary 15B] or [Proper 10B} 2018
Psalm 85: 8-13

Communicating God: We come to hear God’s living words of grace to us.
We come, because God lovingly listens to our prayers and answers them.

Most Generous God: We come to give thanks for God’s great mercy to us.
We come, because we are blessed through God’s presence with us always.

Peace-gifting God: We come to be blessed by God’s peace; and to then
bless each other as we worship, praise and pray to our God - the Holy One.
We come, because God “…speaks peace to his faithful people…” and God’s
“…unfailing love and truth…” helps us lead lives that are pleasing to our God. Amen.

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Psalm 85: 8-13
For the choir director: A psalm of the descendants of Korah

8 I listen carefully to what God the LORD is saying,
for he speaks peace to his faithful people.
But let them not return to their foolish ways.
9 Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
so our land will be filled with his glory.

10 Unfailing love and truth have met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed!
11 Truth springs up from the earth,
and righteousness smiles down from heaven.
12 Yes, the LORD pours down his blessings.
Our land will yield its bountiful harvest.
13 Righteousness goes as a herald before him,
preparing the way for his steps.

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Prayers of Thankfulness and Confession
After Pentecost 8B [Ordinary 15B] or [Proper 10B} 2018
Psalm 85: 8-13

Communicating God: today we come to hear again God’s living words of grace to us all—
and because we trust God to listen to our prayers and to answer them in ways that fulfil
God’s plan for creation. We give thanks for God’s gracious promises to us, and for the
gift of hope and trust that God’s love is greater than our own sinfulness. We confess that
there are times when we fail to understand that God calls us to ‘righteousness’, and that
we often struggle to understand what that really means to and for us. We confess that
even though we have committed ourselves to a trusted relationship with God, that our
living and loving do not always bear witness to that commitment. We give thanks for your
gifted people who provide us with answers to help us deal with life’s challenging questions;
and who encourage us to live our lives in ways that are pleasing to God, the Holy One.

Most Generous God: we come to give thanks for God’s great mercy to us; and we give
thanks because we are blessed through God’s presence that is always with us. The
long-ago psalmist guides us with our daily living and loving by reminding us that God’s
“…Unfailing love and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed!
Truth springs up from the earth, and righteousness smiles down from heaven. Yes, the
LORD pours down his blessings…” We confess that we do not live each day in ways that
please God; that our love often fails; and that we bend the truth to suit ourselves and our
lifestyle. LORD, we ask for mercy: “…Dear LORD and Father…forgive our foolish ways; re-
clothe us in our rightful mind: in purer lives thy service find, in deeper reverence, praise…”¹

Peace-gifting God: we come to be blessed by God’s peace; and to then bless each other
as we worship, praise and pray to our God. Today we come, because God “…speaks peace
to his faithful people…” and God’s “…unfailing love and truth…” helps us lead lives that are
pleasing to our God. We come to confess that our minds often become distracted when we
pause to pray or meditate; that our chosen priorities diminish our times of spiritual renewal;
and that often in the most significant times during shared worship, our minds are busy with
peripheral things. “…Drop thy still dews of quietness, till all our strivings cease; take from our
souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace… O still
small voice of calm…”¹ Loving God, forgive us our distracted minds; and our failures to be
still before God, and to be forgiven, blessed, renewed and encouraged in our faith journey. Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
After Pentecost 8B [Ordinary 15B] or [Proper 10B} 2018
Psalm 85: 8-13

I have written many times about the Hebrew word ‘hesed’, but Professorial brothers
Rolf and Karl Jacobson add fresh insights to what was God’s early and classic self-
disclosure to Moses: “…One way to approach the question of the theology of the
psalms is to come at the question in this way: ‘Is there one fundamental assumption
about God that all of the 150 poems of the Psalter share?’…We believe that the
Psalter as a whole assumes the basic conviction that Israel believed in ‘a God of
loving faithfulness’…The phrase ‘loving faithfulness’ actually translates a single Hebrew
word “hesed’. In the Old Testament, the word describes both God’s internal character
as well as the fundamental characteristics of God’s external actions…The importance
of this term, along with a small constellation of related terms, can be gleaned by an
examination of Exodus 34:6-7… The passage consists of one of the most ancient, creed-
like fragments from the Bible…from the earliest days of Israel’s relationship with the LORD…”²



The context of the Exodus text was God’s initiation of a covenantal relationship with
the people of Israel; which meant little to those people when Moses left them ‘for a
long time’ when he ascended the mountain to again meet with God. The people were
worried that they were without leadership, so they told Aaron that they needed a God
they could see, so they built a golden bull as their ‘new god’. God sent Moses back to
their camp to sort out the people again, and he then returned back up the mountain to
be with God again. (Exodus 32) “…Then the LORD came down in a cloud and stood
there with Moses; and he called out his own name, Yahweh. The LORD passed in front
of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The LORD! The God of compassion and mercy! I am
slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a
thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty
I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is
affected - even children in the third and fourth generations…”³ The term ‘God’s loving
faithfulness’ became Israel’s declaration that God was there for them - for the long haul.



If we accept the general concept that a generation is 30 years, God promised to lavish
love for one thousand generations, that is, approximately 30,000 years – in other words
God’s love for humanity and all of creation is beyond time’s limitations! So for you, which
are the most challenging of God’s promise made to Moses? “…I forgive iniquity, rebellion,
and sin…³ OR “…I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I
lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations…”³ I guess that your answer to that
question would depend on your current circumstances. I recently quoted one of Monica
Brown’s songs and her words fit this reading as well! “…to know the joy of being so dearly
loved…”⁴ and to know: “… it’s all simply a gift, when you know yourself, to be loved...”⁴
To be truly loved and fully known by God, and to realise that despite the ‘knowing” - there
is still God’s love freely offered to us - is surely some of life’s most precious of all blessings!



1 From “The Australian Hymn Book” #519
“Dear LORD and Father…”
Words by John Greenleaf Whittier - Words are in 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/s 151-153
Baker Academic, a Division of Baker Publishing Group Grand Rapids MI 49516-6287, USA

3 Exodus 34: 5-7 (NLT)

4 From CD “A Special Collection” Track 17
“Isn’t it beautiful to be loved?”
Words and music by Monica Brown
© 2000 Monica Brown & Emmaus Productions
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 85.
Used with permission.

joanstott16@gmail.com
www.thetimelesspsalms.net

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: pentecost8[15]b_2018.pdf