48C*
A Call to Worship
After Pentecost 9C [Ordinary 16C] or [Proper 11C] 2016
Psalm 52

We come to worship God as individuals, and also as a community of faith.
With joy we declare to each other: “...I will always trust in God’s unfailing love…”

We come to praise God, so we may grow in grace through our shared worship.
We vow together: “...I will praise you forever, O God, for what you have done…”

We come together to celebrate our Faithful God, because it is in the sharing
of worship and praying for each other that we find our home in God’s presence.
Here in this shared sacred space and in fellowship with God’s people we say:
“…I will trust in God’s good name in the presence of your faithful people…” Amen.

Psalm 52
For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time
Doeg the Edomite said to Saul, “David has gone to see Ahimelech.”

1 Why do you boast about your crimes, great warrior?
Don’t you realize God’s justice continues forever?
2 All day long you plot destruction.
Your tongue cuts like a sharp razor; you’re an expert at telling lies.
3 You love evil more than good and lies more than truth. Interlude
4 You love to destroy others with your words, you liar!

5 But God will strike you down once and for all.
He will pull you from your home and uproot you from the land of the living. Interlude
6 The righteous will see it and be amazed. They will laugh and say,
7 “Look what happens to mighty warriors who do not trust in God.
They trust their wealth instead and grow more and more bold in their wickedness.”

8 But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God.
I will always trust in God’s unfailing love.
9 I will praise you forever, O God, for what you have done.
I will trust in your good name in the presence of your faithful people.

Prayers of Petition and Trust
After Pentecost 9C [Ordinary 16C] or [Proper 11C] 2016
Psalm 52

We come together to worship the God of the Ages and to acknowledge our own
dependency on God’s guidance and blessings. With joy we declare to each other:
“...I will always trust in God’s unfailing love…” because we have received and have
accepted God’s holy love into the very core of our beings. In gratitude to God for our
many blessings, we pause to reflect on and pray for people who do not know of,
or receive the kind of love that is kind or generous, and who only know the violence
and pain associated with rejection and abuse. We pray for children caught in the tangle
of domestic violence; bullying or neglect; and who are so desperately in need of
accepting love. In trust, we commit all these damaged people to God, praying that
appropriate resources and care will become available to them, so that they may learn
what it means to be loved; and may we each do our share by offering our acceptance.

We come to praise the Lord our God, so that in shared worship, we may grow in grace
and in the knowledge and love of God, and of Jesus the Beloved Son. As we worship
we vow together: “...I will praise you forever, O God, for what you have done…” for us
and for all of creation. In gratitude to God for our many blessings, we pause to reflect
on and pray for people who are homeless; for people whose family lives are torn apart
through violence; unemployment or poverty; and who do not have access to the any
resources to enable their lives to be changed. Loving God, guide and challenge us to
be able to listen and learn ways of being God’s advocates for change in people’s lives.

Faithful God whose unfailing love is poured out on all who will receive it, we come to
worship and praise you this day for all you have done in our lives, and in the
lives of those we love. We offer our sincere thanks, that we in partnership with God’s
people can joyfully sing: “…I will trust in God’s good name in the presence of your
faithful people…” We give thanks to God for teaching us what true love is all about; and
for the privilege of praying for people who are distressed or in need; for people who are
the victims of greed, or who have been taken advantage of by unscrupulous people; or
by people in the management of unethical organisations or companies. Today, here in
this our shared, sacred space and in fellowship with God’s people we pray: Lord have
mercy on us when we have failed to serve your needy people; and guide us in serving
you and your creation with the all gifts and graces with which you have so blessed us. Amen.

A Personal Meditation
After Pentecost 9C [Ordinary 16C] or [Proper 11C] 2016
Psalm 52

Psalm 52 is another unusual psalm which requires much thought - and also some
background reading! Professor Walter Brueggemann suggests that people should
read 1 Samuel 21 and 22 for this psalm’s background. See below Isaiah 22: 16-19
as an example similar to Psalm 52 of prophetic judgment to an evil opponent: “...Who
do you think you are, and what are you doing here, building a beautiful tomb for
yourself - a monument high up in the rock? For the LORD is about to hurl you away,
mighty man. He is going to grab you, crumple you into a ball, and toss you away
into a distant, barren land. There you will die, and your glorious chariots will be
broken and useless. You are a disgrace to your master! ‘Yes, I will drive you out
of office,’ says the LORD. ‘I will pull you down from your high position...’” In Psalm 52,
the sarcasm is dripping in this first statement: “Why do you boast about your crimes,
great warrior..?” and the censure continued for the next three verses! Doeg acted
in an appalling way against those priests – even as they were still dressed in their
sacred garments and fulfilling their priestly duties - and to the priest’s own families.

Creative pause: Have you ever been asked: “Who do you think you are?”


After the abhorrent and vile acts of Doeg, and his dependence on possessions and
wealth to buy his way into people’s favour; in verses 5-7 we have God’s response
with its vastly different contrasts. The ancient doctrines and teachings of the Law
emphasise God’s faithfulness, compassion and unfailing love that is shown through
justice and equity; and are the very opposite to the arrogance of that braggart! In the
Samuel record, David was blessed by God by being given the “Bread of the Presence”,1
as that was all the food the priests had for the starving man; and because he had left
hurriedly to escape the crazed anger of King Saul, he was not even armed. But the
priest gave David the actual sword that he had used as a boy to kill Goliath; and David
understood that sword to be a tool that had been blessed by God in the struggle for
justice and peace for the people of Israel – the people chosen to lead nations to God.

Creative pause: What tools do you have that God has blessed?


The theme of the psalm then changed with the psalmist personally associating with its
message and likening himself to “...an olive tree growing in the house of God...”; as one
example of the deeply rooted faith David had in God, where he could express his trust
“...in God’s unfailing love.” He pledged “…I will praise you forever, O God, for what you
have done. I will trust in your good name in the presence of your faithful people.” Such
was David’s commitment to God and God’s service that David became widely known as:
“…the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart. The LORD has already appointed
him to be the leader of his people…”;2 and the Apostle Paul taught the people of Antioch
about God’s choice of David as Israel’s second king after the failure of Saul: “...But God
removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, ‘I have found
David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do…’”3

Creative pause: Are you a “tree” rooted and grounded within the shared worship of God?


1 1 Samuel 21: 6 (NLT)

2 1 Samuel 13:22 (NLT)

3 Acts 13:22 (NLT)

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 inspiration available from the scholarship and 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:
© 2016 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year C. Used with permission.

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

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: pentecost9[16]c_2016.pdf