39C*
A Call to Worship
Day of Pentecost Year C 2013
Psalm 104: 24-34, 35b

The Psalmist sang: “Praise the Lord, I tell myself; O Lord my God, how great you are!
You are robed with honour and with majesty;..... As for me, I will praise the Lord.”
We gather to worship and praise our Creating God, who gives new life to all creation.

All creation sang: “Praise the Lord...” I say to myself: “O God, my Maker and Creator
how great you are!” I join with all creation to loudly praise and give thanks to my God!
Individually and together, we sing along with all creation in praising our Awesome Creator.

Peoples of the earth sing: “Praise the Lord...” We tell each other: “O Lord our Creating,
God how great you are!” Come you believers, join in praising the Lord our Great God!
We gather to celebrate God’s gift to all believers in the Spirit of “new life”, through
which we also receive new hope and joy in the Lord our God. “Praise be to the Lord..” Amen.

Prayers of Praise and Thankfulness
Day of Pentecost Year C 2013
Psalm 104: 24-34, 35b

We gather in prayers of praise and thankfulness before the power and
majesty of our Creating God! Despite the simplicity and complexity of his
words, the Psalmist named the Eternal One as “The Lord”.1 And so, we too
come now before our God, wanting once again to express more clearly our
experiences of the wonder of the Being of our God. We give thanks for the
skill of people who, by their insights, have spelled out for us some of God’s
attributes to help and enrich our faith in God. We celebrate again the writings
of Robert Grant, when he gave us the hymn based on today’s Psalm 104:
“O worship the King, all glorious above....our Shield and Defender, the Ancient
of Days;...whose robe is the light, whose canopy space; his might….. his grace,
his bountiful care..… it breathes in the air, it shines in the light;..… our Maker,
Defender, Redeemer, and Friend”;.… “Measureless Light!” and “Ineffable love!” 2

All merciful God, the Psalmist sang of the mysteries of the sea; the generous
providence of our Creating God; the fragility of all life; and the vibrant hope that
your Spirit brings with all its new life and vitality to those who are worn down.
Today, we gather to join in that song of praise to our Awesome and Mighty God.
We acknowledge that there are never enough words to adequately describe
our Glorious God, and that we often fail to praise, thank and pray to our God;
or that we adequately express how and why we worship our Redeeming God.
When our inadequacies seem to inhibit our worship, if, in all sincerity, we call
out and simply pray: “O my Lord hear me” - that may be the most effective and
profound prayer we will ever pray to our Ever-Listening and Answering God.
So hear us, we pray, as we worship and celebrate the wonders of our Holy God.

Breath of Life, we gather in prayers of praise and thankfulness before the power
and majesty of our Creating God! We give thanks that we have the freedom
to sing and praise our God; and we ask our Liberating God, to accept our
offerings of praise and prayers, our devotion and commitment, and who we
are as God’s creation in this place, saying:... “As for me, I will praise the Lord.” Amen.

A Personal Meditation
Day of Pentecost Year C 2013
Psalm 104: 24-34, 35b

I am always intrigued by the way the ancient Jewish people revered the
name of God so much that it could never be written or spoken, and that
calling out to “The Lord” was an acceptable way to use that sacred title.
For many Jews, devout believers will only reverently write “L-rd” for Lord,
and “G-d” for God! What a contrast that is to our loose (and profane) use
of God’s holy name in our everyday language and speech! How easily we
have become influenced by “the world”. There are also many people who
do not feel comfortable with using the title “Lord”, because of its masculine
and feudal overtones; however, the ancient Scriptures are our base here.

Creative pause: How reverently to I honour God’s name and presence?


In Psalm 104, God “The Lord”1 is only mentioned in the opening and closing
verses; and according to Walter Brueggemann3, that is because this song
of praise was originally used in Egyptian writings of praise to all of creation,
rather than in praise to God, the Creator of all things. The first part of this
selection (vs 27-30) could be a “grace” before a meal. All of creation receives
God’s bounty - it is a daily gift from our dependable and yet extravagant God,
who is life and breath to us all. In the next verses (vs 31-34) the utter holiness
and glory of God is expressed unambiguously!4 The Psalm says: “May the glory
of the Lord last forever! The Lord rejoices in all he has made!... I will sing to the
Lord as long as I live....” As I meditate on this Psalm, I pray that the hidden
music within my soul will respond in reverent awe and wonder to my Great God.

Creative pause: God gifts us each day with our breath and our life.


Then comes the real crunch line at the end of the Psalm! “May he be pleased
by all these thoughts about him....” Even though the Psalmist rejoiced in the
Lord God and Creator - are my thoughts, words and actions pleasing to God?
Are my acts of worship, prayer and praise reverent enough to honour God?
Are my acts of worship distracted by peripheral things? Is my daily life, living
and loving a testimony to my faith in my God? Are my prayers a “wish list” of
all my wants? Have I approached the acts of worship with the earnest prayer:
“10Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me....”5

Creative pause: The crunch-time reminder to check things out with God!


1 Psalm 104:1
2 “O Worship the King...”
Words by Robert Grant 1779-1838 (alt)
From “Together in Song” #133
Words in the Public Domain.
3 & 4 Based on comments by Walter Brueggemann
from “The Message of the Psalms” [page 32-33]
©1984 Augsburg Publishing House
5 Psalm 51: 10 (NLT)

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.

 *The additional weekly numbering is from the Revised COCU Indexing Scheme
COCU = ('Consultation on Church Union'); as it offers an easy sequential numbering
for the Revised Common Lectionary for the Church Calendar.

If any part of these Prayers and/or Meditations is used in shared worship, please provide
the following acknowledgement:
© 2013 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year C. Used with permission.

jstott@netspace.net.au

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