67B*
A Call to Worship
Reign of Christ the King, Year B [Ordinary 34B] 2018
Psalm 93

We come to worship God, the Eternal King - who is robed in majesty and light.
We come in quiet, awed wonder and praise before our Glorious God and King.

We come to praise God, the Glorious King - who is robed in holy righteousness.
We come in humility, because we not worthy of receiving God’s Sovereign grace.

We come and reverently marvel that the LORD our God, the King of all creation,
who is forever robed in power and mercy – welcomes and accepts our prayers.
We come, to worship our Creator, who has created all things for and in love.
“…Your sovereign grace to all extends immense and unconfined; from age to age
it never ends, to reach all humankind…wide as infinity…the gift unspeakable…1 Amen.

Psalm 93

1 The LORD is king! He is robed in majesty.
Indeed, the LORD is robed in majesty and armed with strength.
The world stands firm and cannot be shaken.
2 Your throne, O LORD, has stood from time immemorial.
You yourself are from the everlasting past.

3 The floods have risen up, O LORD.
The floods have roared like thunder;
the floods have lifted their pounding waves.
4 But mightier than the violent raging of the seas,
mightier than the breakers on the shore –
the LORD above is mightier than these!

5 Your royal laws cannot be changed.
Your reign, O LORD, is holy forever and ever.

Prayers of Praise
Reign of Christ the King, Year B [Ordinary 34B] 2018
Psalm 93

We come to worship the God our King - in awed wonder and praise; and who is robed
in glorious light and majesty. We come, because God calls us into a shared fellowship
of mutual love and acceptance; and in humility, we offer our praises and thanks to the
Holy One of all times and places; the Liberating One all peoples and all traditions; and
the Renewing One of all mercy and forgiveness. We celebrate with joy that God triumphs
over all the powers of this world and beyond; that God is more truly powerful than all the
combined the forces of evil; and that the LORD who is robed in light, overcomes the dark
and dangerous times, through the power of God’s eternal love and merciful forgiveness.

We come to praise the God our King - who is robed in holy righteousness. God, from the
“…everlasting past…” and whose reign “…is holy forever and ever…” is the Glorious King,
who is in an everlastingly right relationship with all of humanity and in all of creation. So,
we come to praise our God, for gifting each one of us with a holy spark deep within us; if
only we recognise that gift and exercise it to enrich and empower us in our faith, hope and
love, in and through God’s active and healing Holy Presence. Although we are unworthy of
receiving God’s so generous Sovereign grace and mercy; today we join in songs of praise;
because of God’s “…depth of all-redeeming love...wide as infinity…the gift unspeakable…”1

We come in reverent awe before the LORD our God, who is King of all creation, to offer our
thankful prayers to the Holy One - God Almighty – who is robed forever in honour and power.
We come, to worship and celebrate our Creating God, who has brought into being all things
through, for, and because of love – the love that is greater, and more wise and powerful than
any other emotion we as humans can ever know or experience. As we praise our God for the
gift of love, we pray that we may share that holy love with all whom we live - and all we meet. Amen.

A Personal Meditation
Reign of Christ the King, Year B [Ordinary 34B] 2018
Psalm 93

The psalmist obviously wanted to describe God’s Holy Being, but was struggling to
imagine how God could be described. I think that he/she would have had two models
to assist this description – the priests and the king’s warriors. The ordinary, everyday
priests who carried out the ritual sacrifices wore an outer garment called the ephod,
pants, a belt that wrapped around the body and covered the heart, the breastplate and
the turban. Each of these garments has spiritual significance and a symbolic power.
These garments are made of five different materials and the ephod and the breastplate
included the colours of gold, dark blue, dark red and crimson and were worn over an
undergarment. The warriors at the time of King David wore for their protection a shield,
a breastplate and helmet; and carried weapons like a spear, a knife and a primitive axe.

Creative pause: How would you describe the being and nature of God’s-Own-Self?


On Christ the King Sunday, it is important that we understand why the psalmist chose
to describe God as being “…robed in majesty and armed with strength…”; and in other
psalms, God is described as being protectively robed in righteousness, light, honour,
majesty and power. As the ancient description of God as the “LORD of hosts” – or as
more recent translations state: “LORD of Heaven’s Armies”; had attempted to describe
the indescribable. The psalmist then set God within a known context. “…The world
stands firm and cannot be shaken…” and the battle fields where God had triumphed:
“the floods” and the “raging seas”. Note the tenses: “…The floods have risen up…The
floods have roared like thunder; the floods have lifted their pounding waves…”; however,
“…the LORD above is mightier than these..! “…Your throne, O LORD, has stood from time
immemorial. You yourself are from the everlasting past…Your reign, O LORD, is holy
forever and ever.” in addition, the God of the universe “…royal laws cannot be changed…’

Creative pause: “…Your reign, O LORD, is holy forever and ever.”


The world was now steady and firmly based with God as the eternal King - with God
present, “…from the everlasting past…” Professor Walter Brueggemann writes thus:
“…in verse 5, the well established king issues a decree for the new order… [but] no
substance to the decree is given. In Psalm 29: 11, the new decree is ‘shalom’. In Psalm
96: 10b-13 right, faithfulness, and equity are decreed. Through the assertion of Yahweh
the psalm discloses the transformation of created life…”2 In this instance, God’s decree
is a bit ambiguous, but “…Your reign, O LORD, is holy forever and ever…” When God’s
Kingly Reign is realised, the transformation that takes place is ‘holiness’. Any seeker of
God’s gift of holiness may ask the question: “What shall I do my God to love, my loving
God to praise?”1 and receive this affirmation: “…Your sovereign grace to all extends
immense and unconfined; from age to age it never ends, to reach all humankind. Through-
out the world its breadth is known wide as infinity: so wide it never passed by one…1

Creative pause: What are the depths of God’s “sovereign grace?”1


1 From “Together in Song” #122
“What shall I do my God to love?”
Words by Charles Wesley
Words are in the Public Domain

2 Text by Professor Walter Brueggemann
from “The Message of the Psalms” Chapter 4, page 146
©1984 Augsburg Publishing House
Minneapolis MN 55440, USA

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 93.
Used with permission.

joanstott16@gmail.com
www.thetimelesspsalms.net

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: rnchristking[34]b_2018.pdf