31A*
A Call to Worship
Easter Day, Year A 2017
Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24

“...This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it...”
And with confidence we say: “...The LORD is my strength and my song...”

“...This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it...”
With joy we say: “...This is the LORD’s doing, and it is wonderful to see...”

“...This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it...”
because today, we celebrate the new life that is found in the Risen Jesus.
In praises to God we sing: “...The strong right arm of the LORD has done
glorious things! The strong right arm of the LORD is raised in triumph...” Amen.

Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24

1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
2 Let all Israel repeat: “His faithful love endures forever.”

14 The LORD is my strength and my song; he has given me victory.
15 Songs of joy and victory are sung in the camp of the godly.
The strong right arm of the LORD has done glorious things!
16 The strong right arm of the LORD is raised in triumph.
The strong right arm of the LORD has done glorious things!
17 I will not die; instead, I will live to tell what the LORD has done.
18 The LORD has punished me severely, but he did not let me die.

19 Open for me the gates where the righteous enter, and I will go in and thank the LORD.
20 These gates lead to the presence of the LORD, and the godly enter there.
21 I thank you for answering my prayer and giving me victory!
22 The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.
23 This is the LORD’s doing, and it is wonderful to see.
24 This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Prayers of Thankfulness
Easter Day, Year A 2017
Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24

“...This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it...” So with
joy we celebrate not only this new day with all its gifts and opportunities; we also
celebrate God’s goodness in giving us another blessing within which to love and
serve our God, and all God’s people. We give thanks that through faith in our
Gracious God, we are strengthened emotionally, spiritually and physically so that
we may share God’s joy and peace with all whom we meet. Today, we especially
give thanks for the joy of the Risen LORD Jesus amongst us in new and stimulating
ways, so that we gain a further insight into Jesus as the revelation of God-with-us.

“...This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it...” With joy
we can say: “...This is the LORD’s doing, and it is wonderful to see...” as it is indeed
wonderful “...that our Risen Saviour may fill us with the joy of his holy and life-giving
resurrection...and that he may send the fire of the Holy Spirit upon his people, that
we may bear faithful witness to his resurrection; let us pray to the LORD. Hear us,
LORD of glory!1 With thankful hearts and minds, we celebrate all that God the Father
has revealed to us, in and through the life, death and resurrection of the Son, and
the clarification of our deepest questions – as when we see Jesus, we also see God!

“...This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it...” because
today, we celebrate the new joy that is found in the Risen Jesus. In praises to God
we sing: “...The strong right arm of the LORD has done glorious things! The strong
right arm of the LORD is raised in triumph...” That triumph is God’s glorious beauty
revealed to us in Jesus, through his words, his actions and his invitation to come to
God “...all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest…”2 Amen.

A Personal Meditation
Easter Day, Year A 2017
Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24

As we have travelled the journey through the season of Lent and reflected on the
mission of Jesus through that time; and his way to the inevitable experience of his
cross and death; did we ever ask ourselves that ancient yet ever-new and relevant
query that the LORD asks in the Litany from Good Friday Missal: “The LORD says:
‘My people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer me..!’”1
We pause as we pray a Collect for Holy Week: “LORD Jesus, you have called us to
follow you. Grant that our love may not grow cold in your service, and that we may
not fail or deny you in the hour of trial...”1 We pause again to reflect on the ever-
obedient Jesus, as he rested on the Sabbath Day - like every good Jew – even in the
grave! Then, there is the joy of the Risen Christ as we pray an Easter Day Collect:
“LORD God almighty, the radiance of your glory lights up our hearts...Enable us to truly
understand...that in our earthly pilgrimage, we may walk more closely with our Risen
Saviour and LORD, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever...”1

Creative pause: Lent is a time of repentance, reflection and preparation.


In the light of the prayers above, if you were asked to describe God, and if you could
not do this without resorting to human descriptions - as if God had a body like ours—
how else could you appropriately answer? The psalmist had the very same problem
when trying to attribute thanks and praises, petitions and confessions to God. In today’s
Psalm 118, which the author sang as part of the “Big Hallel”, that is, Psalms 113-118:
“…The strong right arm of the LORD has done glorious things! The strong right arm
of the LORD is raised in triumph. The strong right arm of the LORD has done glorious
things …!” In the many Bible translations available on the internet, God’s “right hand”
is the most used description of them all for verses 15b and 16. One translation referred
to the “mighty power” of God, rather than noting that God has strong hands and arms.

Creative pause: How would you describe God, and God’s characteristics?


Yet, how do we even dare to try to describe the graces, characteristics and qualities
of our God, except to think and wonder in awe about God’s ‘hesed’: that steadfast and
unfailing love, faithfulness mercy and grace of our God; and God's miraculous kindness
expressed so graciously in the binding covenant relationship between God and Israel.
‘God’s hesed’ - God’s steadfast and unfailing love, faithfulness mercy and grace - occurs
32 times in the Psalms alone – as that was the only way anyone could comprehensibly
describe God! Such was ‘God’s hesed’ importance to the faith, soul, mind and heart of
all the psalmists in describing God’s ways of acting and being in a trusting relationship
with the other partner in that covenant relationship, that this shorthand version of ‘hesed’
became the people’s regular response in worship of God: “His faithful love endures forever.”

Creative pause: God’s “...faithful love endures forever!” Thanks be to God!


We need to always remember that the Old Testament, or the Hebrews Scriptures, was
originally the story about a disparate group of people who had to learn to know and trust
each, and then to learn to know and trust the God who claimed them as God’s very own
special people; and the people who would lead the world to worship the One, Holy and
True God. Over the centuries, there were two ways through which they came to know
God, and they recalled those lessons regularly in their acts of worship. Their first learning
about God was through creation, and Psalm 36 helped them in that learning: (5) …Your
unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the
clouds. (6) Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean
depths…” Their second learning about God was through their own history as a people
under God’s blessed guidance. Again they recalled that history in their worship of God
through psalms like 105: (6) "...you children of his servant Abraham, you descendants of
Jacob, his chosen ones. (7) He is the LORD our God. His justice is seen throughout the land.
(8) He always stands by his covenant—the commitment he made to a thousand generations.
(9) This is the covenant he made with Abraham and the oath he swore to Isaac. (10) He
confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, and to the people of Israel as a never-ending
covenant…” They slowly learned to know and trust each other, and to trust in their God.

Creative pause: How have you learned to know and trust in God?


1 “Uniting in Worship Leaders Book” & “People’s Book”
© 1988 Assembly Commission on Liturgy for use by
Uniting Church people, published by JBCE
Used with permission.

2 Matthew 11: 28 (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 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 Meditations are used in shared worship, please provide this acknowledgement:
© 2017 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year A. Used with permission.

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

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