23A*
A Call to Worship
Lent 5A 2011
Psalm 130

O Lord our God, we come to you, seeking to
rise up from the depths and agony of despair.
Please listen, our Saving God—
we need your help and blessing.

Lord, through the tenderness
of your mercy towards us
we have learned to worship you—
and to revere your Holy Name;
therefore, we place our entire trust
and hope in you, our Trustworthy God.

We gather to offer you our thanks,
for we know that you offer us
your unfailing love and mercy
that is beyond our understanding.
You know our longing for forgiveness,
and you offer us your presence - which
blesses us from God’s overflowing store
of mercy, hope, freedom and joy. Amen.

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Prayers of Lament and Petition
Lent 5A 2011
Psalm 130

Listening God, our hope is in you! We hope that you are
there listening to our cries for mercy; that you are hearing
our calls for forgiveness. We are in the depths of despair!
We are weighed down by our sense of guilt and sinfulness!
The depths of our spiritual misery are all-encompassing,
and we long for relief from this pain and anguish of the soul.
We yearn for your forgiveness. O God, you are our only
hope, our only source of blessing, restoration and renewal.

God, you are the Hope of all people, the One to whom we
can turn to at any time with our troubles, and from whom we
receive liberation from our sinfulness; but also you are our
our Strength and Sustainer; and our Guide in life – and in death.

Nurturing God, it is only as we experience your forgiveness
and mercy that we realise the depths of your love and infinite
care for humanity; and our only worthy response is in worship,
awed praise and thankfulness before you. Holy God, as we
come before you in worship, we acknowledge our dependence
on you; that soul-deep longing we have that hungers for you—
that needs your presence with us to help make sense of life.

Listen all God’s people! Stop to think about our Awesome God!
God is an overflowing source of hope, mercy and forgiveness,
so put all your trust in God - you will never be disappointed. Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Lent 5A 2011
Psalm 130

O my God – help me please! I am floundering in
the depths of my despair; I am in the deep dark
spaces of hopelessness and helplessness – and
I need your merciful help. My God, are you there?
Are you nearby? Are you listening to my anguish?
My soul is plunged into deep distress because of
my sinfulness, and I desperately need forgiveness!
In your mercy, O God, forgive me and restore me
to yourself, so that I may worship you in joy, knowing
my hope in you is not misplaced or misguided.



I have this hope deep inside me that whispers:
‘God is all-loving, all-merciful, and is utterly to be
trusted – so let go your pride, and come to God.’
I did it! I did go to my God and confessed my sin.
I did put all my hope and trust in God, and in God’s
mercy – just like that – I knew release from my pain,
and felt a new sense of energy and peace, because
God heard me, answered me and has forgiven me.



And my response to that? A conviction that all people
should know about God’s loving mercy; that all people
should trust in God’s unfailing love, and in an overflowing
supply of saving graciousness towards all humanity.
So listen everyone! God is merciful and will and can free
us all from our sinfulness, if only we learn to trust in God.
Then our joyful response will be to praise and worship
God, and to seek to serve and honour God all our days.

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Acknowledgements:
Unless stated otherwise, all Bible readings and extracts used in these weekly Prayers and Meditations are from
‘The New Revised Standard Version’ Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

*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:
© 2011 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year A. Used with permission.

jstott@netspace.net.au

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: lent5a_2011.pdf

© 2011 Joan Stott - " The Timeless Psalms" RCL Psalm Year A