55A*
A Call to Worship
After Pentecost 14A [Ordinary 23A] or [Proper 18A] 2017
Psalm 149

Come: “People of God sing out your praise, sing of the glory of our God…”1
Come: “...All gather as one...Lift up your voice and let your praise be heard…1

“...Let the trumpets sound, let the music play… the praise of God resound…”1
“...let the song of God’s people be heard… throughout heaven and earth…”1

“...In you, oh God we place our trust. Your loving kindness you lavish on us.
In you, …all gather as one. Blessed and made whole in the love of our God…”1
“…People of God sing out your praise, sing of the glory of our God. Lift up
your voice and let your praise be heard… We celebrate your life in us, O God.1 Amen!

Psalm 149

1 Praise the LORD!
Sing to the LORD a new song.
Sing his praises in the assembly of the faithful.
2 O Israel, rejoice in your Maker.
O people of Jerusalem, exult in your King.
3 Praise his name with dancing,
accompanied by tambourine and harp.
4 For the LORD delights in his people;
he crowns the humble with victory.

5 Let the faithful rejoice that he honours them.
Let them sing for joy as they lie on their beds.
6 Let the praises of God be in their mouths,
and a sharp sword in their hands—
7 to execute vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with shackles
and their leaders with iron chains,
9 to execute the judgement written against them.

This is the glorious privilege of his faithful ones.
Praise the LORD!

Prayers of Praise
After Pentecost 14A [Ordinary 23A] or [Proper 18A] 2017
Psalm 149

The invitation and summons are there for all to see and hear: Come, “People of God
sing out your praise, sing of the glory of our God…”1 Come: “...All gather as one...
Lift up your voice and let your praise be heard…1 as God delights in and takes great
pleasure from the worship, songs and prayers of all faithful people –of any age and
circumstance of life. We come, our awesome and holy God - and yet the God who is
so near to us - to worship and sing God’s praises while we are gathered as one together;
or whether we are in our homes or at work; or even in our beds as we offer to God the
quiet hours of the night; we sing and pray for joy, that God honours our inspired worship.

The invitation and summons are there for all to see and hear: Come, “...Let the trumpets
sound, let the music play…the praise of God resound…”1 to every part of the universe,
so that God’s glory and gracious love is heard and recognised by all of creation! “...let
the song of God’s people be heard… throughout heaven and earth…”1 so that God’s
holiness and majesty is celebrated by all people who respond to that gracious presence.

The invitation and summons are there for all to see and hear: Come, because “...In you,
oh God we place our trust. Your loving kindness you lavish on us. We celebrate your
life in us, O God. …blessed …in the love of our God…”1 We exult in the revealed glory
of God; and humbly offer our thanks for the “...glorious privilege of his faithful ones...” and
so we praise and thank our God for those faithful people who have guided and blessed
us in our faith journey. United with all of heavens armies, and with all faithful people through
the ages we say: “let the trumpets sound, let the music play, let the song of God’s people
be heard. And let the praise of God resound throughout heaven and earth.”1 Hallelujah! Amen!

A Personal Meditation
After Pentecost 14A [Ordinary 23A] or [Proper 18A] 2017
Psalm 149

The psalmist summons the faithful and humble people to worship God in celebration:
“Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song. Sing his praises in the assembly of
the faithful. O Israel, rejoice in your Maker.... For the LORD delights in his people; he
crowns the humble with victory. Let the faithful rejoice that he honours them...” The
beginning of the psalm is not about Israel’s mighty warriors; but about the way God
takes pleasure in the “faithful” who are the Torah-loving and Torah-keeping people—
whose lives are blessed and “honoured” by God. Various translations have “humble”
or “oppressed” or “meek” and that God “beautifies” or “adorns” them with deliverance
or salvation. However, we understand ourselves to be before God, we can celebrate
that God takes pleasure and delights in ordinary people who faithfully worship God.

Creative pause: God finds pleasure and delight in our acts of faithful worship!


The Psalmist called on the people of Israel to praise and to sing a new song to the
LORD their God, as their situation had changed once again, and therefore a “new
song” was required and appropriate. The laments over the destruction of Jerusalem
includes this faith statement: “...I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over
my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: the faithful love of the LORD
never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin
afresh each morning. I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will
hope in him!’ The LORD is good to those who depend on him, to those who search
for him....”2 Their daily newness of life needed to be celebrated and God praised for
it. The daily intervention by God into the lives of those ordinary, Israelite people was
amongst God’s greatest blessings on them –they knew it - and so they celebrated!

Creative pause: Great is God’s faithfulness and delights in ours.


“...For the LORD delights in his people; he crowns the humble with victory...” with the
victory attributed by Professor Walter Brueggemann as that described in 1 Samuel,
chapters 4 and 5. The Philistines declared war on Israel with heavy losses for Israel,
and the eventual capture of the Ark of the Covenant. The Philistines took the Ark to
the temple of Dagon, their god, but each morning the idol was tipped over face down
before the Ark of the Covenant. “...Then the LORD’s heavy hand struck the people of
Ashdod and the nearby villages with a plague of tumours. When the people realised
what was happening, they cried out, ‘We can’t keep the Ark of the God of Israel here
any longer! He is against us! We will all be destroyed along with Dagon, our god....’”3
The combination of praise of God and violence in God’s name in this psalm is a concept
that challenges us. Scholar, Anthony Ceresko, suggests that “...verses 1-4 celebrate the
remembered event of the Exodus and verses 6-9 recall the violent act of possession
of the land...”4 The regular enactment of their “Exodus” experience within their acts of
worship was a blessing to subsequent generations; as they celebrated and reflected on
the “…abiding weightiness of YHWH…”4 Do you consider God to be “heavy-handed”?

Creative pause: What enactments of your community’s story do you share?


1 From “A Special Collection” CD track #8
Words and music by Monica Brown
© 1994 Monica Brown & Emmaus Productions
Used with personal permission.

2 Lamentations 3: 20-25 (NLT)

3 1 Samuel 5: 6-7 (NLT)

4 Text by Professor Walter Brueggemann
& William H Bellinger Junior from “Psalms”
Psalm 149, page 615/6
© 2014 Cambridge University Press

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:
© 2017 Joan Stott –‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year A. Based on verses from Psalm 149.
Used with permission.

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

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: pentecost14[23]a_2017.pdf