WEEKEND LITURGY
Serve Children and Youth This weekend, consider ways you can serve and love the children and youth in your life. Instead of using your time to advance your own agenda, spend time playing with, helping, serving, or just getting to know children. If there are no children in your life, consider reaching out to Becky Toney to get involved with CRPC children's ministry or Zachary Pitcher for CRPC youth ministry. WORD Read: Psalm 74 2nd Reading: Psalm 75 (Ps 74:21-22) "Let the poor and needy praise your name. Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!" Psalm 74 is written from the perspective of people who are suffering and feel abandoned by God (v.1-3.) Like in many psalms, prayers are offered for God to intervene in the situation. However, Psalm 74 rides on the backs of God's covenant promises. For example, at the end of the psalm we read, "Have regard for your covenant (v.20.)" When God made a covenant with Abraham, and later expanded to his descendants after he brought Israel out of Egypt, he promised that he would fight for Israel. Because of their covenant relationship, they would have the same enemies. It functions sort of like a modern defense treaty between nations (think, "NATO.") At key points in the psalm, the enemies in view are described as God's enemies (v.4-8.) In particular, it appears that this references the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by Babylon around 586 BC. At that time, Israel was taken into captivity and appeared to all the world as utterly defeated and humiliated. Now, the poor and downtrodden are shamed and the land is full of violence (v.20-21.) So, the psalmist pleads for God to "defend your cause." That is, he prays for God to show his power to the world by redeeming his people. Unfortunately, it is not hard to find connections to our own day and age. The church is God's covenant people after the resurrection of Jesus, and it includes people from every tribe and tongue and nation. But I think that most people would agree that the American church is at a low ebb of vitality. Overall, church attendance continues to decline. Influence on the culture seems to be at an all time low, and our nation is increasingly considered "post-Christian." Important leaders have fallen into sin and infighting has escalated within the visible church. Many older Christians start to feel like aliens in their own country. Praying Psalm 74 for our situation makes a lot of sense. We feel that the sanctuary of God is (figuratively) broken down (v.4-8) and our enemies scoff and revile the name of God (v.18.) In this psalm we are reminded that when the church is cast down, God's name and honor are diminished. Just like he did with Israel in the exile, God may use the world to discipline the church, but his end result is to glorify his own name through the influence of the Gospel. When we pray for the church to be renewed and restored, we are not just praying for our cause... we are ultimately praying for God to defend and advance his cause - the cause of the Kingdom of Heaven coming on earth as it is in heaven.
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GATHERING
THE CALL | Matthew 19:14–15 [ESV] Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” And he laid his hands on them and went away. CONFESSION Father, all human life bares your image and is a blessing, but we treat some as more important than others. We value each other for our utility, beauty, skill, or entertainment and we treat children as tiresome distractions from our ambitious desires. We neglect the elderly and pretend that we ourselves will never age. We rise up early and go to bed late in order to advance our careers just a little bit more; we are building our own kingdoms where only the strong can survive. Jesus, teach us to welcome the children, elderly, and marginalized into our lives. Holy Spirit, help us to rely on your promises and live within your kingdom, a kingdom of love and rest. Amen. ASSURANCE | Matthew 7:24–27 [ESV] “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” SING: Gloria Patri Glory be to the Father And to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning Is now and ever shall be world without end Amen Amen WORD Read: Psalm 73 2nd Reading: Co1 3:1-4 I received a set of "airs pods" as a gift for Christmas. (They are mini speakers for each ear which link to my cell phone.) I have found that I can walk around in with one eye piece in while doing daily chores such as shopping. I can talk on the phone when necessary or listen to a quiet soundtrack while doing otherwise mundane activities. I've been surprised by how much pleasure it has brought me to listen to some of my favorite songs while slogging through the grocery store. At times I forget that not everyone is having the same experience. I almost expect the other shoppers to be enjoying wonderful "head music", but they are not hearing it. We have the same outward circumstances, and are doing the same activity, but we are having a very different experience. Psalm 73 is about the way a wrong perspective can drastically shape the way we experience the world around us. During the course of the psalm, the author swings between very different perspectives on his surrounding world, but the actual circumstances don't change. Only the way that they are viewed. This is a reminder that sometimes the biggest battles that we fight in the Christian life are in our own heads. In the beginning, the psalmist affirms God's goodness and contrasts it with his own wrong perspective. "But as for me... I was envious (v.2-3) Then, the next section (vs.4-15) recount a distorted way of thinking in which the author envied the wicked for the material advantages. We don't regard envy as seriously as the Bible does, but it is really a grave concern because it reveals our perspective on what is good and desirable and whether we trust God in all of it. But, then the psalm changes. The Psalmist encounters God in the sanctuary. None of the surrounding circumstances change, but his perspective changes. The next section (v. 18-20) describe a very different way to view the wicked. Not as desirable, but as those whose situation is in peril before God. AT this point, the psalm turns back to the authors own thought processes. He reveals that his former wrong perspective was even more problematic than it first appeared. "When I was embittered... I was brutish and ignorant (v. 22-22.)" He reveals that his heart attitude to God made him like a brute beast. We see that when we allow our hearts to envy sin our relationship with God is affected. We are allowing ourselves to live in a mental world where God does not exist and his power and holiness are not determinative. Part of what we see in this psalm is the way that the authors encounter with God in the sanctuary brings a spiritual recalibration. This is often a benefit of real worship. When we behold God as he really is - in his holiness and power - our wrong thinking is exposed and our desires are re-centered on God. The battle for our minds is more consequential than we can imagine and Biblical worship is part of God's plan to restore and renew us. ABIDING SING
— copy and paste the corresponding day in the blog -- SUNDAY MONDAY LECTIO DIVINA | Psalm 127 We memorize things we value. The brain has an incredible ability to remove information that we don’t need. As we make an effort to memorize the Psalms, the beginning of each week seeks to establish the value of God's Word in our hearts before we view it as information to be remembered. Read more about the Lectio Divina HERE.
TUESDAY READ | Psalm 127 Spend time understanding and memorizing the outline of the Psalm, taking special note of the flow or transition points. If you are in a group, discuss the main themes and emphasis together. WEDNESDAY CONTEXTUALIZE | Psalm 127 Consider ways that you can let the Psalm form your imagination, that you might share it with others. Perhaps you can journal about it, write poetry or prose, learn a song, create visual art, or reexpress it in ways that speak to your context. If you are planning to fellowship with other people this weekend, consider how you might share these imaginations with your community. THURSDAY MEMORIZE | Psalm 127 - Spend time memorizing the words of the Psalm as best you can - FRIDAY MEMORIZE | Psalm 127 - Spend time memorizing the words of the Psalm as best you can - SATURDAY (see Saturday liturgy) SENDING LORD'S PRAYER Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen. Genesis 1:28 [ESV] And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” WEEKEND LITURGY Serve Children and Youth This weekend, consider ways you can serve and love the children and youth in your life. Instead of using your time to advance your own agenda, spend time playing with, helping, serving, or just getting to know children. If there are no children in your life, consider reaching out to Becky Toney to get involved with CRPC children's ministry or Zachary Pitcher for CRPC youth ministry. — INSERT LINK TO PSALM READING — — INSERT MATT'S REFLECTION -- |
City Reformed Presbyterian ChurchThe 90 Days project is a collaborative effort of many church leaders. Matt Koerber and Daniel Snoke have taken lead roles, with others helping to write daily devotionals. Archives
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