Joyce Borger

One way to understand Psalm 119:137–144 is to think of it being spoken by Zacchaeus (Luke 19). Zacchaeus was considered less because of his size and occupation, and society as a whole expected nothing good from him. Even religious people considered him too much of a sinner to be seen with him. But Zacchaeus, after encountering Jesus, embraced the law, willing to participate in restorative justice and a spirit of generosity. What about us? How will we respond when we encounter Jesus and the rule of life Christ represents?

Psalm 65 paints a picture of a renewed earth when all that is wrong with the world is set to right. But that vision can only be achieved through prayer and the gift of God’s grace.

This litany is the text of Psalm 100 interspersed with Philippians 4:4–9 for two readers, for a leader and the congregation or for a congregation split into two parts.

“Will God find faith on earth?” Only if we grow a true love for God’s law. That can only happen if we engage with the law more often. To set the stage, Psalm 119:97–104 is incorporated into a confession and assurance of pardon sequence.

A sequence for the opening of worship based on Psalm 66 which provides opportunity for worshipers to offer their own reasons for praise. Particularly appropriate for Thanksgiving Day and RCL Sundays Proper 9C and 23C.

The main page for the "Grounded and Growing—A Series for Advent and Christmas." This includes links to service outlines for each week of Advent and Christmas which include an Advent candle lighting as well as additional resources and creative ideas. Ahead of each service you will find a reflection to aid you in your worship and sermon planning.

“O LORD, you have searched me and known me” begins the familiar words of Psalm 139. The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVUE) titles this psalm, “An Inescapable God.” To me the word “inescapable” has negative connotations. We’ve been taught to value freedom and privacy. Being known, really known, is a scary notion. There is a part of each of us that is afraid of being known because we fear the anticipated rejection, certain we aren’t good enough. But yet, God knows us. All of us. Parts of us that we ourselves don’t even want to acknowledge. God knows us. All of us. Even the parts that we manage to hide from others.

As a parent and educator I relate to Psalm 81. How often haven’t we thought or said, “if only my child or my student would listen to what I say, this would be so much easier for them.” And yet again and again you feel like your voice is little more than that of an adult in a Charlie Brown episode—noise in the background. In Psalm 81 we hear the heartwrenching cry of God about God’s people, “If only they would listen!”. The unspoken question for those hearing the psalm today is whether we will unstop our ears or treat God’s voice like annoying background noise.

What follows is a re-praying of Psalm 71. It isn’t so much a paraphrase as a prayer based on the psalm. Like the psalm, this prayer uses the single personal pronoun, but that doesn’t preclude it from being a communally articulated prayer. The refrain “Life is full of trouble —yet I trust in you, my God” is not a part of the psalm but added as a rhetorical device.

Many of us can resonate with Psalm 80’s plea to God to “hear us,” “restore us,” and “save us” intermingled with the gut-wrenching question “how long?”. It doesn’t take much pastoral imagination to think of ways in which members of our community relate to this psalm and what occasions have brought the lament “how long?” onto their lips. For that reason it is an important psalm to turn to again and again and worth exploring in its entirety.