ORDER OF WORSHIP | 26 JULY

Hearing God’s Word

Prayer for Illumination

We ask God to make the Scripture fresh, encouraging, and convicting to us as we sit under its ministry.

From Psalm 62

Gracious God and Father, as we attend to your word, we come as those who need to be encouraged in our fleeting faithfulness. Extend your own unfailing faithfulness to us once again, and by the power of your Spirit, convince our hearts that they can rest and find shelter in you alone. Then form in us, by your Word and Spirit, great patience– with you and with one another– as we await the completion of your work in us, through us, in one another, and in the world. For Christ’s sake we ask it. Amen.

Examination

We reflect on the Psalm of the Day and use it to examine our hearts and minds, leading us to confession of our sin. Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 62 as we reflect on it together.

Psalm 62, verse 10 challenges us to be patient with the Lord as he brings about his purposes. Our temptation may be to use deceitful and underhanded schemes to try to force the blessings that are promised to us. In our impatience, we may be tempted to take from others what we grow impatient waiting on the Lord to provide. There is also the temptation, even if we prosper through honest means, to put our success, possessions, and status at the center of our identity. When we do this, we have anchored our hearts into shifting sand.

In what ways have you grown impatient waiting for the good things that the Lord promises? Have you defrauded others of honor, possessions, or reputation, in order to gain these things for yourself? Have you made your honor, possessions, or reputation the measure by which you assess your life, rather than the steadfast and enduring love of the Lord?

Let us confess our sins.

Silent Confession

Take a moment to reflect and to confess your sins silently before the Lord.

Prayer of Confession of Sin

Great God, no matter how much we accumulate in the way of possessions or esteem, if we are not rooted in your love and faithfulness; if we are not anchored in you, our Solid Rock, we are nothing. We repent for the many times that we have grown impatient with you, thinking that you are slow to fulfill your promises. We are sorry for the way our impatience has prompted us to defraud our neighbor, taking their blessings for ourselves. And we are most sorry of all for not delighting in your unfailing love and the firmness of all your promises, which are “yes and amen” in Jesus Christ, in whose name we boldly approach your throne of grace and seek your forgiveness and renewal. Amen.

*Assurance of God’s Pardon

Friends in Christ, when you abandon your flimsy shelters and hide in the refuge of the Lord God, you are sheltered. When you pull your hearts from the shifting sand of power and possessions, status and esteem, and anchor them in Christ alone, you are rooted firmly, and cannot be moved. In Jesus Christ, whose incarnation, life, death, and resurrection demonstrate the trustworthiness of all God’s promises and the patience of God in the face of your slowness of heart, you are forgiven of your sins and can rest in his grace. The Lord repays everyone according to what they have done. The Lord Jesus has done all things well, and in him, we are not repaid for our sins, but according to his righteousness. Thanks be to God! Amen!

*Gloria Patri

Ruth Pfister, organ

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!

Old Testament Lesson

Psalm 62

Truly my soul finds rest in God;
    my salvation comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
    he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
How long will you assault me?
    Would all of you throw me down—
    this leaning wall, this tottering fence?
Surely they intend to topple me
    from my lofty place;
    they take delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless,
    but in their hearts they curse.
Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
    my hope comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
    he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God;
    he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in him at all times, you people;
    pour out your hearts to him,
    for God is our refuge.
Surely the lowborn are but a breath,
    the highborn are but a lie.
If weighed on a balance, they are nothing;
    together they are only a breath.
10 Do not trust in extortion
    or put vain hope in stolen goods;
though your riches increase,
    do not set your heart on them.
11 One thing God has spoken,
    two things I have heard:
“Power belongs to you, God,
12     and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”;
and, “You reward everyone
    according to what they have done.”