Open-ended, Life-centred,
Gospel-Focussed Explorations of Australian Prayer Book Psalms.
Psalm 145:1-8...PENTECOST PLUS 19 (A)
.... (For the
Gospel, please scroll)
INTRODUCTION: 1]These
are
alternative PSS for SS. after
Pentecost. 2]
Psalms
are poetry for singing;
personal, not rhyming, but developing an idea,
contrasting it, etc., from pre-1000 BC (David)
to mid 400s
BC. 3]Being of their day, we
may
find attitudes in some PSS abhorrent. 4]
In Hebrew, 145 is headed: 'A David song of praise' which sums up
its thrust. 5] 'Name' in v.1
represents all the attributes of God.
WARMING UP: Are people likely
to thinkof us as a positive or a negative kind of person?
TREASURES OLD & NEW:
Identify God at work in anything this week?
ENTERING INTO THE STORY:
1-2 How much are 'exalting &
blessing' God part of our regular daily routine? Or, do we hold back
till we're 'in church' so we're doing it as part of a formal process
with everyone else? So we don't stand out? If we do the latter, might
it indicate that God isn't
such a 'stand-out'?! How well do our formal worship and our spontaneous
worship during daily life complement each other? Is the PSt's kind of
spontaneity at all evident in our daily life?
3-5 Is
God's greatness something we rather take for granted? Can we spell the
essence of God's greatness out - for ourself, & anyone else? If
God's greatness is really 'past searching out' do we ever use that as
an excuse for not having to really think about it, spell it out? As
'worship' (worth-ship) is derived from 'worthiness' would failing
to grasp God's worthiness necessarily affect the quality of our
worship, formal & informal? Are we ever conscious of that?
Has grasping God's worthiness
& worshipping accordingly ceased to be a trans-generational thing?
If it has, what might we need to do to get such a basic building block
of our humanity back on track? Rather than lamenting that younger
generations have lost interest in God, how can we, in our generation,
play some part in bridging today's 'one generation to another'
gap? Is the PSt's, 'As for me.....' perhaps a personal key for
use in this quest? Do we ourselves have enough sense of God's 'glorious
splendour' before expecting anyone else to have such an attitude to God?
How good
are we at 'telling the story of God's marvellous works' naturally &
as a matter of course? Is this kind of story-telling an integral part
of that "as for me.....' personal key above?
6-8
What of those who can't or won't speak of God's power? Did
God ever do, does God ever do
'terrible deeds', or is that just an old, outdated way of looking at
things? Are we ourselves so 'full of God', so overflowing with God's
goodness & righteousness, that it just has to burst out? Or would
others think we've become religious crackpots if we started acting like
that? How much does what others might think of us inhibit our
relationship with God, & our telling of it?
Can we
identify at first-hand God's graciousness / compassion / slowness to
anger / great goodness this day, this week? If we can't, are other
people's second-hand reports any real use to us?
PLUS: Might we expect that
what the PSt's on about would be reflected in someone in today's Gospel
(MT 20:1-16)?
