Prayers of the People - Saturday Evening, May 23rd

Pause at the end of each day. Enjoy communion with the living God: Creator, Redeemer, Holy Spirit. Listen for the voice of God in the scriptures.

Read

Psalm 43, Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation;

O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!

Judges 16, Samson’s Weaknesses Exposed

Rom 16.17-27, Benediction

Meditate

The words of the Lord are spirit and life, a light to the wise path. Sit with your questions, write down your observations and tensions.

Pray

Bring your meditations to this time of prayer and let them guide you, or use the prayer we’ve offered here: Lord, hear the prayers of your people.

Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation; O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! For You are the God of my strength; why have You rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? God… we have really had it already. Listen, Lord, we hate it here. We cannot wake each morning to more bad news. More awkward political play-play and toying with our people. Send your power like a hammer that breaks rocks into pieces. Send the Holy Spirit of strength and presence, like a mighty rushing wind.

O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your dwelling places. Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God. We need power. We want deliverance. Protect our children, O God. The little ones whose pain cannot quite be verbalized. Protect our young people; the graduates who are celebrating and relating on zoom. Help us to know fellowship and worship, even in the midst of knowing very little at all. We need a word from you.

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God. How we crumble - O God - at the thought of holding on to hope. For what? Hope for good governance? Unlikely. Hope for mitigation of racist violence? We’ve no reason to expect a change. But you, O God, you are our Living Well, our Divine Sustenance. The Table of the Lord is now the place where we seek our daily bread. Will you send us refreshment while we’re in this wasteland?

Contemplate

In silence

By blessing: Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen. - Romans 16.17-27

Seek God’s face

“My heart said - seek God’s face. Lord, your face will I seek” Psalm 27.8

Lord, hear the prayers of your people. Amen

Artwork: Nelson Stevens’s “Uhuru” // Greg Cookland’s Black Power Mural

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Prayers of the People - May 23