36B*
A Call to Worship
Easter 6B 2012
Psalm 98

Awesome God, with reverence in our hearts and minds,
we gather here today, to sing our songs of praise to you.
We join with our brothers and sisters throughout all time,
to offer our joyful worship and our thankfulness to our God.


Creating God, all creation joins with our voices in praise
of our Great God, whose love is triumphant over all evil.
Let the hills and valleys, the seas and rivers, even all the
universe, join with us in a glorious song of praise to our God.


Remembering God, you never forget your love and mercy
for us, and all humanity, and so we worship and praise you.
Together, we celebrate God’s faithfulness to all peoples.
All creation, before and after us, will know of God’s salvation. Amen.



Prayers of Praise
Easter 6B 2012
Psalm 98

Holy God, with joy we gather together to praise you for your
love and compassion, for your constant care of your people,
and for the way you have always been our Saviour and Lord.
This is such a glorious truth, that all creation joins with us in
our ever-new songs of praise and thankfulness. Each of us in
our own way offers our sounds of joy and celebration, whether
it is through music, singing or dancing; whilst creation sings
its own anthem of praise to the God of all things and people.
Sing a new song to our God, for he has done wonderful deeds

Living God, through your holiness you have overcome all that is
evil and all that seeks to separate us from our God. The great
and mighty powers of our God has and will defeat the darkness
that surrounds us, and which causes us to trip up on our faith journey.
All praise be to our God because right living and right relationships
with our God and with our neighbours, has become a way of life
for God’s own people - and with God’s guidance, may it always be so.
God has won a mighty victory by God’s own power and holiness.

God of the ancient promises, we celebrate the confidence we
have in our God, who through many generations, has led God’s
people through difficult and good times. In anticipation of that
continuation of promised love and support, we join with all peoples,
and with all creation, to sing our praises to the God who overcomes.
The whole earth has seen and will see the salvation of our God. Amen.


A Personal Meditation
Easter 6B 2012
Psalm 98

This Psalm gives me clear instructions about the way I should
praise and worship my God! I am to be very positive in my
attitudes and actions, in my thoughts and my words and in
my reactions and responses in worship and prayer; and I must
not be shy or timid, as I praise and thank my God, but instead,
I must allow all my experiences – good and bad – all my joys
and sorrows of life to bubble up in one big expression of praise!

Creative pause: All my experiences of life bubble up in praise of my God.


The Psalmist was very wise when writing and singing this Psalm,
because he took into account all his own experiences of God, and
assumed that everyone else had similar times of joy and sadness,
success and defeat; and that he - along with other people - was
able to take these to God for blessing and healing; so that God
was given the due praise that God deserves. The Psalmist understood
that creation - in all its diversity - loves its Creator and celebrates
God’s powers and capacities to save and regenerate creation.

Creative pause: Giving God all the praise that is due and deserved.


I believe in the promised coming of the God of love, justice and
fairness to judge the earth, its peoples and its created diversity!
It is both scary and encouraging, because if God did not love the
world so much, then these acts of judgment would not occur.
I am also encouraged by the stories of God’s peoples through the
past centuries, often told in their own words and with their own
interpretations, but who have already undergone these acts of
loving and compassionate judgement. Whilst many of them had
failed to be faithful to God, and not even always followed in God’s
ways, God did not deal with them harshly, but with just fairness.

Creative pause: I am encouraged by the past stories of God’s judgement.



Acknowledgements:
Unless stated otherwise, all Bible readings and extracts used in these weekly Prayers and Meditations are from
‘The New Revised Standard Version’ Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

*The additional weekly numbering is from the Revised COCU Indexing Scheme
COCU = ('Consultation on Church Union'); as it offers an easy sequential numbering
for the Revised Common Lectionary for the Church Calendar.

If any part of these Prayers and/or Meditations is used in shared worship, please provide
the following acknowledgement:
© 2012 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year B. Used with permission.

jstott@netspace.net.au

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