Psalm Study - Evening Prayer and Liturgy

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Opening Prayer:
O God, You are our God, the One in whom we trust. We’ve gathered together to come before You, to open our hearts and minds to Your presence. We long to meet You here, and to hear Your voice.

We come with confidence, because we’ve met You here before; we’ve been awed and inspired by Your glory and Your power. We come with gratitude, because we’ve known Your steadfast love, a love which is better than life itself.

And so we praise You, lifting our voices, lifting our hands in joy and expectation. Come among us in Your power. Pour out Your spirit on our thirsty souls, that we may be filled with Your goodness and love.*

Reading:
Imagine the angelic choirs, and God the Lord of all sitting, and his Only Son sitting with him at his right hand, and the Spirit with them present, and thrones and dominions doing service, and each man and woman among you receiving salvation. Even now let your ears ring with the sound: long for that glorious sound, which after your salvation, the angels will chant over you:

Blessed are they whose iniquities have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. [Ps 32:1]**

Song - Psalm 118
Oh give thanks to the Lord
Oh give thanks to the Lord
For He is good, He is good
For He is good, He is good

His steadfast love endures
Forever, forever, He endures

Reading – Psalm 90

(Take a moment to ponder your mortality and to confess your need for God)

Song – Psalm 66
Come and see what God has done, see what God has done
For every daughter and every son
Oh, Come and hear what God has done
For everyone who fears the Lord will sing of what he’s done

And all the earth will shout your praise
And all the earth will sing your name
For You are great, For You are great

How glorious your name
How awesome are your ways
For you are great, For you are great

Reading – Psalm 92

Free expression of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord

The Words of Jesus – John 15:18-27
"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 

But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: 'They hated me without a cause.' (Psalm 35:19; 69:4)

But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.”

Reflection
•    On how God is meeting you through your pursuit of him in the Psalms
•    On what God is teaching you about himself and what it means to walk with him
•    On what is stirring in your own hearts as you grow in the heart language of God

Song – Psalm 134
Come and bless the Lord
Come and bless the Lord
Come and bless the Lord
All you servants of the Lord

Lift up your head 
To the holy place
Lift up your head 
And bless his name

Evening Readings – Psalms 3, 4, and 137

Closing Prayer and Benediction
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. ~ Jude 24-25

*Adapted from re:Worship (Opening Prayer Psalm 63)
**Cyril of Jerusalem, Procatechesis