A call to worship here:

O come let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. 

For He is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

(95.6-7, KJV)

A hymn over there:

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

(96.9)

Or, the anthems I will sing until my dying days:

For thou, O Lord, art high above all the earth; Thou art exalted far above all Gods … I exalt Thee.

(97.9, KJV)

Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool; holy is He.

(99.5, NRSV)

Mightier than the thunder of the great waters.

mightier than the breakers of the sea – the Lord on high is mighty.

(93.4, NIV)

When I thought, “My foot is slipping,” your stedfast love, O Lord, held me up.

When the cares of my heart are many, your consolation cheers my soul.

(94.18-19, NRSV)

May the favour of the Lord our God rest upon us;

establish the work of our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands.

… and I used to add, ‘heads and hearts’ as well.

(90.17, NIV)

In these noughties I was starting to travel. God was breaking my heart for the peoples of the world. The Sri Lankan tsunami was a defining experience. So also was a time in Zambia. I began to read new stuff, including Lamin Sanneh and Philip Jenkins. They took me to Psalm 91. ‘In Christian Africa and Asia, (this) psalm is everywhere.’ (Jenkins’ New Faces of Christianity, 108). How could these Christians with so much to fear be so fond of a psalm with such bold assertions that there is no need to fear? It is a question that I cannot shake – and it comes from the peoples of God I want to emulate. Amidst the pestilence and plague, the terror and arrow, come these words:

If you make the Most High your dwelling

– even the Lord, who is my refuge –

then no harm will befall you, no disaster will cone near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

(91.9-11)

Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;

the world and those who live in it.

Let the floods clap their hands;

let the hills sing forever for joy;

at the presence of the Lord,

for he is coming to judge the earth.

He will judge the world in righteousness

and the peoples with equity.

(98.7-9, NIV; see also 96.11-13)

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree

they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;

planted in the house of the Lord,

they will flourish in the courts of our God.

They will still bear fruit in old age,

they will stay fresh and green.,

proclaiming, “the Lord is upright;

he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

(92.12-15)

I love the 90s. I wanna be a 90s kind of guy – across all the decades of my life. I wanna experience the worship, the power, the care, the favour, the protection, the judgement, the presence of the living God – and join him in his mission in the world, ‘declaring his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples’ (96.3).

nice chatting

Paul