URC Daily Devotion 26th January 2025

Cry out with joy to God all the earth,
O sing to the glory of his name.
O render him glorious praise.
Say to God: “How tremendous are your deeds!

Because of the greatness of your strength
your enemies cringe before you.
Before you all the earth shall bow,
shall sing to you, sing to your name!”

Come and see the works of God,
tremendous his deeds among the peoples.
He turned the sea into dry land,
they passed through the river dry-shod.

Let our joy then be in him;
he rules forever by his might.
His eyes keep watch over the nations:
let rebels not rise against him.

O peoples, bless our God;
let the voice of his praise resound,
of the God who gave life to our souls
and kept our feet from stumbling.

For you, O God, have tested us,
you have tried us as silver is tried;
you led us, God, into the snare;
you laid a heavy burden on our backs.

You let foes ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water
but then you brought us relief.

Burnt offering I bring to your house;
to you I will pay my vows,
the vows which my lips have uttered,
which my mouth spoke in my distress.

I will offer burnt offerings of fatlings
with the smoke of burning rams.
I will offer bullocks and goats.

Come and hear, all who fear God,
I will tell what he did for my soul:
to him I cried aloud,
with high praise ready on my tongue.

If there had been evil in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
But truly God has listened;
he has heeded the voice of my prayer.

Blessed be God who did not reject my prayer
nor withhold his love from me.

Reflection

This is a psalm operating at two levels – the collective and the individual. I imagine different groups in the congregation singing each section as call and response, taking it in turns to sing some of the verses as laid out here.

It starts with everyone praising God who is all powerful and towers over cringing enemies. Then one group remembers part of their history when Moses led God’s people to freedom. In verses 5 to 7 a different chorus reminds everyone how life has been hard and yet they have come through the worst, simultaneously held and tested by their God. Then the psalm shifts from collective to individual reflection, as a soloist sings on behalf of the whole gathering about paying their dues to God. The prophets might well scoff at the offer of rams, bullocks and goats questioning whether that’s the kind of sacrifice that God wants. No matter, in verses 10 to 12 another individual sings of their gratitude for what God has done for them, ending with a hint of a covenant relationship with God.

The constant flux between the collective and individual in worship seems familiar. Within a gathering of people, however small or large, there will be a variety of emotions, needs and expectations. The ones who provide energy when the singing flags stand next to the troubled individual who wonders why God is testing them. Some look back to what God has done in the past and learn from it, while others are caught up in the present moment of connection with the divine. It can be a giddy cacophony, with the worship leader themselves pulled in competing directions as they sense the different dynamics within the worshipping congregation.      
            
Prayer

Thank you God,
for staying steady when we are all over the place;
for accepting the joyful noise we make;
for bringing us to a spacious place;
for listening to our barely articulated desires;
for understanding the vows we make when our backs are against the wall.
 
Thank you God,
for bearing with all our giddiness,
and keeping on loving us. Amen