psalm 95

A Bigger Story

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We will worship together via zoom at 5 pm on Sunday. Click here to participate.
Our midtown parish group (hosted by the Thompsons and Soren) will meet for prayer at 8 pm on Thursdays.
Our downtown parish group will meet for prayer next week (details to be announced).
To see the rest of our daily devotionals, with prayers, songs and reflections, click here. To sign up for daily emails, click here. 

Prayers

  1. Morning

    1. Readings

      1. Old Testament: Exodus 2:1-22

      2. Psalm: 95

    2. Prayer: The Lord's Prayer

    3. Hymn: Come Thou Fount

  2. Evening

    1. Readings

      1. New Testament: Mark 9:2-13

      2. Psalm: 102

    2. Hymn: Abide With Me

    3. Prayer: Psalm 138:7-8 (below)


Devotional on Psalm 95:
In the recent hit Netflix TV show "Stranger Things," the epic battle between good and evil is played out right under the noses of people living in Hawkins, a small town slice of Americana. This war is waged on two fronts: first, there is the actual conflict between good and evil, the back and forth between "The Upside-Down" and the theoretically "Right-side Up." But second, and no less difficult, is the battle the protagonists face to wake up the citizens of small-town America to the fact that the Upside-Down is right under their noses. Its almost like their quaintness, their civility, their normalcy, their goodness is a weapon of evil, to blind them to the larger story unfolding around them.

Are we living in Hawkins? The weather in Savannah this past week has sometimes made me think so. One of the most jarring experiences of this whole pandemic has been the disconnect between the story unfolding on the Internet and our direct sense experience. The Internet is on fire with stories of suffering, or warnings of doom, but my daily experience is just sunny and 82 degrees. And thats the danger; if all we did was act on the basis of the story we encounter in our daily lives, by the time we woke up to the true reality of our situation it would be too late. The challenge is clear- to act effectively, we have to consciously live as if we are a part of a bigger story.

That is exactly what Psalm 95 invites us to do. By inviting us into worship, the writer invites us to live in the bigger unfolding story of God's redemption and love for his people. It is a story that is not always self-evident; often the story is obscured by the trials and little daily bureaucratic annoyances of modern life. The Israelites of Exodus looked at a desert and saw nothing but rock. But God made water come from that rock. That is the story we live in. That is the God we serve. 

For discussion:
1. What in daily life makes it difficult to believe that you live in a story of God's love and redemption?
2. What in **your** life makes it difficult to believe that you live in a story of God's love and redemption?
3. What can you do to worship and bow down (to consciously live in God's story) for a little while each day?

A prayer for presence, from Psalm 138:

    [7] Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
        you preserve my life;
    you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
        and your right hand delivers me.
    [8] The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
        your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.
        Do not forsake the work of your hands. (ESV)