Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Psalm 66,3.5-7a..8-9; 66,1b.2a. Jubilate

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Psalm 66,3.5-7a.8-9; 66,1b.2a 2817

Jubilate (3. Sonntag nach Ostern) 038 weiß

Flavia Domitilla, Virgin, Martyr in Rome under Trajan 100

C. F. W. Walther, Pastor and Theologian, ✠ 1887

7. Mai 2017

1. О Lord God, Heavenly Father, who of Your Fatherly goodness does suffer Your children to come under Your chastening rod here on earth, so that we may be like unto Your Only-begotten Son in suffering and hereafter in glory: We beseech You, comfort us in temptations and afflictions by Your Holy Spirit, so that we may not fall into despair, but that we may continually trust in Your Son’s promise, so that our trials will endure but a little while, and will then be followed by eternal joy; so that we thus, in patient hope, may overcome all evil, and at last obtain eternal salvation. Amen. (Veit Dietrich for the Jubilate)

2. Shout for joy to God, all the earth, Hallelujah. Sing the Glory of His Name, Hallelujah. Say to God: How awesome are Your deeds! So great is Your power so that Your enemies go cringing to You. Go and see what God has done: He is awesome in His deeds toward the children of man. He rules by His might forever, Bless our God, O peoples; Let the sound of His praise be heard, who has kept our life among the living and has not let our feet slip.

3. »Shout for joy to God; sing the Glory of His Name!« The Service of Matins begins by singing responsively:

℣ O Lord, open my lips: *

℟ and my mouth will declare Your praise (Psalm 51,15; LSB 219).

Then we sing those opening verses of the Venite:

O come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving, let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise. For the Lord is a Great God and a Great King above all gods (Psalm 95,1-3; LSB 220).

So also the liturgy of our Divine Service III. Many parts in our Gottesdienst trace back 1500 years and in some cases to the very time of the apostles. Our Divine Service III follows almost identically the Common Service of 1888 which was prepared to help to resolve the confusion of a variety of Lutheran liturgies as the ethnic groups transitioned from their native languages to English. „This admirable work, a product of the confessional and liturgical movement which revived the church in Europe and America in the nineteenth century, was prepared by a Joint Committee representing the General Synod, the General Council, and the United Synod in the South. The plan of work and the excellence of its text commended it to all groups. Within a relatively few years it was included in the official Service Books of practically all the Lutheran Churches in the country. The principle or Rule which guided the framers of the Common Service, was: “the common consent of the pure Lutheran liturgies of the sixteenth century, and when there is not an entire agreement among them, the consent of the largest number of those of greatest weight.“ This decision to reproduce in the English language the consensus of the purified liturgies of the classic Reformation century, placed the project upon an objective, historical basis which limited the assertions of personal taste or preference. Thus, with few exceptions, the Common Service in its newest parts is as old as the time of the Reformation; in the order and great body of its material, it represents the pure service of the Christian Church of the West from the earliest times“ (www.ctsfw.edu/library/files/pb/704). Our Divine Service is one that praises God centered upon the work of Jesus.

4. »Say to God: How awesome are Your deeds! So great is Your power so that Your enemies go cringing to You.« Contemporary understanding about God focuses almost exclusively upon the phrase: God is love, and in doing so hearing a verse like Psalm 66,3 sounds odd, perhaps even un-Christian. God, however, is not a Deity with only one characteristic or trait. God gives us both the law and the gospel, judgment and justification, punishment and mercy. Thus, God created both a heaven and a hell. Those who receive God in faith that looks to His Son are those who inherit heaven, but those who oppose God and reject Christ are those who merit separation from God in hell. The Holy Scriptures tell us: »The Lord says to my Lord: Be seated at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool« (Psalm 110,1; Hebrews 1,13). John heard and saw in his Revelation: »I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been martyred for the Word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice: „O Sovereign Lord, Holy and True, how long before You will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?“« (Revelation 6,9-10). Later John heard and saw an angel say: »Just are You, O Holy One, who is and who was, for You brought these judgments. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink It is what they deserve!« (Revelation 16,5-6).

5. »Go and see what God has done; He is awesome in His deeds toward the children of man.« From Genesis to Revelation the Holy Scriptures expound upon the acts of deliverance the Lord has done for mankind. »God turned the sea into dry land; Israel passed through the Jordan River on foot« (Joshua 3,13). The Lord saved Noah and his family from the Flood, spared Lot and his daughters from Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction. The Epistle to the Hebrews declares: »And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David, Samuel and all the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out weakness, became might in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection« (Hebrews 11,32-35). The Bible reports 11 resurrections, and the greatest of these is when Jesus Himself rose from His grave on Easter. Jesus blesses us through His resurrection, as the Apostle Paul writes: »All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. We were buried therefore with Him by Baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead we too shall walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, then we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His« (Romans 6,3-5). Death no longer has dominion over Christ, therefore death no longer has dominion over us for we are united to Christ forever (Romans 6,9). Christ has fulfilled for us the words in our Introit: »God has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip.«

6. Jesus tells in today’s Jubilate Gospel lection: »I am the Vine, and you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in them bears much fruit, and My Father is glorified when you bear much fruit« (John 15,5.8). Christians do good works that flow from faith. Such works are the Ten Commandments, worshipping God faithfully and joyously, supporting the ministry of His Church when and as you can. All of this glorifies God the Father and benefits our neighbor. Thus, the Holy Spirit exerts us to be attentive to doing good works, and so we pray that more and more good works flow from from our foundation of faith in Jesus. »The prayer of a righteous person avails much« (James 5,16).

7. Psalm 66 concludes: »Blessed be God, because He has not rejected my prayer or removed His steadfast love from me!« (Psalm 66,20). We worship and praise a Merciful and Gracious God who is slow to anger but abounds in love and faithfulness (Exodus 34,6) that is revealed in His Only Son Jesus Christ. St. John assures us of that very fact in his Gospel: »For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life« (John 3,16). May the Holy Spirit work in us to love the world as God the Father loves the world. Amen.

11. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, Thou preserves the lives of Your Christian people. Give us Your life and strength so that we live, move and have our being in You alone, our Risen Lord. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Saturday, May 13, 2017

Psalm 66,3.5-7a..8-9; 66,1b.2a. Jubilate

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