Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Psalm 139: A Prayer of Comfort from the Lord’s Abiding Presence—There is no place we can travel where the Lord is not present for the help, comfort, and salvation of His people who believe in Him. He searches our hearts. He knows everything about us. He is acquainted with all our ways. He knows every word we speak before we utter it. We cannot hide from His presence. We cannot fully grasp the wonder of His omniscience. He orders the affairs of our life, so that we are drawn to Him to seek His help in repentant faith. He has made each of us individually in our mother’s womb. He knew us before we were born. Our days are ordered in His book. His thoughts toward each of us are precious and more than we can number. We ask Him to make His will our own and to lead us each day in humble contrition and repentance, and in prayer to seek His guidance. If there is any wicked way in us, we pray that He would turn us to the good and to the way of everlasting life.

CP211226

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Psalm 139: A Prayer of Comfort from the Lord’s Abiding Presence—There is no place we can travel where the Lord is not present for the help, comfort, and salvation of His people who believe in Him. He searches our hearts. He knows everything about us. He is acquainted with all our ways. He knows every word we speak before we utter it. We cannot hide from His presence. We cannot fully grasp the wonder of His omniscience. He orders the affairs of our life, so that we are drawn to Him to seek His help in repentant faith. He has made each of us individually in our mother’s womb. He knew us before we were born. Our days are ordered in His book. His thoughts toward each of us are precious and more than we can number. We ask Him to make His will our own and to lead us each day in humble contrition and repentance, and in prayer to seek His guidance. If there is any wicked way in us, we pray that He would turn us to the good and to the way of everlasting life.

CP211219Catechesis Notes for the Week — Psalm 138: To Praise God with One’s Whole Heart—Psalm 138 confesses the Lord’s goodness and lovingkindness as the source of joy, comfort, and life for the Christian. When David prays, “I will praise You with my whole heart; before the gods I will sing praises to You,” he confesses that there is only one God, the God of mercy and salvation in Jesus Christ, our Savior. We worship Him who gave His life for us upon the cross. In the day of trouble, the Lord will hear. One day, all the kings of the earth will confess that He is God and Lord! Though the Lord is on high, Yet He regards the lowly. It is why we love Him. In the lowliness of our sinful, human condition, He looks upon us in mercy and revives our soul with His grace, turning away the wrath of those who would rise against us. When the psalmist declares, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever,” he reflects what the Apostle Paul would later declare, “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Psalm 137: A Prayer as Captives in a Foreign Land—Psalm 137 is a lament of the children of Judah whose holy city and Temple were destroyed by the Babylonians because of Judah’s rebellion against the Lord. Psalm 137 captures the sadness of the children of Judah who had lost their kingdom and had been carried away captive. Yet in spite of this lament, they came to believe, in contrition and faith, that the Lord would return them to the land of promise according to His Word. This is our hope as well, even as we lament over mistakes and backslidings in our own lives. “How long will we sing the Lord’s son in a foreign land?” In our prayers we cry out to God to return us to His Word and to keep us faithful to our Lord as we await His return for us in glory. He will remember us during our earthly pilgrimage. He will take vengeance upon the enemies of the Gospel. He will vindicate His people for their confession of faith in Christ.

CP211212 O Antiphons

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Psalm 136: The Lord’s Mercy Endures Forever—The most often repeated antiphon throughout the psalter is “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” This antiphon captures the heart of the Gospel and punctuates every verse of psalm 136. Our Savior is the God of gods and the Lord of lords because He is merciful. Mercy is not only at the heart of God’s nature, but it is also the source of that which sustains and saves the world. The mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ in His suffering and death upon the cross is the source and cause of every blessing we enjoy. In other words, if Jesus had not suffered and died in mercy to save us from our sins, no one would receive the gifts of daily bread or enjoy any of God’s blessings. Psalm 136 traces this mercy from every act of God’s creation and sustaining of the universe to every act of His salvation for Israel. The psalm concludes by underscoring how the mercy of God for Israel’s salvation is also the mercy of God that is at work in the Gospel of Christ: “[He] remembered us in our lowly state…and rescued us from our enemies…Who gives food to all flesh, for His mercy endures forever.”  CP211205