✙ Ps 95:1
This verse comes up on a Sunday this year, and I like that, because Psalm 95 is very much a Sunday psalm (regardless of how it ends). What the psalmist enjoins, we cannot do in private, regardless of how spiritual we think we are. Faith is not just a matter of study or private prayer or having good intentions. As often as not, it means coming together with other people of faith.
This psalm which calls God's people into a worshiping community reminds me of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together, in which he states that:
It is by God's grace that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly around God's word and sacrament in this world. Not all Christians partake of this grace. The imprisoned, the sick, the lonely who live in the diaspora, the proclaimers of the gospel in heathen lands stand alone. They know that visible community is grace.
And so, when God's call to worship is issued, as the old hymn asks, "how can I keep from singing?"
This psalm which calls God's people into a worshiping community reminds me of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together, in which he states that:
It is by God's grace that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly around God's word and sacrament in this world. Not all Christians partake of this grace. The imprisoned, the sick, the lonely who live in the diaspora, the proclaimers of the gospel in heathen lands stand alone. They know that visible community is grace.
And so, when God's call to worship is issued, as the old hymn asks, "how can I keep from singing?"
Thank you, O Holy One, for the grace of community. May my joy at the thought of singing your praises be made that much sweeter by the knowledge that I won't be singing them alone; in Jesus' Name who taught me to pray not to my Father, but to...
