Sunday, June 27, 2021

Call to Worship: Trees, Not Channels (Psalm 1)

Leader: Blessed is the one...whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

Response: That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.[1]

LeaderThe tree is no mere channel, piping water unchanged from one place to another, but a living organism which absorbs it, to produce in due course something new and delightful, proper to its kind and to its time.[1]

Response; Like water through the tree, God's grace does not retain the same form. It is expressed in as many unique ways as there are children of God. We are your children.

Leader: Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, on each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. 

Response: And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.[3] We are your people.

[1] Psalm 1:1a,2-3 (NIV)
[2]Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, vol. 15 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973), p. 48 as cited by Tim Keller, Prayer (New York, NY: Dutton, 2014), p. 148
[3] Revelation 22:1a,2b (NIV)

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