All-Powerful to Save

As we conclude this series that interweaves the doctrine of God with the Psalms, I cannot help but reflect on belief and knowledge as partners in the Christian life. Belief leads us to pursue questions that deepen our knowledge, and knowledge informs the shape and character of our belief. Perhaps most important, though, is the reality that growing in belief and knowledge is not just an academic exercise. It is part of living our faith.

In Psalm 20, we see the interplay of belief and knowledge at work. From verses 1-5, the psalmist calls upon God to act on behalf of God’s people out of a belief that these requests are in line with who God is and what God does. And then, in verse 6, we turn not from what it only believed about God to what is believed and known. The NRSVUE translation begins, “Now I know that the Lord will help his anointed…” (Psalm 20:6). The psalmist believes and knows from experience that God is all-powerful to save.

What would it look like to worship at the nexus of our belief and our experiential knowledge of God’s power to save us? Not just save us for a life in heaven but save us here and now from all the ways sin impacts our lives—both the sins we commit and the sins that are baked into our society. How can we believe with one another in God’s powerful acts of salvation? How can we share our knowledge of God’s saving acts on our behalf? Testimony, yes. Intercessory prayer, absolutely. Preaching, certainly.

I would also like to make a case for a practice we don’t do very often, especially in Sunday morning services: a love feast. (For further information on the love feast from The United Methodist Book of Worship, see here.) If you choose to do a love feast, you might want to hold this service around tables, or you might consider sharing testimonies with one another in the pews or by writing and drawing testimonies on sheets of paper set up in the worship space. A sample draft of a love feast for this service can be found in the Liturgical Resources section. However you might choose to engage in this practice, use it as a time to share stories of God’s salvific work in your lives and in the neighborhood, so that all may be encouraged and edified in belief and knowledge.