The Heavens Declare the Glory of God

A Gathering Meditation for Psalm 19
(Curry F. Butler)

Even though our nights are filled with sirens, gunshots, and dreams deferred, the heavens declare the glory of God. There is a special love-language that is spoken without words. I’ve never heard silence scream so loud. It screams God’s praise. The romantic relationship that God has with his creation is mind-blowing. All of creation has its own designated place. God spelled his love throughout 66 books, 1,189 chapters, and 23,145 verses. His love revives the soul, makes the simple wise, makes the heart rejoice, and enlightens the eyes. I’m talking about God’s love. God’s love does a lot of things, but ultimately it looks past my faults and sees my needs. When I need protecting, it protects me. When I need warning, it warns me. And when I need to be cleansed, it washes me. Like the heavens, I too must declare the glory of God. I can’t keep silent any longer! I must tell of the goodness of the Lord! God loves us so much that he gave his only begotten Son to die on Calvary so that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly. For that, we tell God, “thank you!” For that, we give God praise! For that, we give our lives.

Listen!

A Call to Worship, Based on Psalm 19
(Kwasi Kena)

One: If you listen
Many: You'll hear Heaven tell it.

One: If you listen
Many: You'll hear the Earth shout it.

One: If you listened long enough
Many: You'd know Day learned how to speak about it.

One: If you listened quietly enough
Many: You'd hear Last Night telling Tonight about it.

One: What would we hear?
Many: Tell us!

One: What would we hear?
Many: Tell us!

One: We'd hear all creation say
Many: God's ways are more precious than gold.

One: We'd hear all creation declare
Many: God's ways are sweeter than the honey in the honeycomb.

One: Now open your hearts and pray with all of creation.
All: Let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

Ten Commandments Litany

For Exodus 20: 1-17
(Safiyah Fosua)

Suggestion: Have the right and left sides of your congregation face each other as they speak the words of the commandments to each other.

Right Side:

Ex 20:1 (NRSV) Then God spoke all these words:
2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;
3 you shall have no other gods before me.

Left Side: Lord, there is none like you. We will let no one take your place!

Right Side:

4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Left Side: Nor will we make an idol of anything that exists now or in the future. Neither cars nor jobs, nor a person or a piece of property; neither tech toys nor leisure shall take your place.

Right Side:

Ex 20:7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

Left Side: Your name is not common, and you are not ordinary. We will keep your name holy.

Right Side:

8 Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.

Left Side: Teach us, O God, the rhythms of life. Show us the difference between the things that must be done and the things that we just want to do. Teach us how to rest.

Right Side:

Ex 20:12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

Left Side: Yes, Lord!

Right Side: 13 You shall not murder.

Left Side: We will remember that human life is sacred because you gave it.

Right Side: 14 You shall not commit adultery.

Left Side: No, Lord! We will honor the covenants that bind husbands and wives together.

Right Side: 15 You shall not steal.

Left Side: No, Lord! We will respect what belongs to others.

Right Side: 16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Left Side: No, Lord! We will not steal our neighbor’s honor.

Right Side: 17 You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Left Side: We reject and renounce the greed, envy, and pride of life that might cause us to sin.

ALL: Today, we choose to remember what you said through Moses, and what Jesus said, when he commanded us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. For on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Curry F. Butler, Jr. is a certified candidate for ministry in the Memphis Annual Conference. He is currently finishing his senior year at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia.