Singing the Lord’s Song (Psalm 146) // Saturday, October 30, 2021

Singing the Lord’s Song (Psalm 146) // Saturday, October 30, 2021

#LetUsWorship Read the scripture and download the bulletin to prepare for 10:00 am Saturday worship, Holy Communion and Weekly Bible studies!

After-Worship Zoom Fellowship instructions @ https://inglewoodfirst.org/worship!



Guest Preacher: Rev. Gary Bernard Williams

Rev. Gary Bernard Williams was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He is the Senior Pastor of Saint Mark UMC in the heart of South Los Angeles. He’s passionate about congregational revitalization, spiritual transformation, and community engagement. Pastor Gary has a prophetic, progressive, and transformative vision of what South Los Angeles can be.

Pastor Gary is an Ordained Elder in the Cal-Pac Conference and serves as Co-Chair for CLUE (Clergy & Labor United for Economic Justice), on the General Board of Church & Society’s Advisory Team for 2019, Ministry with the Poor Gathering & Chair of the Cal-Pac Conference Committee working to End Mass Incarceration. He is the founder of the Full Circle Recovery Ministry, a Christian based 12 Step group, and Faith in Action, a group working to end Gun and Gang violence in South LA.


Psalm 146 (New Revised Standard Version)

1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!

2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
 I will sing praises to my God all my life long.

3 Do not put your trust in princes,
    in mortals, in whom there is no help.

4 When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
    on that very day their plans perish.

5 Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
    whose hope is in the Lord their God,

6 who made heaven and earth,
    the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;

7     who executes justice for the oppressed;
    who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8     the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.

The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
    the Lord loves the righteous.

9 The Lord watches over the strangers;
    he upholds the orphan and the widow,
    but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

10 The Lord will reign forever,
    your God, O Zion, for all generations.

Praise the Lord!


Summary:

For the month of October, we will journey through the scriptures and be reminded that in the midst of challenging and trying times, we can “sing the Lord’s song in a strange land.”  It may take time to learn some new lyrics, sing in a new key or build the confidence to sing at all, but the Psalms show us there that we are able to discover trust, love, hope and peace when we are able to sing the Lord’s Song!

The Psalmist encourage us to praise the Lord our whole lives because I trust ought be in God over human beings. When we trust in God, we find hope a deliverance because the Creator is greater that all creation!   

Reflection Questions:

  1. What is a word, phrase or image that comes to mind when you read or hear the text?
  2. What does this scripture teach you about the word praising the Lord?
  3. What does God invite you to do, change or be through this passage?