book of psalms

10 Reminders to Rejoice

PSALM 2:11
Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

PSALM 5:11
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.

PSALM 16:8-9
I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.

PSALM 31:7-8
I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul, and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place.

PSALM 40:16
But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!”

PSALM 64:10
Let the righteous one rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him! Let all the upright in heart exult!

PSALM 90:14
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

PSALM 97:12
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!

PSALM 104:34
May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.

PSALM 118:24
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

A LITURGY BEFORE

Taking the Stage

What have I to offer here
that might sustain the souls of others?
Alone I have little more to show
beneath this scrutiny of lights
than my own pride and insecurity,
my craving for praise, and my fear of rejection.

Rather, let me offer something
greater in this place, O Christ.
As I step onto this stage,
meet me amidst the wreckage
of my ego and my woundedness,
and through me give what I alone cannot.

I offer you all that I have:
my talents, my training,
the years spent honing
and crafting and creating,
my passions, my personality, my history,
the many sacrifices I and others
have made in order for me to be here.
I give you even my brokenness,
of which I am also a steward.

I offer now these incomplete
and insufficient provisions,
remembering how you, in your days among us,
twice blessed inadequate offerings,
fashioning them into miraculous feasts
that would sustain crowds in their hard journeys.

I pray that you would likewise
receive and bless and multiply
my own meager gifts, Jesus,
for the benefit of all who have gathered here.

Let these humble elements, in your hands,
become a true nourishment for those
who hunger for you.
And for those who have not yet wakened
to their deepest hungers,
let my brief service to them
be like the opening of a window
through which the breezes of a far country might blow,
stirring eternal longings to life.

Take this tiny heap of my talents
and my brokenness alike,
this jumble of what is best and worst in me,
and meld it to the greater work of your Spirit,
using each facet as you will, so that,
even as sunlight coursing through a cracked prism,
your grace might somehow be revealed
upon this stage in whatever gloried and
peculiar patterns you have fashioned me to display.

Amen.