Saturday Yr B Sunday between Jul 10-16
Psalm 48
A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah.
1 Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise,
in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
2 It is beautiful in its loftiness,
the joy of the whole earth.
Like the utmost heights of Zaphon [a] is Mount Zion,
the [b] city of the Great King.
3 God is in her citadels;
he has shown himself to be her fortress.
4 When the kings joined forces,
when they advanced together,
5 they saw her and were astounded;
they fled in terror.
6 Trembling seized them there,
pain like that of a woman in labor.
7 You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish
shattered by an east wind.
8 As we have heard,
so have we seen
in the city of the LORD Almighty,
in the city of our God:
God makes her secure forever.
Selah
9 Within your temple, O God,
we meditate on your unfailing love.
10 Like your name, O God,
your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;
your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11 Mount Zion rejoices,
the villages of Judah are glad
because of your judgments.
12 Walk about Zion, go around her,
count her towers,
13 consider well her ramparts,
view her citadels,
that you may tell of them to the next generation.
14 For this God is our God for ever and ever;
he will be our guide even to the end.
2 Samuel 3:31-38 (New International Version)
31 Then David said to Joab and all the people with him, “Tear your clothes and put on sackcloth and walk in mourning in front of Abner.” King David himself walked behind the bier. 32 They buried Abner in Hebron, and the king wept aloud at Abner’s tomb. All the people wept also.
33 The king sang this lament for Abner:
“Should Abner have died as the lawless die?
34 Your hands were not bound,
your feet were not fettered.
You fell as one falls before wicked men.”
And all the people wept over him again.
35 Then they all came and urged David to eat something while it was still day; but David took an oath, saying, “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun sets!”
36 All the people took note and were pleased; indeed, everything the king did pleased them. 37 So on that day all the people and all Israel knew that the king had no part in the murder of Abner son of Ner.
38 Then the king said to his men, “Do you not realize that a prince and a great man has fallen in Israel this day?
Matthew 8:18-22 (New International Version)
The Cost of Following Jesus
18When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
21Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
22But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Great is the Lord and worthy of praise
Pastor Mick handed out Bibles at youth group. “I’ve got a photograph I’m going to pass around.”
Karen glanced down, as she took it. “Cool. We were just studying about galaxies in science today. NASA had some awesome pictures. One picture of a neutron star with spinning energy that spans light years and it looks like a big hand—people nicknamed it ‘the hand of God’.”
“I saw that picture online. It’s amazing.” Treat supplied.
“It makes me think” Pastor Mick smiled, “of God’s greatness in creation when I see scientific discoveries such as this.”
“Joey says his parents don’t believe that scientific discoveries are telling the truth.” Amos ventured. “He says a lot of science goes against God’s creation.”
“That’s interesting. Do you believe that God created the earth and universe and everything?” Pastor Mick looked around the room.
“Duh. It says so, … in Genesis.” Amos retorted.
“I believe God created the earth, too.” Pastor Mick nodded agreement. “Science is the study of the everything using experiments. So, if you are a scientist studying creation, wouldn’t you be studying what God did?”
“I guess so.”
“So anything that you discover by systematic experiment must be something God created. It’s another way that God speaks to us–through scientific discoveries.”
“But what if the scientists…m- make mistakes?” Treat blustered.
“Everyone makes mistakes, but when the evidence consistently supports a conclusion, we can feel comfortable it must be from God. Open your Bibles to Psalm 48:1, 14 and someone read.”
Amos began, “Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain. For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.”
“So what do we learn?” Mick looked around for someone to answer.
Karen looked at her Bible. “God is great and worthy of praise.”
“Just like in the NASA photos, the amazing stuff makes us want to praise God, who is worthy of our praise.” Sandy smiled as she looked at the photo.
“So why are people so against science?” Treat asked.
“Understanding how God works in our history is complicated, and some assume that the scriptures can only mean one thing when it’s possible that it could mean something else.” Pastor Mick scanned the faces of the youth group. “Sometimes our pride gets in the way.”
“We have to avoid prideful assumptions and let God help us uncover more about creation.” Karen suggested. “Psalm 48 says God will be our God forever and ever and our guide to the end.”
“How does that help?” Amos scrunched his face.
“If God is our guide, we can trust our exploration and discovery, since our creator is in charge, and every discovery is in God’s hands.” Karen told him.
Jaime held up the photo. “Maybe God helps us visualize the power of God by having a neutron star explode and send energy light years across the sky.”
Treat grabbed the photo from Jaime. “Yeah, then every discovery can bring more praise to God.”
Karen ventured, “Yeah, we shouldn’t waste time arguing that the discovery is not valid—we don’t want to be like people who thought the earth was flat. God wants us to use our brains. We glorify God that way.”
“Well said, Karen. Does anyone have anything else?”
“I think there is lots to praise God about. There’s a whole lot a universe out there.”
“Good thought to end on. Let’s pray.” Pastor Mick reached out his hands to form a circle.
Daily prayer: Sovereign God, creator of the universe, the neutron star and galaxies far, far away, you are great and worthy of praise. Forgive our arrogance. Help us to study about you by studying the world and space that you have given for our enjoyment. Open our minds to what you want us to learn and keep us from prideful mistakes. Teach us to praise you and accept our humble offering of praise for the marvelous works you have done. We love you and thank you for loving us first. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Memory verse: Psalm 48:1 Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
