Sunday Meditation, March 14

God, Our Help in Ages Past, Our Hope for Years to Come

Scripture for Meditation: Deuteronomy 33:27a

The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

Prayer of Blessing

Responsive Reading: Numbers 14:26-35

And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 

“How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. 

Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 

But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. 

But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ I, the Lord, have spoken.

Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”

Prayer of Corporate Confession

Silence for Personal Confession

Assurance of Pardon: Romans 8:38, 39

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Response: Thanks be to God.

Instrumental Meditation: All of Our Tomorrows

Ministry of the Word

Transition to Singing

Feel free to leave at this time or stay for the indoor singing.

Psalm of Help: Psalm 40

I waited for the Lord my God, and patiently did bear;
At length to me he did incline my voice and cry to hear.

He took me from a fearful pit, and from the miry clay,
And on a rock he set my feet, establishing my way.

He put a new song in my mouth, our God to magnify:
Many shall see it, and shall fear, and on the Lord rely. 

Thy tender mercies, Lord, from me O do thou not restrain;
Thy loving-kindness, and thy truth, let them me still maintain.

The Scottish Psalter of 1650

Hymn of Hope: All of Our Tomorrows

This spinning world by Your own hand
Hurls ever on around the sun
The seasons march at Your command
The old departs, the new year comes
And though celestial is Your gaze
You search and care for all our ways
We offer up to You this day
And all of our tomorrows.

May zealous youth and cautious age
Determine not the steps we choose
Great Shepherd, guide us through each day
Oh, how we want to follow You
Come Living Way, our way make clear
Let perfect love drive out our fear
Be Thou our vision, now and here
And all of our tomorrows.

When winter makes us reminisce
Of warmer days so distant now
Of cherished saints the sun once kissed
Whose beauty passed behind the clouds
Let all our fond and longing tears
Remind us we are pilgrims here
We trust You, Sovereign of our years
With all of our tomorrows.

Hands to the plow, we’re pressing on
And running hard to win the prize
Empowered by the love of God
With grace before and grace behind
For lo, what hope before us stands
You finish all that You began
Eternal joy is in Your hands
And all of our tomorrows.

Words and music by Dave Fournier and Ryan Foglesong © 2020 Sovereign Grace Worship/ASCAP, Sovereign Grace Praise/BMI (adm. worldwide at CapitolCMGPublishing.com, excluding the UK & Europe which is adm. by Integrity Music). Sovereign Grace Music, a division of Sovereign Grace Churches. All rights reserved. CCLI #2783020

Hymn of Refuge: O God, Our Help in Ages Past    

O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.

O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guide while life shall last,
And our eternal home.

Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
Based on Psalm 90

*All Scripture, English Standard Version. © 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission.