CCRC Song/Psalm of the Month for June, 2014

At CCRC we are endeavouring to learn/focus on a Psalm or song each month. Psalm 72 - "O Lord, Thy Judgements Give the King" from the Cantus Christi hymnal is June's song of the month. Below is a meditation for this month's Psalm.

Meditation on Psalm 72

- A Psalm for Solomon -

Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.

He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.

In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.

The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him. 

For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.

And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised. There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.

His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.

- The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. –

Originally Psalm 72 would have been a prayer for the coronation (“anointing”) of Solomon.  Enduring-kingship is a repeated theme: verse 11 – Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him; verse 17 – His name shall endure for ever.

Note how David's prayer for his son is not selfish or self-serving; David asks for God to give the king thy judgments . . . and thy righteousness unto the king's son (verse 1), and the motivation behind this prayer is in order that Solomon might be a servant-king, endowed with wisdom, thus, enabled to judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment (verse 2). David prays this prayer for Solomon because David is a man after God's own heart. David loves Israel, and when he is gone he wants Israel to be cared for by a good king. David knows that if the king is righteous then the people will be righteous and flourish (verse 7).

Solomon did become a wise king. 1 Kings 4:30-31 says, And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore. And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. Solomon, however, was not perfect, and later on in 1 Kings many of his moral failures are recorded. Because of Solomon’s sin eventually (after his death) the kingdom was torn in two.

Psalm 72, however, is not only a prayer for Solomon, it is also a prophecy regarding a different king—the Messiah. Jesus Christ is the anointed-king who truly has an enduring-kingship. He not only binds broken Israel back together post-Exile, but Christ also binds broken man back together (see Isaiah 57:19; Ephesians 2:17; Galatians 3:27-28). David prayed for Solomon to be a servant-king, and Solomon was, but only in part. However, Jesus Christ is the son of David who fulfilled David's prayer. Consider just verses 1-8:

• Jesus is the son of David to whom righteousness is given (verse 1, see Isaiah 11; Matthew 1:1 & 3:17).
• Jesus judges people with righteousness (verse 2, see Matthew 25:32).
• Jesus uses mountains to bring peace to people (verse 3, see Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7; see also the crucifixion at Golgotha, the little hill called Calvary, in Matthew 27).
• Jesus saves the children of the needy, and breaks in pieces the oppressor (verse 4, see Psalm 2).
• Jesus is feared throughout all generations (verse 5, see Habakkuk 2:14).
• Jesus enduring-kingship is a life-giving rain that will water the entire earth (verse 6, see John 7:38).
• Jesus ensures that the righteous will flourish, that is, the Church will multiply and get dominion (verse 7, see Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8).
• Jesus’ enduring-kingdom will extend from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth (verse 8, see Daniel 2:44-45).

Psalm 72 ought to be one of the most joyful songs sung by the Church of Christ. In this song we are proclaiming the righteousness of King Jesus, the redemption he secures for men, and both the arrival and the permanence of the Kingdom of God. Truly Christ’s redemptive work was once for all (Hebrews 10:10), therefore, with faith we hope for things unseen: we victoriously celebrate Christ’s enduring-kingship, both here and now, all-the-while anticipating the consummation of eternal life when we will sit down at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).

In 1 Corinthians 13:12 Paul says, For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. Today when Christians sing Psalm 72 it is a prayer that we know will be answered in full, but it in praying this prayer it is like seeing through a glass darkly. However, when Christians sing Psalm 72:19 at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb – And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen and Amen – it will be face to face with God. Changed from glory to glory, what once was our prayer will have been changed into enduring-praise that proclaims the attributes of Christ's enduring-kingdom!

Hymn: Christ Shall Have Dominion

Christ Shall Have Dominion

From The Psalter, 1912

Based on Psalm 72

(Tune: 'Onward Christian Soldiers')

Christ shall have dominion 

Over land and sea,

Earth's remotest regions 

Shall His empire be;

They that wilds inhabit 

Shall their worship bring;

Kings shall render tribute, 

Nations serve our King.

When the needy seek Him, 

He will mercy show;

Yea, the weak and helpless 

Shall His pity know.

He will surely save them 

From oppression's might,

For their lives are precious 

In His holy sight.

Ever and forever 

Shall His name endure;

Long as suns continue 

It shall stand secure;

And in him forever 

All men shall be blest,

And all nations hail Him 

King of kings confessed.

Unto God Almighty 

Joyful Zion sings;

He alone is glorious, 

Doing wondrous things.

Evermore, ye people, 

Bless His glorious name,

His eternal glory 

Through the earth proclaim.

I Will Prepare for Worship by Thom S. Rainer

 "I Will Prepare for Worship" from Thom S. Rainer's blog.

This weekend I will attend my church’s worship service.
I will prepare for that corporate worship event;
I will not take the moments lightly.
I will see it as a precious time to gather with brothers and sisters in Christ. 

I will prepare for worship.
I will ask God to prepare my own heart.
I will ask Him to help me hear God’s Word clearly.
I will ask Him to speak to me that I might be changed. 

I will prepare for worship.
I pray that I will not be distracted by my own preferences:
By the style of music; the length of the sermon; the place where I sit;
Or anything that would cause me to focus on me instead of God. 

I will prepare for worship.
I will pray for my pastor that the sermon will be anointed.
I will pray for strength for my pastor,
And for encouragement in a world that often offers little. 

I will prepare for worship.
I will pray for other leaders in the church,
Leaders often unnoticed and unappreciated,
And specifically for those who sacrificially care for our children in the services. 

I will prepare for worship.
I will pray that I will hear God’s voice in the music, in the prayers,
And in every moment we gather as a body of believers,
United in heart, focus, and purpose. 

I will prepare for worship.
I will pray with my family before we leave to go the church service.
I will also pray alone for the services before we leave,
Even if it’s only for a few minutes. 

I will prepare for worship,
As I see fellow believers enter to worship together,
I will pray for them and their families,
And I will pray for their own hearts of worship. 

I will prepare for worship.
I understand I am blessed to be able to gather,
Because I know that many Christians around the world
Are being persecuted and banned from such times. 

I will prepare for worship.
I pray I will understand that it is a foretaste of heaven,
And that I will never take such times for granted,
I pray I will truly rejoice in the house of the Lord. 

I will prepare for worship.
Thank you, God, for your grace.
Thank you, God, for you goodness.
And for allowing me these precious moments to gather to worship You. 

"I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD."
—Psalm 122:1

Victory in Jesus: I Heard An Old, Old Story

I heard an old, old story, how a Savior came from glory
How He gave His life on Calvary to save a wretch like me
I heard about His groaning, of His precious blood's atoning
Then I repented of my sins and won the victory

/Chorus/
Oh victory in Jesus, my Savior forever
He sought me and He bought me with His redeeming blood
He loved me 'ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood

I heard about His healing, of His cleansing power revealing
How He made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see
And then I cried, "Dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit"
I then obeyed His blest command and gained the victory

/Chorus/

I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory
And I heard about the street of gold beyond the crystal sea
About the angels singing and the old redemption story
Oh and some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory

/Chorus/

He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood

(The Hymnal for Worship and Celebration, 473)

Scriptural Reference:

"Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood." Acts 20:28

"But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

CCRC: Psalm/Song of the Month for April, 2014

At CCRC we are endeavoring to learn/focus on a Psalm or song each month. Psalm 22:11-20 - "Be Not Far Off, for Grief is Near" from the Cantus Christi hymnal is April's song of the month. Below is a meditation for this month's Psalm. 

Psalm/Song of the Month for April, 2014

“Be Not Far Off, for Grief Is Near”

Cantus Christi – 31

Psalm 22:11 – 20

Psalm 22 has become a standard (classic) passage for Christian liturgical use during the Lenten Season; Jesus on the cross, identifying with the Psalmist, recited its opening line (v. 1), "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"(Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34)

This psalm begins with the honest question, "Why, God, have you abandoned me?" It ends, however, with the triumphant conclusion (vv. 30-31), "A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this." Considering the arc of this psalm, one commentator has said, "From the initial cry of cosmic isolation, the poet now engages himself to live ‘for’ or ‘in’ the Lord. The generation to be born shall then proclaim the fidelity of Yahweh to his beloved servant” (Samuel Terrien, The Psalms, 234-235). In this psalm, the poet has aptly described both the emotional and temporal transformation from sorrow/defeat to joy/victory.

Christians see this transformation, firstly, in the Father’s resurrection of Jesus, and, secondly, in the growth of the Church—it is the total Christ, both Jesus Christ and his Body (the Church), who proclaims the fidelity of God the Father to his only begotten Son, the beloved and suffering servant who went to the cross to save the lost.

There are three structurally identifiable divisions in this psalm which build to the concluding remarks in vv. 30-31:

• vv. 1-11. With intimacy, cf. vv. 1-2, poet introduces theme of lament, however, v. 11 concludes with a cry of hope.
• vv. 12-23. He describes the "animality" of tormentors, yet, in v. 16, he acknowledges that God is sovereign/cause of his torment. Finally, he instructs those who fear the Lord, i.e., the seed of Jacob, the seed of Israel, to praise the Lord.
• vv. 24-29. Without an elaborate transition, the psalmist introduces a hymn of praise/thankfulness—the psalmist is “certain of his deliverance or his healing to come” (Terrien, 233).
• vv. 30-31. Intimacy of vv. 1-2 “transmutes into a future of glory” (Terrien, 230); the future generation will “proclaim the fidelity of Yahweh to his beloved servant.”

The majority of the verses rendered/paraphrased for singing in Be Not Far Off, for Grief is Near are from the second division—the verses move from the (1) cry of hope, (2) to the description of tormentors, and (3) concludes with petition for deliverance.

Meditating on the 22nd Psalm reminds us that in Redemptive History there is no triumph without sorrow, there is no resurrection without crucifixion, and there is no Easter without Good Friday. “The ultimate lament begins with the terror of the void, but it ends with the fervor of the saved” (Terrien, 236). As Habakkuk said, “O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: . . . in wrath remember mercy.”

Aids for teaching and meditation:

• Because we have been adopted by God (cf. Romans 8:15), we have an intimate relationship with the Father. Not in spite of but because Jesus is our mediator, we are able to call out to God with honest intimacy, e.g., "My God, my God . . ."
• God is Holy (v. 3). God is sovereign over our affliction (v. 15). In our affliction, we appeal to God, but we do so with trust, godly fear, and praise (vv. 20-23).

Below is an interlinear presentation of Psalm 22:11-20 – bold is KJV/English translation and italic is Cantus Christi’s verse rendering/paraphrasing for singing (taken from The Book of Psalms for Singing, 1973).

v. 11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

v. 11 Be not far off, for grief is near, And none to help is found;

v. 12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.

v. 12 For bulls of Bashan in their strength Now circle me around.

v. 13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

v. 13 Their lion jaws they open wide, And roar to tear their prey.

v. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

v. 14 My heart is wax, my bones unknit, My life is poured away.

v. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

v. 15 My strength is only broken clay; My mouth and tongue are dry, / For in the very dust of death You there make me to lie.

v. 16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

v. 16 For see how dogs encircle me! On every side there stands / A brotherhood of cruelty; They pierce my feet and hands.

v. 17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

v. 17 My bones are plain for me to count; men see me and they stare.

v. 18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

v. 18 My clothes among them they divide, And gamble for their share.

v. 19 But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.

v. 19 Now hurry, O my Strength to help! Do not be far, O LORD!

v. 20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

v. 20 But snatch my soul from raging dogs, And spare me from the sword.

Creation Being Itself

"The work of the Spirit, as well as being fundamentally eschatological, is also essentially immanent: the Spirit works within creation, establishing the creation's ability to be itself to the praise of its Creator" (Stephen R. Holmes, Listening to the Past: The Place of Tradition in Theology, 158).

The Shape of Prayer . . . The Shape of Liturgy

"Note that we began, not with moral problems and ethical dilemmas; we began with prayer. . . . We are a people whose moral lives are shaped liturgically. Our ethics is a by-product of our worship" (William H. Willimon & Stanley Hauerwas, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord's Prayer and the Christian Life, 47).

Worship

"Jesus' famous statement in John 4:23 that the Father seeks worshippers is unparalleled, for nowhere in the entire corpus of Holy Scripture do we read of God's seeking anything else from a child of God. God desires worship above all else. . . . A look at the massive emphasis in the Old Testament reveals God's mind on worship's priority. Exodus devotes twenty-five chapters to the construction of the Tabernacle, the locus of divine worship. Leviticus amounts to a twenty-seven chapter liturgical manual. And the Psalms are a spectacular 150-chapter worship hymnal. Divine worship has always been the occupation and sustenance, the priority, of the believing soul" (R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man, 111).

Created for Praise

"Not to know the name of God, not to know how God's name is hallowed, in other words, not to know how to worship, is to live in fundamental conflict with our true selves. We are created for no better purpose than praise. As Saint Augustine said, 'because you made us for yourself, our hearts find no peace until they rest in you'" (William H. Willimon & Stanley Hauerwas, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord's Prayer and the Christian Life, 43).

Scripture and Christian Formation

"The Christian Scriptures are the primary text for Christian spirituality. Christian spirituality is, in its entirety, rooted in and shaped by the scriptural text. We don't form our personal spiritual lives out of a random assemblage of favorite texts in combination with individual circumstances; we are formed by the Holy Spirit in accordance with the text of Holy Scripture. God does not put us in charge of forming our personal spiritualities. We grow in accordance with the revealed Word implanted in us by the Spirit" (Eugene H. Peterson, Eat This Book, 15).

Col. 3:16-17, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Worship, which is Spirit-led and Scripture-saturated, is corporate discipleship; by Spirit and Word, worship provides both corporate-formation and personal spiritual-formation.

Preaching: God's Talk

"Preaching is not merely the minister's talk about God but God's talk -- and not just any talk. It's the kind of talk that produces new people" (Michael Horton, A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship, 38).

The Ordinary Means of Grace

"This chapter launches the thesis that will run throughout the rest of the book. That thesis is this: God has promised to save and keep his people through the means he has appointed and through no others; the ordinary means of grace are limited to the preached Word and the administered sacraments; God's rationale for these means is made explicit in Scripture [emphasis original]. There are many other things that are essential for Christian growth: prayer, Bible study, service to others. However, these are not, properly speaking, means of grace but means of discipleship" (Michael Horton, A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship, 29).

Dialogical Worship

"The triumphant indicative concerning God's action in Christ establishes a safe foundation on which to stand as we seek to obey the divine imperatives. That's why worship is dialogical: God speaks and we respond" (Michael A. Horton, A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship, 26).

Marshaled Embodiment

In Desiring the Kingdom and Imagining the Kingdom, James K. A. Smith argues that Christians need to pay special attention to liturgies because they shape what we love, which is incredibly important because "we are what we love." In the latter work, Smith says, "The [Holy] Spirit marshals our embodiment in order to rehabituate us to the kingdom of God. The material practices of Christian worship are not exercises in spiritual self-management but rather the creational means that our gracious God deigns to inhabit for our sanctification" (15).

Covenant Renewal and Worship: Foretaste of Everlasting Sabbath at Marriage Supper of the Lamb

"We gather each Lord's Day not merely out of habit, social custom, or felt needs but because God has chosen this weekly festival as a foretaste of the everlasting Sabbath day that will be enjoyed fully at the marriage supper of the Lamb. God has called us out of the world and into his marvelous: That is why we gather" (Michael Horton, A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship, 24).

Not Casting a Snare

"The faithful ministers of Christ ought to be very cautious and tender in giving their advice, or laying down rules about the ordering of the circumstances of family worship, and conform themselves to that excellent pattern which the apostle has laid before them in 1 Corinthians 7:35: "This I speak for your own profit, not that I may cast a snare upon you, but that which is comely, that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction"(George Hamond, The Case for Family Worship, 16-17)."

Doctrine and Morals - Worship and Worldview

According to Scripture, Christian worship and Christian worldview are pop riveted together by the Holy Spirit. "But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23-24).

Lex orandi est lex credenda et agenda. (The rule of prayer is the rule of belief and of action.) Worldview (i.e., beliefs, morals, actions, etc.) flows from worship. Worship determines worldview. This means you cannot have Christian morals (truth) without Christian worship (Spirit-led-doctrine-and-practices). A society that attempts to separate the two is doomed.

Consider this lengthy excerpt by John Piper (quoting William Wilberforce) on the relationship between Christian doctrine (worship) and Christian morals.

###

"William Wilberforce is famous for his lifelong, and finally successful, battle against the African slave trade. It stunned me, when I recently read his one major book, A Practical View of Christianity, that his diagnosis of the moral weakness of Britain was doctrinal.

The fatal habit of considering Christian morals as distinct from Christian doctrines insensibly gained strength. Thus the peculiar doctrines of Christianity went more and more out of sight, and as might naturally have been expected, the moral system itself also began to wither and decay, being robbed of that which should have supplied it with life and nutriment (A Practical View of Christianity, ed. Kevin Charles Belmonte (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), p. 198).

"Even more stunning was the fact that Wilberforce made the doctrine of justification the linchpin in his plea for moral reform in the nation ...

...RESULT FROM THE MISTAKEN CONCEPTION ENTERTAINED OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIANITY. They consider not that Christianity is a scheme "for justifying the ungodly" [Romans 4:5], by Christ's dying for them "when yet sinners" [Romans 5:6-8], a scheme "for reconciling us to God--when enemies" [Romans 5:10]; and for making the fruits of holiness the effects, not the cause, of our being justified and reconciled (Ibid., p. 64. The SMALL CAPS is his emphasis.).

"... Many public people say that changing society requires changing people, but few show the depth of understanding Wilberforce does concerning how that comes about. For him the right grasp of the central doctrine of justification and its relation to sanctification--an emerging Christlikeness in private and public--were essential for the reformation of the morals of England" (John Piper, Counted Righteous in Christ, 24-26).

###

Drama: Pentecost

From A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship: commenting on on the portion of Peter's sermon recorded in Acts 2:37-39, Michael Horton exclaims,

Now that's drama! At Pentecost the Holy Spirit descends to empower the proclamation of his Word and to bring about the acceptance of it by sinners who were otherwise hostile to it. Then he sweeps them into that pentecostal reality through baptism into Christ and the plot that connects us to those who played their parts before us and who now cheer us on from the stands (14-15).

Worship: Biblical, Not Pragmatic

"[A] ministry based on pragmatism is built on sand regardless of whether it is more traditional or contemporary" (Michael Horton, A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship, 13).

Call to Confession for September 30, 2012

Proverbs 20:22 – Do not say, "I will repay evil"; wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.

In our passage of confession this morning we are told to not repay evil with evil but to wait on the Lord who is our deliverer. Because of our sinfulness and corruption, our natural instinct when someone has wronged us is to act in kind, to complete the circle, as it were, and to repay them the evil that they first paid us.

In the third chapter of 1 Peter, the Apostle Peter, who initially is addressing husbands and wives but then expands his exhortation to the entire body, urges them to “live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble,” and, echoing our passage of confession from Proverbs, he instructs them, “do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because of this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”

This is not only Godly instruction but it is wise counsel for people who live at length and for duration within close proximity of one another. For example, if you have a family, and you repay a family member's evil with evil, then you are not only being disobedient before God but you are also setting yourself up for hard times. You do, after all, live in shared quarters with that family member. The same can be applied to our relationships with our neighbors. Unless one of you pulls up roots and leaves the community you will for all intents and purposes remain neighbors (geography being the static thing that it is), and if you repay evil with evil to your neighbors, then you are setting yourself up to be locked into the determinism of “feuding families”--and anyone who has read any of the books by Mark Twain which depict such things knows that this quickly becomes nonsensical.

See, the issue is this. When we repay evil with evil and think to ourselves, “I'm going to complete the circle, I'm going to finish this,” what we are actually doing is perpetuating the presence of evil. Christians, however, are called to break this cycle. We don't return evil but blessing. Why? Because that is what God has done towards us. We were evil, we betrayed God. God, however, gave us Christ. He gave us The Blessing. When family or neighbors, government or foreign nations, when the world gives you evil, do the right thing and be a Christian—be shaped by the activity of God—don't respond with evil, rather, give a blessing and wait on God's deliverance, wait on God's providential justice. All of us have failed to do this perfectly, and this reminds us of our need to confess our sins, so if able, please kneel as we confess our sins together.