Joyce Borger

Sometimes when we read a psalm, it can feel disorienting. Is the psalmist lamenting or praising God? Is this a psalm of doubt or faith? Psalm 22 is one such psalm. It opens with a despairing cry, questioning whether God has abandoned them, yet later it offers bold words of praise for a God who has done mighty things.If we are honest, this is often our experience. Even as people of faith, there are moments when we wonder where God is. Why does God not intervene? Why does suffering continue unchecked?  And yet…we remember. We remember what God has done. We recall the times when God’s presence was felt unmistakably near, when help appeared in miraculous ways. We remember. And so, we trust. We trust that God is still present, even when that presence feels shrouded. While God may not act in the ways we expect, and though evil may seem relentless, we hold on to our hope born of faith that one day we will see that God was at work all along. We trust that God is sovereign and will ultimately be victorious—that indeed, our God “has done it”! Viewed in this light, even words of despair, when addressed to God, are words of faith. In our anguish, we turn and speak to God with raw honesty that flows unabated and unrestrained from the depths of our soul. We tell the truth of our pain while simultaneously holding to the truth of God’s faithfulness. These are not contradictions to resolve, but tensions to embrace. At times, we manage a tenuous balance, holding both doubt and faith with quiet defiance; at others, one truth seems to have the upper hand. And there are moments when, overcome by immense grief and despair, we rely on the Christian community to bear witness for us—to speak of God’s faithfulness and sing God’s praises on our behalf. Psalm 22 contains the words Christ had on his lips, flowing from deep within, as he was crucified on the cross. In that moment, we see these two truths embodied: the agony of feeling forsaken and the unshaken trust that God reigns and is worthy of praise. Whether you use Psalm 22 on Good Friday or at another occasion, this psalm offers a powerful opportunity for communal reflection. The following reading employs two voices to help bring out the dual truths contained within the one psalm. Encourage the readers not only to speak the words, but to inhabit them. How might they give voice to both truths?Psalm 22 NRSVUEReader 1:My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?    Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;    and by night but find no rest. Reader 2:Yet you are holy,    enthroned on the praises of Israel.In you our ancestors trusted;    they trusted, and you delivered them.To you they cried and were saved;    in you they trusted and were not put to shame. Reader 1:But I am a worm and not human,    scorned by others and despised by the people.All who see me mock me;    they sneer at me; they shake their heads;“Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver—    let him rescue the one in whom he delights!” Reader 2:Yet it was you who took me from the womb;    you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.On you I was cast from my birth,    and since my mother bore me you have been my God. Reader 1:Do not be far from me,    for trouble is near,    and there is no one to help.Many bulls encircle me;    strong bulls of Bashan surround me;they open wide their mouths at me,    like a ravening and roaring lion.I am poured out like water,    and all my bones are out of joint;my heart is like wax;    it is melted within my breast;my mouth is dried up like a potsherd,    and my tongue sticks to my jaws;    you lay me in the dust of death.For dogs are all around me;    a company of evildoers encircles me;they bound my hands and feet.I can count all my bones.They stare and gloat over me;they divide my clothes among themselves,    and for my clothing they cast lots.But you, O Lord, do not be far away!    O my help, come quickly to my aid!Deliver my soul from the sword,    my life from the power of the dog!    Save me from the mouth of the lion! Reader 2:From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me.I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters;    in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:You who fear the Lord, praise him!    All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;    stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!For he did not despise or abhor    the affliction of the afflicted;he did not hide his face from me    but heard when I cried to him.From you comes my praise in the great congregation;    my vows I will pay before those who fear him.The poor shall eat and be satisfied;    those who seek him shall praise the Lord.    May your hearts live forever!All the ends of the earth shall remember    and turn to the Lord,and all the families of the nations    shall worship before him.For dominion belongs to the Lord,    and he rules over the nations. Reader 1:To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;    before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,    and I shall live for him. Reader 2:Posterity will serve him;    future generations will be told about the Lordand proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,    saying that  Bothhe has done it.Revised Common LectionaryYear A: Holy Week—Good FridayYear B: Holy Week—Good FridayYear C: Holy Week—Good FridayYear B: Season after Pentecost—Proper 23 (28)Year C: Season after Pentecost—Proper 7 (12)Year B: Lent—Second Sunday in LentYear B: Easter—Fifth Sunday of Easter

Psalm 116 is a psalm of thanksgiving traditionally used at the conclusion of the Passover meal. It isn’t surprising, then, that in Christian worship it is often used on Maundy Thursday and as a response of gratitude following the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. It is also fitting to use this psalm on other occasions for thanksgiving.

Psalm 31 with its testimony like text that speaks of all that the Lord has done finds its home in services with many different themes throughout the liturgical year. Depending on your context and focus, you may want to utilize different portions of this psalm so I have kept the verse numbers and provided a simple responsive reading for a leader and worshipers or two voices. You can use the entire psalm or choose a few verses.

This psalm is often used with Palm Sunday and Easter services as it celebrates what the Lord has done. It is arranged for use with a congregation and leader or two voices.

“Out of the depths” begins most English translations of Psalm 130. I prefer the Latin, De profundis, as the sound of those Latin words communicates the despair, the profundity of the situation that the psalmist invites us to inhabit. With the psalmist we find ourselves in a dark place from which we cannot escape. Maybe we have tried to climb out by ourselves and failed; maybe we have called out to people passing by, but still we sit in darkness. We’ve lost all hope. And in the midst of this despair and darkness we turn to God, pleading that God might hear us despite our unworthiness. And just like the first sliver of light pierces the night sky as morning dawns, so does hope glimmer through our despair. Our God is a forgiving God, a redeeming God, a God of love. This is the testimony of all believers. This is the story of grace. When I read this psalm, my mind’s ear adds a deep cello-like drone at the beginning to underscore the depths. In a worship setting, such music can help emphasize both the depths in which the psalm begins and the progression throughout the psalm. To integrate chords with the psalm text consider using the chord progression i-VI-III-VII which fits the four sections of the psalm quite well. If you play that progression in A minor, you can easily transition into Eelco Vos’s  arrangement of Karl Digerness’s “Out of the Depths I Cry to You” from Psalms for All Seasons (see links following the Psalm). You could also play the progression in E minor and transition to the text and tune by Martin Luther AUS TIEFER NOT, “Out of the Depths I Cry to You”, or another version of Psalm 130 written in a minor or modal key.  While a group of strings would be ideal, the chords could also be played softly on the organ or a keyboard. If using a piano you will lose the drone effect, but you could improvise an arpeggiated pattern based on each chord. Make sure to practice with the reader who should pause between each section for the chord change.  Psalm 130 with “Out of the Depths” by Karl Digerness Am chord/iOut of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.    Lord, hear my voice!Let your ears be attentive    to the voice of my supplications!F chord/VIIf you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,    Lord, who could stand?But there is forgiveness with you,    so that you may be revered.C chord/IIII wait for the Lord; my soul waits,    and in his word I hope;my soul waits for the Lord    more than those who watch for the morning,    more than those who watch for the morning.G chord/VIIO Israel, hope in the Lord!    For with the Lord there is steadfast love,    and with him is great power to redeem.It is he who will redeem Israel    from all its iniquities.—Psalm 130 NRSVUEIf using the arrangement by Elco Vos found in Psalms for All Seasons 130D, transition by playing the first four measures as an introduction. Pdf lead sheets, guitar charts, Sibelius music scores, jpegs for bulletins and lyric text files are available for purchase through City Hymns. The lead sheet most easily accessible is in G. In which case, play the progression in Em, ending the last section with a sustained D chord. From there go to a C2 chord, then follow the G-D-C2 introduction on the lead sheet. YouTube RecordingSpotifyAmazon Music

Psalm 95: 1–7a reminds us that we belong to God and that God is like a benevolent king who desires his people to flourish, or like a shepherd who will go to great lengths to make sure all the sheep are safe and healthy. These verses function well as an antiphonal psalm of praise between a leader and those gathered. They could also be read as presented here by the congregation divided into two parts. How you split those gathered and the language you give to each is very contextual, so, for our purposes, the regular font is “Group A” and the bold is “Group B.” The text in italics should be spoken together. These first verses are the part of the psalm that we are most familiar with as they are often used to call us to worship. But what starts off so positively takes a sharp turn as the tone shifts from praise to God recounting Israel’s past sins.Initially the change in tone may be hard to comprehend until we examine our own selves. Like God’s people in the Old and New Testaments, indeed throughout all of history, we are fickle and quickly change our allegiances to fit our fancy. On Sundays and other convenient moments we declare God to be our Lord and King and then promptly deny that reality. We deny it through our words, thoughts, and actions towards God’s creation that he told us to care for, towards God’s people whom God loves so deeply and whom we are called to love, and even towards ourselves, God’s beloved. While we might not have been physically present at Meribah, we have had plenty of our own Meribahs, our own acts of denial. This human fickleness is reflected in the second half of the psalm which functions as a call to confession and is laid out here as a litany between a leader who reads Psalm 95:7b–11 and those gathered who use an adaptation of the first line of verse 7 as a refrain. It is understandable that the first half of Psalm 95 gets a lot of airplay in worship services, but let us not forget the warning the second half of the psalm presents. The hinge between the first and second half of the psalm is the plea, “O that today you would listen to his voice!” Let us respond with open ears and open hearts. Psalm 95:1–7a—An Antiphonal Litany For the Beginning of WorshipThe translation used in these litanies is the NRSVUEGroup AGroup BO come, let us sing to the Lord;let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods.In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.The sea is his,for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!For he is our God,  and we are the people of his pasture   and the sheep of his hand.Leader: O that today you would listen to his voice! Psalm 95:7b–11—A Call to ConfessionLeader:O that today you would listen to his voice!All: You are our God. Leader: Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,    as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,when your ancestors tested me    and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.All: You are our God. Leader:For forty years I loathed that generation    and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray,    and they do not regard my ways.”All: You are our God. Leader:Therefore in my anger I swore,    “They shall not enter my rest.”All: You are our God. Leader: O that today you would listen to his voice! Prayer of Confession in Response to Psalm 95Leader: Recognizing the tension that exists within our own hearts and lives, between our declarations of belief and our acts of unbelief, let us go to God in a prayer of confession, asking for God’s forgiveness. Let us pray. Holy, righteous, and loving God, forgive us for the ways in which we deny your Lordship. Forgive us for forgetting that you are the Creator, that you are all powerful, and that you hold all things in your hands. Forgive us that we too quickly bow to the powers and forces of this world, that we put our hope in the things of this world. Forgive us for forgetting that you are the Creator, and have invited us to join in the work of caring for all of creation. Forgive us for neglecting the created worldand not seeking its flourishing.  Forgive us for forgetting that you are the God of love,who loves us deeply and desires only good things for us.Forgive us for searching for love and acceptance in the wrong places. Forgive us for forgetting that you are the God of love,who calls us to be the representation of your love to all in this world: to care for the poor, the orphan, the widower, and the foreigner. Forgive us for living in fear of the other and for believing that you are unable to provide for the flourishing of all. Forgive us for intentionally plugging our ears and hardening our hearts so that we don’t hear your call and neglect to share in your heart for creation and all people. Unstop our ears so that we may once again listen to your voiceand find our hearts filled with love and compassion for all, so that we may declare that you are indeed our God. Amen. Revised Common LectionaryYear A: Lent 3, Proper 29/Christ the King

A call to memorize Psalm 121 with suggestions for its use at the beginning and end of worship.

Psalm 32 talks about the need for forgiveness and God’s mercy, about the importance of prayer and how joy and happiness grows from the soil of a life that follows God’s instructions. What follows is a litany for a leader and congregation that utilizes Psalm 32 for a confession-assurance sequence, prayers of the people, and as a preparation for the reading and preaching of God’s Word.

A litany of confession and assurance based on Psalm 51 and Joel 2 with a sung refrain for two readers, a leader, and congregation.

I wonder if we aren’t too nonchalant about worshiping God. “Going to church” on Sunday is often little more than a routine, something we do—a habit. It happens to be a good habit, but we don’t often give it much thought. We are churchgoers. On Sunday we go to church and worship God. Psalm 15, however, suggests that our entering into God’s presence isn’t necessarily a given. “O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?” the psalmist asks. Nancy deClaissé-Walford in her commentary on the Working Preacher points out that it is a resident alien or foreigner who requests permission to abide. Such a person wouldn’t have an inherent right to residence. Therefore, the implication of Psalm 15’s opening questions is that the psalmist has no right to entrance and by wondering who gets access is requesting entrance. More than that, the psalmist desires a place to dwell, a place to call home. The psalmist is approaching the Lord as an outsider without any assumptions of a positive response.What would change if we began worship with this question? Too often those who have a history of attending worship consider themselves the insiders who welcome outsiders. Somehow we believe that we, the “belongers,” get to be the gatekeepers and discern who gets to abide and eventually dwell in our church’s presence. Psalm 15 challenges this perspective with the two opening questions. We all start outside the tent. The answer that follows in the remaining verses is not meant to be prescriptive as much as descriptive. The person who may dwell in God’s presence is a lover of justice for all people. If we are honest, we quickly realize that this description only perfectly fits one person: our Savior, Jesus Christ. The only reason we can enter the “tent,” to worship our God, the only reason we can be at home in God’s presence is through our unity with Christ. Recognizing our dependence on God’s grace, we should approach worship with a deep sense of gratitude and privilege rather than as a mindless habit. When we gather, we must recognize that, at our core, we are no better than those who might not yet belong but are still beloved and invited in. When we gather, we are also confronted with the call of Psalm 15 to emulate Christ in living lives marked by justice. Psalm 15 says more about how we act than about what we believe. It is in our actions that we will find strength and a foundation that will make us unmoveable. While Psalm 15 can be an “entrance hymn,” it also functions as a call to holy living which is how it is used in the litany below. In this case, that call to holy living happens within the context of a prayer of confession for a leader or reader and congregation. The text of Psalm 15 is found in the brown font. A Prayer of Confession with Psalm 15AllO Lord, who may abide in your tent?    Who may dwell on your holy hill?LeaderThose who walk blamelessly and do what is right    and speak the truth from their heart;AllForgive us, Lord. We are not blameless. We have not done what is right. Too often we have spoken half truths and told outright lies. Too often we have failed to challenge falsehoods and remained silent. LeaderThose who may abide are those who do not slander with their tongue    and do no evil to their friends    nor heap shame upon their neighbors;AllForgive us, Lord,  for using our tongues to slander and shame others on our socials and in conversations. Forgive us for not loving our enemiesas you have called us to. Forgive us for our participation in the evil done to neighborsthrough our actions and our inaction. LeaderThose who may dwell are thosein whose eyes the wicked are despised    but who honor those who fear the Lord;who stand by their oath even to their hurt;AllForgive us, Lord, for counting the wicked as a friend, for desiring to be like them, for rationalizing or dismissing their actionsrather than despising their evil ways. Forgive us for being so worried about what following you might cost us that we are willing to dishonor you, to turn our back on you and those you love. LeaderThose who are welcomed in the Lord’s presence are thosewho do not lend money at interest    and do not take a bribe against the innocent.AllForgive us, Lord,for taking advantage of those in need and failing to protect them from those who prey on them. LeaderThose who do these [acts of justice] shall never be moved.—Psalm 15 NRSVUEAll Lord, we have failed and do not deserve your mercy. Thank you for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, to perfectly fulfill your law in our place. Thank you that by believing in Christ as our Savior, we are united with him, and are counted as your children. Help us to live a life worthy of this grace that we have received. LeaderUnited with Christ, we dare pray for forgiveness. United with Christ, we desire to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. AllHoly God, forgive us and welcome us into your tentto dwell with you forever. Amen. —Joyce Borger © 2025 Reformed Worship, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Used by permission. Revised Common LectionaryYear A Fourth Sunday after the EpiphanyYear B Proper 17 (Ordinary Time 22)Year C Proper 11 (Ordinary Time 16)