Worship Notes for Sunday, November 6, 2011
Loss of communion with God is a significant effect of the Fall and the subsequent curses, as we learned last week. We’ll focus on the separation that our sin creates and longing for God’s presence that can only be regained by means of the intercession of Christ on our behalf through His blood. The service starts with the Call to Worship from Psalm 63: earnestly seeking after God, our souls thirsting for Him. We continue by singing All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name—“Ye ransomed of the Fall, Hail Him who saves you by His grace.”We’re continuing one more week with the late October Psalm of the Month since the text from Psalm 14 fits so closely with our theme of alienation and separation from God. The Old Testament Reading from Psalm 42 articulates the theme of thirsting after God in the midst of the realities of tears and turmoil. The Prayer of Confession from Isaiah 59 presents the effect of our iniquities against God that have led to separation, defilement, lying, and hiding from our sin. But later in Isaiah 59, God gives this Assurance of Pardon: He saw that there was no one to intercede. Then His own arm brought salvation.
Before the Throne of God Above speaks clearly to the work of Christ as mediator on our behalf “who ever lives and pleads for me…for God the just is satisfied to look on [Christ] and pardon me.” The Hymns of Communion speak of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross that has bridged the separation that keeps us from God’s presence. The final hymn, Arise My Soul, rejoices in the interceding work of Christ and His atoning blood, and we conclude by singing from The Church’s One Foundation—“With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.” Amazing Love, how can it be that thou my God would die for me!
