Calls To Worship
Joy
Adapted from Psalm 9:1-2, 9-10 (ESV)
Pastor: I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
All: I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
Pastor: The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
All: And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
Submitted by Dustin Ray
Adapted from Psalm 51:10-12
Leader: Create in us clean hearts, O God, and put new and right spirits within us.
People: Do not cast us away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from us.
Leader: Restore to us the joy of your salvation
People: and sustain in us a willing spirit.
All: Let us worship God!
Submitted by Chip Hardwick
Adapted from Psalm 66:1-2, 4 (NRSV)
Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise.
All the earth worships you;
they sing praises to you,
sing praises to your name.
Adapted from Psalm 95:1-2
Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
Adapted from Psalm 95
LEADER: Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
PEOPLE: Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.
LEADER: For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.
PEOPLE: In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.
LEADER: The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
PEOPLE: Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
ALL: for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.
Allen Thompson
Adapted from Psalm 100
Leader: Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
People: come before him with joyful songs.
Leader: Worship the Lord with gladness; Come before him with joyful songs.
People: Know that the Lord is God. Come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God.
Leader: It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
People: Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
All: For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.
(NIV, adapted for liturgical use)
Adapted from Psalm 100
LEADER: Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
ALL: Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
LEADER: Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
ALL: For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Allen Thompson
Adapted from Psalm 126
When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like the watercourses in the Negeb.
May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.
Stuart Strachan Jr.
Adapted from Isaiah 56
Leader: Thus says the Lord: “Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon My salvation will come, and My deliverance will be revealed.
People: “To those who keep My sabbath, who choose the things that please Me and hold fast My covenant, I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
Leader: “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Me, to love the name of the Lord, and to be My servants…
People: “These I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
Leader: “For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Let us now worship the God of all nations, the God of all people.
Adapted from Zephaniah 3:17
Leader: The prophet Zephaniah says: “The Lord, your God, is in your midst, He is mighty and will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will renew you in His love; He will exult over you with singing.”
People: Let it be known in all nations, God is our strength, God is our song and God is our salvation.
Leader: So, let us praise God and rejoice with God in song.
Adapted from Psalm 46
Leader: Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
People: For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
Leader: Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of the nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.
All: Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.
Adapted from Psalm 42
Leader: As the deer pants for streams of water,
So my soul pants for you, oh God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
People: My tears have been my food day and night,
While men say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
These things I remember as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving
among the festive throng.
Leader: Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
Adapted by Bud Thoreen
Adapted from Psalm 126
Leader: Come, and worship the Lord, who fills mouths with laughter and tongues with shouts of joy.
People: The Lord has done great things for us, and so we rejoice.
Leader: May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.
People: Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.
Leader: Let us worship God, who restores life and heals the broken!
Adapted from Isaiah 60:1-5a
Leader: Arise, shine, for your light has come,
And the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
People: See darkness covers the earth
And thick darkness is over the peoples,
But the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.
Leader: Nations will come to your light
And kings to the brightness of your dawn.
People: Lift up your eyes and look about you:
All assemble and come to you;
Your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm.
Leader: Then you will look and be radiant,
Your heart will throb and swell with joy.”
Submitted by Bud Thoreen
Adapted from Psalm 107
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
those he redeemed from trouble
and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
Some were sick through their sinful ways,
and because of their iniquities endured affliction;
they loathed any kind of food,
and they drew near to the gates of death.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress;
he sent out his word and healed them,
and delivered them from destruction.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.
And let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices,
and tell of his deeds with songs of joy.
Adapted by Stuart Strachan Jr.
Adapted from 1 Samuel 2:1-10*
My heart rejoices in the Lord;
in the Lord my horn is lifted high.
“There is no one holy like the Lord;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
“The Lord brings death and makes alive;
he brings down to the grave and raises up.
The Lord sends poverty and wealth;
he humbles and he exalts.
The Most High will thunder from heaven;
the Lord will judge the ends of the earth.
“He will give strength to his king
and exalt the horn of his anointed.”
*Can be arranged to suit the congregation’s tradition
Allen M. Thompson
Who will save us from the ways of death?
Jesus Christ our Lord; thanks be to God!
God’s grace is sufficient for us;
In Christ, the weak are made strong.
Weeping may linger for the night,
But joy comes with the morning.
Austin D. Hill