Call to Worship
Receive God’s gracious call to worship.
Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful. The Lord builds up Jerusalem; He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite. The Lord lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked down to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; Sing praises on the harp to our God, (Psalm 147:1–7)
Adoration
Offer this praise to God:
O You infinitely glorious Jehovah, to praise You is our delight. We never feel so blessed as when we are either at the foot of the Cross, or at the foot of the Throne, and we bless You that we know both places. We know not where of the two we can best adore. O You blessed One, that ever You should come from heaven to earth to bleed and die! What can our hearts say? What can our souls render? Our eyes are better than our lips in this adoration, for we can weep to the praise of the mercy which we see in the bleeding Son of God; but still at the foot of the Throne we would worship Him that lives for ever. All glory be to our Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, Comforter. It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves: we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. We would worship and bow down; we would kneel before the Lord our Maker, in the reverence of our hearts. All honour and glory and power and dominion be unto Him that sits upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever!
The Law
Hear God’s perfect requirements.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4–9)
Confession of Sin
Confess and repent of sins before God.
O Father, in Your presence, though we feel ourselves at peace with You, we cannot but lament the many times in which we have offended You, nor can we cease to mourn that even now we come far short of what we owe You. Purge us. O Lord, purge us with hyssop and we shall be clean; wash us and we shall be whiter than snow. We confess our transgressions, and our iniquity we would not hide; but we look again to the great Sacrifice. Our eyes are on the Lamb that was slain, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. You know, Father, that all our hope is here, and this is our joy, that though we walk in the light, as God is in the light, and have fellowship with You, yet still for every offence that comes, the blood of Jesus Christ Your Son cleanses us from all sin. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the promise of grace:
And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6–7)
Praise
Offer this praise to God:
Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. (1 Chronicles 16:34)
Creed
Testify what you believe of Christian truth:
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. (1 Corinthians 15:3–7)
Catechism
Learn from Spurgeon’s catechism.
19. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the state of sin and misery?
God having, out of his good pleasure from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life (2Th 2:13), did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the state of sin and misery, and to bring them into a state of salvation by a Redeemer (Rom 5:21).
20. Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?
The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ (1Ti 2:5), who being the eternal Son of God, became man (Jhn 1:14), and so was and continues to be God and man, in two distinct natures and one person for ever (1Ti 3:16; Col 2:9).
Prayer for Illumination
Ask for spiritual understanding before reading God’s Word:
We ask this great favour at Your hands, that the Lord Jesus Christ may stand among us by His spiritual presence, and that we may all of us be especially conscious that He is fulfilling His promise, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Many of us have looked to Him and we have been lightened, and our faces are not ashamed. We would look to Him again today. Oh, that He might be set forth manifestly crucified among us, and as we look to Him crucified for us, may our souls drink in deep peace and heavenly repose.
Give to every believer a sweet sense of pardoned sins, a blessed consciousness of divine love, a holy peace of mind, a blessed restfulness in Christ. Give also perfect consecration, strong resolve to serve the Lord while here below to the utmost of our capacity. Give more receptiveness that we may be ready to hold. Lord, enlarge us; give much faith to believe great things and to lay hold of great things. Amen.
Scripture Reading
Read Scripture with dependence and a desire to obey.
Day 7: Psalm 42 (Hope in God’s Deliverance)
Prayer of Intercession
Make your requests with thanksgiving, and pray this prayer.
Our Father, we ask of You a great favour; it is that others whom Christ has redeemed might be brought to know Him. O Lord, we live in the midst of millions that lie still in the wicked one, as if his bosom were their resting place. O, Saviour, be You exalted among men. Oh, that Your name were sweet to them as ointment poured forth! Would God they knew the excellence of a life with You, the sweet peace and the brilliant peace with which You endow the hearts of Your people! Lord, they will not be convinced, and those that are convinced yet somehow start back; they know that You are the Son of God, and yet they do not believe, and even those that believe You believe not as they should. O Spirit of God, give faith we pray You: work it in the hearts of millions. Bring them to the Saviour’s feet, and may this day be a day of the manifestation of Your holy power in gathering in the wanderers and strengthening those that are with God. O Lord, there are many that are with us, but there are multitudes that are not with God nor with us. The Lord change them and renew their hearts for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Benediction
Close with the blessing of God.
Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:4–6)
