Call to Worship
Receive God’s gracious call to worship.
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever: (Psalm 136:1–3)
Adoration
Offer this praise to God:
Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. Your people desire to set their seal to this, and to acknowledge that You are overflowing goodness.
O blessed God, You have remembered both our temporal and our spiritual wants; You have lifted us up from the gates of the grave, delivered our soul from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet from falling.
You have dealt well with Your servants, O Lord, according to Your Word. There is none like unto the God of Israel, there is none that deals so bountifully; for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are His thoughts above our thoughts and His ways above our ways.
Our soul, therefore, blesses God the Lord, and all that is in us is stirred up, His holy name to magnify and bless. “Bless the Lord” is the utterance of our inmost soul this…; “from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same let the Lord’s name be praised.”
The Law
Hear God’s perfect requirements.
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (2 Timothy 3:2–5)
Confession of Sin
Confess and repent of sins before God.
And now, Lord, we beseech You, hear the voice of our cry.
Your people would first of all ask You to deepen in them all the good works of Your grace.
We do repent of sin — give us a deeper repentance!
May we have a horror of it, may we dread the very approach of it, may we chastely flee from it and resolve, with sacred jealousy, that our hearts shall be for the Lord alone.
We have faith in Jesus, blessed be Your name, but Oh strengthen and deepen that faith!
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the promise of grace:
knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. (1 Peter 1:18–19)
Praise
Offer this praise to God:
Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! (Revelation 7:10)
Creed
Testify what you believe of Christian truth:
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. (1 Timothy 4:9–10)
Catechism
Learn from Spurgeon’s catechism.
57. Which is the seventh commandment?
A. The seventh commandment is, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
58. What is forbidden in the seventh commandment?
A. The seventh commandment forbids all unchaste thoughts (Mat 5:28; Col 4:6), words (Eph 5:4; 2Ti 2:22), and actions (Eph 5:3).
Prayer for Illumination
Ask for spiritual understanding before reading God’s Word:
And now may the good seed drop into furrows that shall welcome it, and from it may there spring a harvest to Your glory, O You ever blessed, unto whose name be honor, world without end, through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Scripture Reading
Read Scripture with dependence and a desire to obey.
Day 23: Psalm 63 (Thirsting for God)
Prayer of Intercession
Make your requests with thanksgiving, and pray this prayer.
Bless, we pray You, all city missionaries, all visitors from house to house, all those who seek to reclaim fallen women, or waifs and strays among the children. Let the philanthropic work that is done in the city, ever be under Your eye, and be upheld by Your gracious hand. Our ragged schools, and especially our Sunday schools, look upon with favour, and grant them ever to be a nursery for the Church of God.
And the Lord bless all that in any way seek to make known the savour.. of Jesus. Oh, give the humble tongue that tells of Christ to speak with fire, and where the multitudes are gathered together, there give…earnestness, sincerity and depth of power to bring sinners to Jesus.
“Let the people praise You, O God, yea, let all the people praise You!”
Let our great cities be swept clean of vice and infidelity and superstition. Deliver our country villages and hamlets from the drunkenness and ignorance in which they dwell. Let the whole earth behold the brightness of the coming of the Lord.
Let Jesus Christ reign from pole to pole until He Himself shall come openly and manifestly to take to Himself His great power, and all the kingdoms surrender themselves into His hands.
…“Let the people praise You, O God, yea, let all the people praise You!”…
Benediction
Close with the blessing of God.
The Lord who made heaven and earth Bless you from Zion! (Psalm 134:3)
