Getting Ready For Sunday: How To Prepare For The NEW SERMON SERIES This Sunday, 2.7.2010

This Sunday at Sojourn Gathered, Pastor Daniel Montgomery will lead us into a new sermon series from the book of Psalms.  We will camp out in Psalms for four weeks.  After that, we’ll dig into the New Testament — every single book — for the rest of 2010.

Psalms has been called the “hymn book” and the “prayer book” of the Bible, and with good reason.  This book of songs gives shape to human emotion and provides a voice for praise, lament, faith, doubt, celebration and contemplation. King David wrote 73 of them.  We can trace 12 to Asaph, 11 to the “Sons of Korah,” two to Solomon and one each to Moses and Ethan.  50 are anonymous.

This week Pastor Daniel will focus on Psalm 32.  Theologians generally group this psalm with the first 41 as being categorized under “How to worship God in perilous times” or “the proclamation of Covenant.”

Psalm 32 specifically shows us how to worship God and maintain our relationship with Him by confessing our sins. Ultimately, it is a hymn of thanksgiving.  Through the words of this psalm, we give thanks to God for the joy of having received His forgiveness.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess
my transgressions to the LORD “—
and you forgave
the guilt of my sin. (Psalm 32:5)

This week we will sing “Approach My Soul The Mercy Seat” together.  This is an old John Newton hymn.  Sojourn East Campus Director Jamie Barnes has written a new melody for it. 

In fact, you can hear his acoustic demo for free — either listen here or download it from the Sojournmusic.com Radio iTunes podcast here.  Listen to it a few times this weekend and you’ll be ready to sing it as the opening song of worship this weekend.

Other songs we’ll sing together include “All Creatures Of Our God And King,” “Cling To The Crucified” and “Psalm 3,” which will be on Volume 2 of our Isaac Watts Project albums, due later this year.

See you Sunday!