Set our hearts on fire

A litany for worship inspired by Psalm 65

by Ken Sehested

Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; and to you shall praise be given and promises be made.

Praised be your presence, and worthy be our promises.

O you who answers prayer! To you all flesh shall come. As blossoms track the sun, so too do our faces long for your light. When failure marks our lives, you draw near to us anyway.

Draw near to hear the tender longing of our lives.

Joyful are those whom you choose. Delight fills all who answer your call. Your deliverance overpowers every slave-maker, O God of our salvation; you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. By your strength you established the mountains; you are girded with might.

Grant us the strength of our most holy of hopes. Restore our stooped shoulders, renew our weak knees.

It is to you that we call: Hush the roaring of the seas, calm the tumult of the nations. Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by the wonder of your presence. Every morning declares hope; every evening shouts for joy!

Renew every morning’s rest, every evening’s delight.

Oh, visit the earth, ask her to join the dance! Coax rain from the sky. Drench thirsty fields awaiting your touch, ready the land for blossom and fruit. Burden every stalk with grain sufficient to satisfy the hunger of all. Let all the barren rejoice. Let the wilderness blossom. Let every failed hope recover, every broken heart be mended, every silenced voice be heard.

Restore our voices, mend our hearts, enliven our voices.

Bountiful giver of wondrous gifts, gird the hills with brilliant color, clothe the meadows with flocks, endow every garden with plenty. May your fertile presence surround us. Set us ablaze with the bounty of wonder!

Hear our prayer, O Lord. Surround us, we pray, and set our hearts on fire.

©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org