The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,

the world, and those who live in it;

for he has founded it on the seas,

and established it on the rivers.

Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,

who do not lift up their souls to what is false,

and do not swear deceitfully.

They will receive blessing from the Lord,

and vindication from the God of their salvation.

Such is the company of those who seek him,

who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

Who is the King of glory?

Lift up your heads, O gates!

and be lifted up, O ancient doors!

that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory?

—Psalm 24, NRSV

God has ascended amid shouts of joy,

Sing praises to God, sing praises;

For God is the King of all the earth;

God reigns over the nations;

—Psalm 47:5-8, NIV

Lord God,

when we struggle to worship you as Lord,

show us again the beauty and power of your rule.

Teach us again that serving you is the path to true freedom.

May your Holy Spirit strengthen us today,

leading us to honor and worship you more deeply,

not only with the words we sing

but also with the lives we lead before your face,

through Jesus, our reigning Lord. Amen.

O come, let us sing to the Lord;

let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

In his hand are the depths of the earth;

the heights of the mountains are his also.

The sea is his, for he made it,

and the dry land, which his hands have formed.

—Psalm 95:1-7, NRSV

We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,

the one who is and who was,

for you have taken your great power

and have begun to reign.

Great and amazing are your deeds, Lord God the Almighty.

Lord, who will not fear and glorify your name?

—from Revelation 11:17; 12:10, NIV; 15:3-4, NRSV

While we claim to celebrate the ascension of our Lord,

the way we live proclaims our lack of faith

in his power to deal with the world.

Let us confess the incongruity between our faith and practice.

Let us pray.

Ascended Lord Jesus, help us to turn our thoughts toward you. We confess to

you this Ascension Day that we so often fail to take you into account. Sometimes

we do not set our minds upon you because of sheer laziness—it’s easier just to go

with society’s flow. Sometimes we do not take you into account because of simple

inattention—we just forget to look for ways in which we could serve your gospel

in a given situation. At other times we have not turned toward you because we have

actively and willfully decided to turn away from you.

When and where we fail to be transparent to your cosmic lordship, please

forgive us. By your Spirit of Pentecost, sent to us precisely because you are reigning

on high, help us to see this world the way you see it. From your exalted throne you

are able to see us and this world and its many hurting people clearly and well. Help

us to open our own eyes. Grant us vision and insight to view the people around us

through the lens of your own compassion.

Sometimes, O God, we conceive of your lordship as regal, powerful, and

perhaps a bit distant. We think your sovereign rule involves mostly quashing evil,

pursuing justice, and judging sin. Remind us by your Spirit that your lordship is

also about being close to people in need. Prod us to recall that in your kingdom,

rulership comes through servanthood and that the hands that uphold our world are

the pierced and tender hands of Jesus. Help us to remember (so that we may imitate

this ourselves) that you see not just evil that needs judging but also suffering that

needs ministry.

For you, O Lord, see the tears of the widowed, the sobs that overtake them when

the rest of us are not looking. You see the disorientation in which so many people

live every day—confusion borne of war, poverty, abuse, or chronic illness. You

see the people in dead-end jobs who trudge to work every day filled with so much

despair that they can hardly breathe. You see those who search a loved one’s eyes

for traces of love but find only an empty stare. As Lord of the earth, you spy every

instance of one person cutting another to the quick, every place where a child lives

in fear, every bar where someone tries to drown their sorrows.

Yet you are our world’s every hope. You are tender enough to weep with those

who weep and yet strong enough to lend comfort and not be consumed with the

sorrows that overwhelm us. You are discerning enough to see where our lives run

off the rails and yet gracious enough to forgive our foolishness and open again

the better path that leads into your kingdom. You are the bright center to all of

life, O God! Your lordship helps us glimpse our future with you in your kingdom,

even as it points the way home.

Make us into people of the ascension, Christ Jesus! Make us your hands of mercy,

your voice of grace, your presence of love. Whatever we do, whether in word

or deed; whatever we see, whether sinful or salacious; whatever we hear, whether

uplifting or depressing; whatever we face in this world, help us to face it in your

power and with the knowledge of your grace and goodness. Help us to be gentle

with prodigal children. Help us to be stalwart in the truth with people in love with

lies. Help us to be radiant with hope with people who fear death. Help us to be your

people, Lord God.

For today, as always, this world needs your shalom-filled presence. Bring peace

to war-torn places and help people everywhere to see in one another your image.

May those who delight in the paths of suicide and destruction be turned instead to

delight in life and in mutual flourishing. End the terror in which so many live, and

thwart the dreams of those who plot still more terror on the unsuspecting. Where

there is hunger, bring bread; where there is drought and thirst, send refreshing

rains; where there is hatred, bring your peace; where there is greed, bring your own

fullness and so turn appetites run amok away from short-term pleasures toward

things that last and that foster richness and plenty for all.

We are the people of your ascension and reign, Holy Christ of God. Whatever

we do, help us never to forget who we are, whose we are, and where true joy may

be found.

In the power and blessing of your name we pray. Amen.

People of God, go now in peace, knowing that

if we suffer with Christ, we shall also rejoice with him;

if we die with Christ, we shall also rise with him.

Go in peace, letting your old self die with Christ,

and your new self, glorious with purpose and strength,

prepare for the great day of our ascended Lord’s return.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. Amen.

Eternal God, mighty in the heavens,

you brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ,

lifting him to life and drawing him up

into the glory he shares with you and the Holy Spirit.

Stretch our minds and hearts toward your majestic love.

Raise our eyes, lift our heads,

expand our vision of you

and your sovereign purposes in the world

that rest upon the strength

of our ascended Lord. Amen.

The Genevan Psalter is the major gift of the Reformed branch of the Reformation to the song of the church. John Calvin (1509-1564) first experienced congregational singing of the psalms in Strasbourg when serving as a pastor of French exiles there, and when returning to Geneva in 1541 he finally persuaded the city council to permit congregational singing, which they had banned entirely under the influence of Ulrich Zwingli. Just two months after returning to Geneva, Calvin wrote in his Ecclesiastical Ordinances: "It will be good to introduce ecclesiastical songs, the better to incite the people to pray to and praise God. For a beginning the little children are to be taught; then with time all the church will be able to follow." Calvin set about overseeing the development of several metrical psalms with melodies, rather than the hymns, or chorales, of the Lutheran tradition, and also in contrast to the published psalters with texts only that followed in England and Scotland. The emerging Genevan Psalter was published in instalments until completed in 1562, including the 150 psalms, the Ten Commandments and the Song of Simeon. He employed the best French poets and composers to prepare metrical settings rather than continuing to chant the psalms, since poetry in meter was the popular form of the day—and also the choice for the Lutheran chorale.

 

The publication event was the largest in publishing history until then; twenty-four printers in Geneva alone, plus presses in Paris, Lyons, and elsewhere produced more than 27,000 copies in the first two years; more than 100,000 copies were available in over thirty editions. The Genevan Psalter was extremely popular, and almost immediately translated into Dutch, Hungarian, and German. Due to the intense persecution of the French Huguenots in the 16th century, the center of activity of the Reformed branch of the Reformation moved away from France and especially to the Netherlands, and from there to Indonesia, South Africa, and North America. The most recent translation (2004) of the entire psalter is into Japanese. The most recent English translation of the entire Genevan Psalter is available with melodies from the Canadian Reformed Book of Praise, available at http://www.canrc.org/?page=23.

 

Calvin’s goal was to provide a distinct tune for every psalm, so that each psalm would have its own identity. Every tune would then bring to mind a particular psalm. The psalter didn’t quite reach this goal: it contains 125 different tunes. Today, only a few of those Genevan tunes are in wide use, among them the psalm tune most widely known around the world, often identified as OLD HUNDRETH, or simply, “The Doxology.”