Worship is a feast. In worship Gad has prepared a table, and He invites us to come and eat what He has laid before us. What has God laid before us in the feast of worship? He gives us His Word and His promises and fullness of joy and a robe of righteousness and the fat things full of marrow.

Ultimately, He gives us Himself. He is the only source of lasting and true satisfaction, and God calls us to feast on Him each Lord’s Day, being filled with Him through His Word and His praise and His people. And the response of our souls echoes with the Psalmist: “My soul thirsts for you; my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water . . . My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.” (Psalm 63:1,5)

Too often the feast of worship is unsatisfying to us. It is doesn’t delight our spiritual tastes and fulfill our aching hunger. But this is not because the feast of worship is lacking in some way. God is all-satisfying and His joy is eternal and eternally for His glory.

Too often we don’t desire the feast of worship because all week we have glutted ourselves on the white bread of the world, and when we come to worship the feast seems distasteful. Has your week been a scarfing of the white bread of the world or a desperate longing to feast on Christ in worship?

We need constancy in worship – the steadfast, resolute desire of the starving man who, after wandering through the wilderness in desperation, comes upon the grace-filled dainties of the mountain of the Lord where there is a feast of choice pieces and well-refined wines on the table in the wilderness.

I call you to feast on Christ in worship this Lord’s Day. Glut yourself on His grace and mercy. Feed on His faithfulness. Sit in awed wonder at the abundance of good things He gives us. And fill up not on the passing junk food of the world but on the eternal God who alone satisfies.

Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we give You praise and thanks for all Your goodness and tender mercies. We bless You for the love that created us, and that sustains us day by day. We praise You for the gift of Your Son, our Savior, through whom you have made known Your will and grace. We thank you for the Holy Spirit, our Comforter; for the Holy, catholic, and Apostolic Church, for the means of grace, for the lives of all faithful and godly people, and for the hope of the life to come. Help us to treasure in our hearts all that our Lord has done for us, and enable us to show our thankfulness by lives that are given wholly to Your service.

We ask that you Save and defend Your Church universal, purchased with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Give to her pastors and ministers endowed with Your Holy Spirit, and strengthen her through the Word and the holy Sacraments. Make her perfect in love and in all good works, and establish her in the faith delivered to the saints. Sanctify and unite Your people in all the world, that one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church may bear witness to You, the God and Father of all.

In particular, we thank you for your faithfulness to our families; for the godly example they are in their communities; we pray that you would continue to build strong families in our midst. We are grateful for the faithful fathers who choose to follow your wisdom instead of the wisdom of the world to lead their families in righteousness and truth.

We pray also for our government, our leaders, national and local officials. In a time of great debate and economic turmoil in our nation, cause us to rely on you and your mercy alone. We ask that You would preserve our nation in righteousness and true honor, and grant Your blessings to us as a people, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Grant health and favor to all who bear office in our land, and cause them, to acknowledge and obey Your holy will.

We humbly pray that you would heal the sick in our midst, that You would show your favor to those in the family of God.

Tend your sick ones, O Lord Christ.
Rest your weary ones.
Bless your dying ones.
Soothe your suffering ones.
Pity your afflicted ones.
Shield your joyous ones.
And for all your love’s sake.

We pray that you would send forth Your light and Your truth into all the earth. Raise up, we pray, faithful servants to labor in the gospel at home and in distant lands. For Caleb Sutton as he prepared to go to Peru, for Blake Purcell in Russia, and for the ministry of your labor

Give us ears to hear your Word and bodies to obey it.

We rejoice with thanksgiving in all those who have loved and served You in Your Church on earth, and who now rest from their labors. Keep us in fellowship with all Your people, and bring us to the joy of Your everlasting kingdom. All these things, and whatever You see that we need, grant us, O Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ Your Son who taught us to pray: