The Big Idea
God made us and loves us. We should praise God for this, as instructed in Psalm 150.
Call To Worship
Psalm 150 says “let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” In this interactive call to worship, we recall how God made all things, loves us and forgives us, so we should praise him.
A PowerPoint with words and images is available to download.
Music
Songs at the start:
- Come on and celebrate
- Praise is rising
- God you’re so good (chorus only)
Song in the middle:
- Praise him on the trumpet
Song at the end:
- You shall go out with joy
Other songs you could consider:
- How great is our God – Chris Tomlin
- God you’re so good
- How great thou art
- To God be the glory
- Praise is rising
- Praise my soul the king of heaven
- Let everything that has breath praise the Lord
- Sing a song, sing a joyful song
- Doxology/Amen – Shane and Shane
- Lord I lift your name on high
Prayers
Blow bubbles, giving thanks and praising God as you do.
As the bubbles pop, say prayers of confession.
Activity
Hide images relating to words of the psalm around the church, enough that everyone can find at least one. Invite people to go on treasure hunt to find an image, then return to their seat. A set of words/symbols is available to download.
Readings
Read Psalm 150 as a collaborative reading. The leader should read a line, then everyone else repeats it. As you read the psalm, as people to hold up the images they found in the activity as that word appears.
Talk
The talk covers the following:
- What is praise?
- Why should we praise?
- Praise should be in everything we do, even when it’s hard.
A full talk is available to download.
Response
This response is in two parts.
First, share communion together. Communion should be a time of joy and celebration of all we have been given by God. We like to have several large loaves of bread and jugs of juice that are distributed to tables around the church after the liturgy (we keep this short!). We invite our congregation to feast, serving each other and lingering at the table.
If you are unable to share communion (for example, if you don’t have an ordained minister leading the service), you could consider sharing in a love feast instead.
Once communion has been shared, invite people to take part in creating a shared artwork. Through the service, we have focused on the verse of the psalm “let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Using a mix of bubble solution and paint, ask people to use their breath to blow colourful bubbles onto paper which can be used as the background for a display of those words. Explain that this forms part of our praise.