Our preacher last Sunday was Mr Paul Bishop, whose theme was the 23rd Psalm “The Lord is my Shepherd” He was welcomed by Sue Fox who also welcomed worshippers from another local church. Paul called us to worship, and accompanied by Jill Barnett, we sang the hymn “To God be the glory! Great things he hath done” with the chorus “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!”. Paul led us in a short prayer of thanksgiving, praise and confession. There were no children present but nonetheless he produced a puppet from a box which he proceeded to manipulate with his gloved hand explaining the manner in which we need the hand of God to order our own lives.
Gerry Maxwell read Psalm 23, the much loved verses of “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”. Then followed our second bible reading from Isaiah, chapter 61, the first three verses, read by Margaret Maxwell in which the prophet tells the good news of deliverance to the Israelites. Grace Bishop, then read for us Psalm 23 from The Passion version, a new translation of the Old Testament. In our prayers for others, Paul prayed for the Royal Family following the funeral of Her Majesty The Queen, thanking God for her humility, profound Christian faith and exemplary service to our Nation, Commonwealth and the World. Prayers were also said for our new Prime Minister and Government ministers, and for those in need.
In his sermon, Paul told of the background to King David’s writing his much loved Psalm 23. It was a time of turmoil in David’s life and Paul likened this to difficulties in his own life from which sprung his song “Shepherd of the Sheep” which he sang to us accompanied by his own guitar. Paul developed his theme speaking of the Lord bringing us spiritual rest and restoring our souls. King David knew what it was to know the fullness of God as did our late Queen. Isaiah prophesied the coming of Jesus as he proclaimed, “the spirit of the Lord is upon me”, and he brought good news of the deliverance to God’s people. The Lord is our shepherd and we rejoice in the comforting words of the Psalm. We concluded as we sang “The Lord’s my Shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me down to lie in pastures green ; He leadeth me, the quiet waters by”.