• Who We Are
    • Who We Are
    • Mission
    • History
    • General Synod
    • Leadership and Ministry
    • Staff
    • United Church of Christ Board
  • What We Believe
    • What We Believe
    • Worship Ways
    • Daily Devotional
  • What We Do
    • What We Do
    • Office of the General Minister & President
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
  • News
  • Church Finder
  • Donate Now
  • Search
UCC Logo United Church of Christ
  • Church Finder
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Store
  • Frontline Faith Portal
  • Donate Now
  • Search
  • Who We Are
    • Column
      • About
        • Mission
        • Constitution and Bylaws
        • History
          • UCC Archives
        • UCC Brand Guidelines
        • General Synod
          • Synod 33 Worship Videos
          • Past General Synods
        • Abuse Prevention
    • Column
      • Structure
        • Conferences
        • Affiliated Ministries
          • The Pension Boards
          • Cornerstone Fund
          • Insurance Board
          • The Council for Health and Human Services Ministries
          • Church Building & Loan Fund
          • Convergence
    • Column
      • Team
        • Elected Officers
        • Staff
        • United Church of Christ Board
          • Board Minutes
        • Office of General Counsel
        • UCCOSSN
    • Column
      • Career Opportunities
      • Annual Reports
  • What We Believe
    • Column
      • Worship
        • Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ – La Declaración de Fe de la Iglesia Unida de Cristo
        • Worship Ways
        • Daily Devotional
        • Sermon Seeds
  • How We Serve
    • Column
      • Office of the General Minister & President
        • Welcome to Human Resources
          • Employee Relations Resources
        • Center for Analytics, Research & Development and Data (CARDD)
          • General CARDD FAQs
          • About The Center for Analytics, Research & Development, and Data (CARDD)
          • Authorized Minister Opt Out
          • Access UCC
          • Archived Reports
          • Assessment Resources
          • Information Policies and Requests
          • Faith Communities Today (FACT) Survey
          • MissionInsite
          • Statistics and Reports
          • Vital Signs and Statistics Blog
          • Data Hub FAQs
          • Data Hub
          • Yearbook and Directory
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Justice
          • Faithful Action Ministries
            • Environmental Justice Ministries
            • Economic Justice
            • Racial Justice
          • Office of Public Policy & Advocacy in Washington D.C.
            • Justice and Peace Action Network
            • Our Faith Our Vote
            • Justice Training Resources
            • Action Center
          • Health and Wholeness Advocacy
            • Disabilities and Mental Health Justice
            • Encuentros Latinx
            • UCC HIV & AIDS Network-UCAN
            • LGBTQ Ministries
            • Our Whole Lives
            • Overdose and Drug Use Ministries
            • Scouting
            • Wellness Ministries
          • The Pilgrim Press & Stillspeaking Publications
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Local Church
          • The Faith Education, Innovation and Formation (Faith INFO)Team
            • Weekly Seeds
            • Youth & Young Adults
          • Worship Resources
            • Worship Ways
            • Sermon Seeds
            • Synod 33 Worship Videos
            • Music and Liturgical Arts
          • Stewardship & Generosity Resources
          • Ministerial Excellence, Support & Authorization (MESA)
            • History, Polity, and Theology
            • Search and Call
            • Ministerial Profiles
            • Ministry Opportunities
            • Manual on Ministry
    • Column
      • Wider Church Ministries
        • Global Ministries
        • Global H.O.P.E.
          • Volunteer Ministries
          • Refugee and Migration Ministries
          • Disaster Ministries
          • Recovering Hope
        • Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations
  • Resources
  • News
    • Column
      • News
        • United Church of Christ News
    • Column
      • Columns
        • Witness for Justice
        • Into the Mystic
        • Getting to the Root of It
        • The Pollinator: UCC Environmental Justice Blog
        • UCC Roots
        • Encounters at the Well
        • Reflexiones
    • Column
      • Upcoming Events
        • Webinars
      • Subscriptions at the United Church of Christ
      • Changes & Deaths
  • Giving
    • Column
      • Donate Now
      • Ways to Give
        • Giving Tuesday
        • Disaster Ministries: How to Give
        • Our Church’s Wider Mission
          • Our Church’s Wider Mission Basic Support
          • Strengthen the Church
          • One Great Hour of Sharing
          • Neighbors in Need
          • Christmas Fund
          • 5 for 5
    • Column
      • Ways We Give
        • Scholarships & Grants

  • Home
  • Worship Ways
  • Davies, Chris
  • Chris Davies
  • Living Psalm 144 – A prayer of Grounding in this Time of Coronavirus

Living Psalm 144 – A prayer of Grounding in this Time of Coronavirus

Living Psalms Book

Psalms in the form of words and art, reborn in the specific contexts of our world, privileging the voices of historically marginalized communities and those acting in solidarity with them.

Living Psalm 144
A prayer of Grounding in this Time of Coronavirus

For you, holding the anxiety of a system.  Pastors and caregivers. Nurses and doctors.  Teachers and school decision makers. And more.
The collective systems of support that are anxiously preparing. For me.
With love.

Pray alongside Psalm 144, as below (NRSV).  Breathe between the verses. Speak, pray, think, hold words alongside so many others holding these words at this time. 
Light a candle to direct your own intention, or, hold the tangible thing you have carried to remind you of grace; whatever that is.


Ps:  Blessed be the Lord, my rock,
    who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;

Oh beloved, we are they who follow a God that knows of preparation; for what we do not know will follow in this time.  We know that we are not alone. We know we can center alongside generations of prayer and positioning.

 my rock and my fortress,
    my stronghold and my deliverer,

Oh, beloved, we are they who cry out with faith that holds the faith of many, conduits of hope for many who have lost their own, seeking centering in our own foundation of care.  Remind us of our reason for doing this work. 

my shield, in whom I take refuge,
    who subdues the peoples under me.

Oh, beloved, we are gathered in a web of connection and care, where our messaging is similar.  Protect the most marginalized. Hold the community. Do our best. 

O Lord, what are human beings that you regard them,
    or mortals that you think of them?
They are like a breath;
    their days are like a passing shadow.

Oh, beloved, our mortality is before us in ways we didn’t anticipate.  We remember our faith of resurrection. We remember ashes, remember witness, remember community.  Remember God’s story which is present in this day and all days.  

Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down;
    touch the mountains so that they smoke.
Make the lightning flash and scatter them;
    send out your arrows and rout them.

Oh, beloved, we are they who are praying for intercession.  Someone, someone, come and offer a solution. For the vaccines.  For the broken systems. For the healthcare industry. For the competing values of capitalism and care.  For those who invested time and energy and care into events that will not happen in the near future. For clear-headed leadership of our country.

Stretch out your hand from on high;
    set me free and rescue me from the mighty waters,
    from the hand of aliens,
whose mouths speak lies,
    and whose right hands are false.

Oh, beloveds, we pray for the deliverance from Fake News, and opinions functioning like facts.  We pray for reason and science to have a stronghold in our collective responses. We pray for care of our people, that no more may die unnecessarily from preventable circumstances of any kind. 

I will sing a new song to you, O God;
    upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,
the one who gives victory to kings,
    who rescues his servant David.

Oh, beloveds– we who can be moved to tears in music, or have a day shift in song.  We who know the creativity of God’s created people and our collective response to delight in beauty.  May we lean into those beautiful things. May we re-member the moments of community at its best, and pull from that to hold the response needed in these days. 

Rescue me from the cruel sword,
    and deliver me from the hand of aliens,
whose mouths speak lies,
    and whose right hands are false.

Oh, beloveds.  Let us cry out in supplication together for the work we must do.  Let those who stand in our way, the naysayers and those who cannot perceive the systems we set up as valuable, not be the voices defining our actions.  Let us hold fast to our faith, our call, our responsibilities of care. 

May our sons in their youth
    be like plants full grown,
our daughters like corner pillars,
    cut for the building of a palace.

Oh! Beloveds.  Let us set up something for our collective children and children’s children.  Let us evolve together in ways that our grandchildren will be proud of. Let us create flexible systems of support that add wisdom into our human condition for times of struggle.  May we listen to the wisdom of the young in their adaptability, and not hold them to our own pain.

May our barns be filled,
    with produce of every kind;
may our sheep increase by thousands,
    by tens of thousands in our fields,
    and may our cattle be heavy with young.
May there be no breach in the walls, no exile,
    and no cry of distress in our streets.

Oh, beloveds.  May we know everything we need to know.  May we share everything we need to share.  May our leaders step up and in. May we hold everything we need to hold.  May our personal boundaries serve to protect our emotional and spiritual selves.  

 Happy are the people to whom such blessings fall;
    happy are the people whose God is the Lord.

Oh beloveds, may there be grace upon grace, and joy upon joy.  May there be moments of laughter in the midst of the chaos, and support aplenty.  May we know we are not alone in the midst of preparation and love and care. And may we hold close to the heart WHO we are and WHOSE we are: beloved children of a Compassionate, Loving, Healing God. 

 

Living Psalm 144: Prayer of Grounding in this Time of Coronavirus was written by Rev. Dr. Chris Davies, Minister and Team Leader for Faith INFO, Justice and Local Church Ministries, UCC.

Living Psalms Book is created by UCC Witness & Worship Artists’ Group, a Network of UCC connected artists, activists and ministers bridging the worship and liturgy of the local church with witness and action in the community. Maren Tirabassi, editor

Logo is detail from Living Psalm 80 by Sophia Beardemphl, Redwoods, CA. Recovering from significant bullying, Sophia, age nine, read Psalm 80 and thought of brokenness that needs mending. She drew this broken and mended bowl.

© Copyright 2020 Chris Davies. Permission granted to reproduce or adapt this material for use in services of worship or church education. All publishing rights reserved.

Living Psalm 144–Prayer for Grounding in a Time of Coronavirus

  • Column
    • Local Church and Conference Resource Directory
    • Mission
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
    • General Synod Resolutions
    • How can I find local churches near me? Click here!
  • Column
    • Contact
    • News
    • Store

Content on ucc.org is copyrighted by the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and may be only shared according to the guidelines outlined here.

1300 E. 9th Street, Suite 1100
Cleveland, Ohio 44114

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Subscribe on YouTube

Donate Now


UCC Crest
© United Church of Christ 2023. Privacy Policy.
Crafted by Cornershop Creative