Prayer of Confession and Rejoicing in Salvation:

Psalm 24:3-5 

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? 
And who may stand in His holy place? 
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, 
Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood 
And has not sworn deceitfully. 
5 He shall receive a blessing from the Lord 
And righteousness from the God of his salvation. 

Heavenly, Father: 

You are a great, and you are glorious: God above all, worthy of all worship and submission. We should be captivated by your beauty, your majesty, and your infinite worthiness, and we often speak of our intention to stand before you, but in ourselves we do not have clean hands nor pure hearts. 

Father, you well know that by our generations and in our natural state, we are motivated to pursue our own glory and we are endlessly captivated by the pleasures of sin. We confess that our motives are corrupted, we create and delight in falsehoods, our hearts are manufactories of idolatry, and we have given ourselves to making empty promises and embracing falsehood. Our hands are unclean, everything we grasp is stained by our selfishness and our rebellion, and our souls live in the deepening shadow of your approaching judgment. 

And yet, you provided your Son out of your great love for us: of clean hands and a pure heart, who did not lift up his soul to falsehood, and who never swore deceitfully. In his perfect life, obedient death, and glorious resurrection, you have opened the door so that all who cling to the righteousness of Christ may stand accepted before you in your holy place. In Christ, we will receive your blessing, and rejoice in the righteousness that you, the God of our salvation, have proclaimed over us. 

As we are met here today, there are some of us who need to see the urgent reality of their filthy hands and wicked hearts, and their pressing need to turn to Christ for the righteousness and acceptance that only he can provide. Father, would you give sight to the blind and create life and repentance, so that the condemned might rejoice in your gift of life? 

There are also many of us who have turned to Christ: in our time together this morning, would you exalt Christ’s salvation before us, bring us to rejoice in our standing before you, and cause us to exult in the glory of your person and your salvation? Amen