Who Is Welcome As A Guest? (An Entrance Liturgy)

WHO IS WELCOME AS A GUEST? Psalm 15, Matthew 5: 8
(AN ENTRANCE LITURGY)
1 Wayfarers:
Who is welcome as a guest
in your Tent, Lord, on this Hill?
Temple Liturgist:
All may enter and be blest
who delight to do God’s will.
2 All:
Pilgrims are assembling there,
much encouraged by this word;
precious are the gifts they bear:
lives well pleasing to their Lord.
3 All:
Just, compassionate and true,
known for their integrity,
fair in all they say and do;
in them no duplicity.
4 All:
Did not, on another Mount,
Christ commend the pure in heart?
Gracious God, we pray you, count
us with all who share this part.
5 Wayfarers:
Who, O Lord, shall stand secure
in your Temple on this day?
Temple Liturgist:
Welcome, all whose hearts are pure!
Enter, pilgrims of the Way!


7.7.7.7. Suggested tune: Monkland


This hymn attempts to recreate the atmosphere in the Jerusalem Temple, on occasions when Psalm 15 would have been sung. The reference to the “Tent” in stanza 1 is a flashback to the Tabernacle in the wilderness, considered nostalgically as the Temple’s forerunner.

Copyright, ©, 2012, Norman J Goreham
For reprints, please use your CCLI licence, or contact the copyright holder for permission,norman.goreham@gmail.com.