Pastor Joel S Neubauer
1:: Lord God, But I [updated and arranged]
07.03.2024 · 23:26:45 ··· 07.03.2024 · 23:26:45 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Lord God, But I [updated and arranged]
Original prayer for God
to Burgenland Roma folk melody (Ma Rov, Ma Rov)
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
Psalm 88
Updated and simply arranged for Lent 2024
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
+ + +
Lord God, but I – desperate – I cry
night by night, oh hear me!
Lord God, draw near; incline your ear:
listen out of pity!
My soul is sated with distress,
anxiety and hopelessness;
I am numbered as the dead.
Lord, where is mercy?
I am a toy, yours to destroy.
Will you leave me broken?
Fury and gyre: do you desire
nothing else be spoken?
I drown within your anger's sea;
you turn my friends away from me;
my eyes set like death upon,
Lord, your horizon.
Lord, I beseech. I grope. I reach
for your love's attention.
Show me your face. Where is your grace?
Have you none to mention?
No praises rise within our graves
if you are not a God who saves...
or have you forgotten me,
Lord of salvation?
Lord God, but I – desperate – I cry:
break your dawn before me!
Why cast me off? Why hide? Why scoff?
Why do you ignore me?
Delivered wretched from the womb,
my cradle has become my tomb.
Your wrath has washed over me,
Lord of my folly.
2:: Psalm 147
30.01.2024 · 17:09:19 ··· 30.01.2024 · 17:09:19 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 147:2-4 – "O Lord, You Rebuild" [Updated]
Prayer and song for God,
following the ELW psalter & original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Updated for the season after Epiphany 2024
+ + +
O Lord, you rebuild Jerusalem
and gather the exiles of Israel.
O Lord, you heal the brokenhearted
and bind up their wounds, and bind up their wounds.
O Lord, you number the stars
and call them all by their names.
O Lord....
3:: Psalm 65:1-2, 5a, 11a – "Let Silence Still and Quiet Come"
14.11.2023 · 22:32:38 ··· 14.11.2023 · 22:32:38 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 65:1-2, 5a, 11a – "Let Silence Still and Quiet Come"
Prayer and song for God,
original paraphrase of the ELW psalter with an original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Shared for a day of Thanksgiving (2023)
+ + +
[The first two stanzas reflect the Hebrew text and the translation of the King James Version]
Let silence still and quiet come
to praise you where you are, O God.
To you who listens, you who hears,
to whom all heads shall bow and nod
in reverent prayer, whose righteous Word
bespeaks our safety: thank you, God!
So be it that you bless all earth.
So be it that all earth applaud.
4:: Psalm 26 – "Judge of All, Judge Me with Integrity"
29.08.2023 · 18:28:21 ··· 29.08.2023 · 18:28:21 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 26 – "Judge of All, Judge Me with Integrity"
Prayer and song for God,
original paraphrase of the ELW psalter with an original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Shared for Season after Pentecost 2023
+ + +
Judge of all, judge me
with integrity
I have walked in truth unaltered
and my faith has never faltered:
search and try my mind
and my heart in like kind.
Like a star above
I have watched you, Love,
guide my life in doing justly
while I've walked with you in mercy:
look upon my face
with redemptive grace.
Lord, I will not sit
as a hypocrite
or retire where truth is lacking
or relax while death's attacking:
let me wash my soul
'til at peace I'm whole.
I will dance and sing
and the thanks I bring
will announce how you have loved me.
Lord, your house is more than lovely;
Lover, bless me to
evermore bless you.
5:: Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18 – "Your Endless Love I'll Ever Chant"
27.06.2023 · 23:04:11 ··· 27.06.2023 · 23:04:11 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18 – "Your Endless Love I'll Ever Chant"
Prayer and song for God,
based upon the ELW psalter with an original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Shared for Season after Pentecost 2023
+ + +
Your endless love I’ll ever chant
and charge your timeless faith, O Lord;
such love as yours you’ll not recant,
such faith as yours sets heaven’s chord.
You have said, “My covenant
is love and grace for whom I choose;
Child of David, you are sent
to ever reign with Love’s good news.”
What happy shout your saints employ,
Who dance for you delightedly,
O Lord: Your name, their font of joy;
Your righteousness, their jubilee.
Their strength glories, Lord, in you—
You grace and favor us as well;
Lord, receive our tribute true,
O Holy One of Israel!
6:: Psalm 100 – "For Your Maker Measure Music"
13.06.2023 · 22:59:01 ··· 13.06.2023 · 22:59:01 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 100 – "For Your Maker Measure Music"
Prayer and song for God,
based upon the ELW psalter with an original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Shared for Season after Pentecost 2023
+ + +
For your maker measure music,
earth and water, wind and rock—
Serve the One Who Is with gladness:
with your God, come sing, come walk.
Know the One Who Is is holy:
God creates the love God keeps,
so you are God’s people wholly,
oh, beloved shepherd’s sheep.
Enter gates and open spaces,
prayers of thanks and praise to rise;
come and court your God with blessing
where life’s Sacred Spirit sighs.
Good indeed is it to be here,
Lord, with you. Your holy name
— Ever Loving, Ever Faithful —
age to age we sing the same.
7:: Psalm 50:1-14 (Hosea 6:1-3, 6) – "Listen to my Word, Israel, for You"
06.06.2023 · 22:45:21 ··· 06.06.2023 · 22:45:21 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 50:1-14 (Hosea 6:1-3, 6) – "Listen to my Word, Israel, for You"
Prayer and song for God,
based upon the ELW psalter with an original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Shared for Season after Pentecost 2023
+ + +
Listen to my Word, Israel, for You
you are mine and I, your God—
and you’re generous, which I’ll not rebuke,
yet your sacrifice is odd,
but offer thanks to heaven alone;
honor and live at peace with Elyon.
What is in your hand, whether tame or wild,
bird of air or beast of field?
Are they not all mine, as are you, my child?
Has my hunger been revealed?
But offer thanks to heaven alone;
honor and live at peace with Elyon.
Come, let us return to the One who heals,
who, where broken, binds us up.
Wait a day or two, God will revive you—
on the third day raise you up
to offer thanks to heaven alone,
honor and live at peace with Elyon.
As the sun will rise, as the rain will fall,
let us come to know our Lord.
Not our sacrifice, but our love for all:
let us learn what God’s adored
and offer thanks to heaven alone,
honor and live at peace with Elyon.
8:: Psalm 68:4-6, 7, 10, 32-35 – "Sing to God! Sing Praises"
16.05.2023 · 22:52:03 ··· 16.05.2023 · 22:52:03 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 68:4-7, 10, 32-35 – "Sing to God! Sing Praises"
Prayer and song for God,
based closely upon the ELW psalter with an original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Shared for Easter 2023
+ + +
Sing to God,
sing praises to God’s name;
exalt the one who rides the clouds;
I AM is that name,
rejoice before God!
In your holy habitation,
O God, adopter of orphans, defender of widows,
you grace solitary souls with a home;
you birth freedom for souls held in prison;
you withstand rebelliousness that dwells in desert places.
O God, when you went forth before your people,
O God, when you marched through the wilderness,
your people found their home in it.
O God, in your goodness you have made provision for us, who are so poor.
Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth;
sing praises to the Lord.
You ride in the heavens, O God, in the ancient heavens;
you send forth your voice, your mighty voice.
Ascribe power to God.
Your majesty is over Israel!
O God, whose strength is in the skies,
you are wonderful in your sanctity!
O God of Israel, you grant strength and power to your people!
You are blessed, O God!
9:: Psalm 66:13b-14, 16-20 – "Lord, I Will Pay My Vow"
09.05.2023 · 23:25:22 ··· 09.05.2023 · 23:25:22 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 66:13b-14, 16-20 – "Lord, I Will Pay My Vow"
Prayer and song for God,
paraphrased from the ELW psalter with an original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Shared for Easter 2023
+ + +
Lord, I will pay my vow,
Promises spoken now,
What my mouth muttered when troubles came.
Come, listen, you who would share my faith,
And I will tell you
What God has done,
All God has done for me.
My mouth will call for God,
My tongue will praise my Lord.
Had I loved evil, what prayer would my God have received?
Yet God has judged for me; truthfully, I am relieved.
Blessed be my God!
God has not rejected my prayer,
nor withheld unfailing love from me.
10:: Psalm 31:1, 3b-4a – "O be my, Adonai, Asylum"
02.05.2023 · 20:30:54 ··· 02.05.2023 · 20:30:54 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 31:1, 3b-4a – "O be my, Adonai, Asylum"
Prayer and song for God,
paraphrased from the ELW psalter with an original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Shared for Easter 2023
+ + +
O be my, Adonai, asylum! Set me from from
guilt till, shameless, I am balanced with your justice!
Then lead me! Lead me, Lord, and guide me. Love me! Let me
out of the net they in secret set upon me.
11:: Psalm 114 – "The Wrestler Broke the Opposer's Hold"
05.04.2023 · 02:25:54 ··· 05.04.2023 · 02:25:54 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 114 – "The Wrestler Broke the Opposer's Hold"
Prayer and song for God,
paraphrased from the ELW psalter with an original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Shared for Easter 2023
+ + +
The wrestler broke the opposer’s hold when came the referee’s judgment bold;
Then Israel smiled, and God therein: their righteous call, our victor's win.
An ocean for a salty tear, a river for our crying here,
that otherwise would wet our cheeks like waterfalls on mountain peaks:
behold, they’ve rolled away and fled; and on our faces dance instead
like lambs upon a pasture green new hopes for promised life unseen.
Why don’t you cry, old ocean eye? Why don’t you flood, you river dry?
What’s made your frowning face to rise? Is victory such a strange surprise?
But tremble, earth, for present here the Lord is rising victory’s cheer.
For God’s our referee who calls life’s victor up where wrestling stalls.
Our eyes will cry no more from pain, yet will not like dry rock remain,
but happy tears of joy will run when dawns on our promised day God’s sun.
12:: Psalm 95:1-7a – "Amen, Now Sing! Sing to the Lord!" [Updated Lent 2023]
07.03.2023 · 23:59:25 ··· 07.03.2023 · 23:59:25 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 95:1-7a – "Amen, Now Sing! Sing to the Lord!" [Updated Lent 2023]
Prayer and song for God,
based on the ELW psalter & original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Shared for Lent 2023
+ + +
Come, let us sing! Sing to the Lord!
Let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation!
And let us come before God's presence with thanksgiving
and raise a loud shout to the Lord with psalms!
For you are, Lord, yes, a great God
and a great ruler above all gods!
In your hands are the caverns of the earth;
the heights of the hills are also yours.
The sea is yours, for you made it
and your hands, Lord, have molded the dry land.
Come! Let us worship! Come and bow down!
Let us kneel before the Lord our maker,
for the Lord is our God and we are the people
of God's pasture and the sheep of God's hand.
Amen, now sing! Sing to the Lord!
13:: Psalm 2 – "Why Are the Nations in an Uproar?"
15.02.2023 · 01:55:49 ··· 15.02.2023 · 01:55:49 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 2 – "Why Are the Nations in an Uproar?"
Prayer and song for God,
based freely on the ELW psalter & original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Shared for the Transfiguration 2023
+ + +
Why are nations in an uproar?
Why do we mutter empty threats?
Why do kings of earth rise up revolt,
and our princes plot for death,
LORD, against you? Christ, against you?
“Let us break God’s yoke,” they say;
“let us free us from Love’s burden.”
God, you laugh, but so we pray.
God of laughter, God of heaven,
God of wrath and God of rage,
When we prey on your removal,
Terror rips a gospel page
From a crown of thorns on Calvary,
While our faithfulness withdrew
You yet judge for us to witness:
“I Am God With Us with you.”
Like a cool caress of Jordan,
You insist, “You are my child;
On this day I have begotten you.”
Water breaking in the wild.
“Ask of me and I will give it—
You can claim complete control, but
What you lust for, can you live it?
Can you keep creation whole?”
Are we wiser now than God is?
Is Love warning us somehow,
As we box our God in history,
We’d do well to hush and bow
And respect that happy mystery
Who transfigures all of this,
Anger burned in blazing glory
For our metamorphosis.
14:: Psalm 119:1-8 – "Happy Are They Who Walk a Way"
08.02.2023 · 02:16:44 ··· 08.02.2023 · 02:16:44 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 119:1-8 – "Happy Are They Who Walk a Way"
Prayer and song for God,
based freely on the ELW psalter & original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Shared for the season after Epiphany 2023
+ + +
Oh, happy are they who walk a way with no blame,
who learn from, who follow, what is taught by The Name.
Happy are they who’ll wholeheartedly
turn to take the task of God’s decree,
innocent, observant and keeping God’s Word faithfully.
Oh, happy would I be for my feet to walk your way,
then my steps would not be shame-filled, nor my path be found to stray.
I will thank you with a heartbeat true
when I learn of righteousness from you;
I will keep your word and you will keep with me; you always do.
15:: Psalm 40:1-5, 7-8, 11 – "Patiently, O Lord, I've Waited"
11.01.2023 · 01:15:46 ··· 11.01.2023 · 01:15:46 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 40:1-5, 7-8, 11 – "Patiently, O Lord, I've Waited"
Prayer and song for God,
based on the ELW psalter & original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Shared for the season after Epiphany 2023
+ + +
1-2.
Patiently, O Lord, I've waited
for your turn to hear my cry
from this swampy sinkhole: save me;
stay me safe on bedrock dry.
3.
Make mine a mouth for music.
Take praises sung anew.
Let earth and heaven sense it:
set our faith, O Lord, on you.
4.
Happy are those souls who trust their
pride to you much more than self,
honoring your holy altar
more than idols' dusty shelf.
5.
Lord God of grace yet growing,
none can compare with you!
Lord God, all grace bestowing,
all our thanks are yet too few.
7-8.
Here I am; I come because your
Holy Word has summoned me
to proclaim my love, my God, for
all you teach humanity.
11.
You are the Lord! Do not with-
hold mercy's grace from me!
Let truth and love protect us,
sweetest Savior Deity!
16:: Psalm 122 & Revelation 21:9-27 – “(Hear, I was Glad) Jerusalem”
22.11.2022 · 13:11:38 ··· 22.11.2022 · 13:11:38 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 122 & Revelation 21:9-27 – “(Hear, I was Glad) Jerusalem”
Prayer and song for God,
based on the ELW psalter & original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Shared for the festival of Christ the King 2022 (Covid-19/coronavirus)
+ + +
Hear, I was glad, Jerusalem,
O Holy House, Jerusalem,
within your gates, Jerusalem–
Jerusalem–Jerusalem!
Oh, to yourself, Jerusalem,
have you been built, Jerusalem,
at unity, Jerusalem–
Jerusalem– Jerusalem!
I pray your peace, Jerusalem,
for all who love Jerusalem.
O Lord, your house: Jerusalem–
Jerusalem– Jerusalem!
Your open gates, Jerusalem!
Your light undimmed, Jerusalem!
Now come, O New Jerusalem–
Jerusalem– Jerusalem!
17:: Psalm 46:6, 10 -11 [Updated 2022] – "God Speaks: Be Still"
15.11.2022 · 21:01:21 ··· 15.11.2022 · 21:01:21 ··· 03.07.2024 · 15:40:29 ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· Psalm 46:6, 10 -11 [Updated 2022] – "God Speaks: Be Still"
Prayer and song for God,
based on the ELW psalter & original tune
Pastor Joel S Neubauer
St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia
Shared for the festival of Christ the King 2022 (Covid-19/coronavirus)
+ + +
God speaks. God speaks:
"Be still. Be still.
Know I am God; yes, I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations;
I will be exalted in all the earth."
God speaks. God speaks.
God speaks: "Be still. Be still. Be still."
The Lord our fortress is with us.
