The scheme for May – June can be found here

1 Ch 16-17; Rev 17-18; Psalm 55

At the heart of the Old Testament is the theme of ‘right worship’. From the strange story of the Offerings of Cain and Abel, through the stories of the Patriarchs and coming to a focus in the Monarchy of the People of God – Right Worship – Worship in accordance with the God who makes himself known to us is central and the key interpretative element on which so much of the narrative hinges.

Thus David of course desires to make a house for the ark of the covenant – he seeks to to right in his worship of God.

At the heart of the story of course is the fundamental question, Who Is God? Right worship needs to be directed aright. Right Worship is a reflection of Divine Glory – it is that for which we are made, to make visible the Life of the God in whose image we are created. Thus worship of anyone or anything else is prohibited not in an arbitrary way, but because it denies who we are. It is death dealing.

Thus in our reading from Revelation, we see the bitter fruit of wrong worship. ‘Babylon the Great’ has made herself great; she has made herself an object of worship. She has made herself the great provider – she has traded to exalt herself, to make of herself a great and mighty nation. As for Babylon, be she Rome or Jerusalem, or be she any other nation, there is only one fate

Only One is great upon the Earth, the one who offers right worship to God. What is Any nation in comparison with Christ, the one who in himself is the Tabernacle of God.