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Multimedia Advent Devotional – Week 1-5, Thursday

December 3, 2025

2025:

Week 1, Thursday:

  • Scripture: Psalm 118:19-29 (Shelly McClain)
  • Reflection (Karen Sculley)
  • Prayer (Scott Mayhue)
  • Artwork: “Wisdom of the Universe” (Christi Belcourt)
  • Music: “Psalm 118” (Poor Bishop Hooper) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKnf-tx09pI

Reflection on Psalm 118:19-29 – “Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we beseech you, O Lord! O Lord, we beseech you, give us success! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

Did you know that Psalm 118 is the psalm most often pointed to in the New Testament? We are in the season of Advent, which is all about Jesus. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament’s message about God. Jesus has a unique role in the history of God with not only God’s chosen people but with all people, with all nations. Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, is the assurance of God’s promises of salvation. This is why Matthew 1:23 includes God’s promise that the child to be born to the virgin Mary and her husband Joseph would be called Emmanuel, which means “God with us.”

Our Vineyard statement of faith includes a section entitled Christ the Mediator and Eternal King, which begins, “We believe that in the fullness of time, God honored His covenants with Israel and His prophetic promises of salvation by sending His Son, Jesus, into the world. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, as fully God and fully human in one person, He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God’s Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, inaugurating God’s kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead.”

Jesus inaugurated God’s kingdom reign on earth. To inaugurate is to initiate, commence, begin. And guess who gets to continue that good work which Jesus inaugurated? That’s right – you and me and all who follow Jesus on the way of love. Jesus has opened to us the gate of righteousness, that we may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord, with our words, with our actions, with our love, with our lives. Through his life, ministry, death, and resurrection, Jesus has become our salvation! Jesus is God, and he has given us light!

Peter referenced this Psalm in 1 Peter chapter two, in which we are encouraged to come to Jesus, “a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight.”

How do we do that? Peter points us to Jesus who suffered for us and left us an example, so that we can follow in his steps. Peter offers practical instruction in how do this: We can rid ourselves of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. And we can long for pure, spiritual milk, so that by it we may grow into salvation.

When we follow in Jesus’ steps, we then become “like living stones [that can] be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

How can we respond to all of this good news? Today’s Psalm shows us how to publicly and joyfully thank the Lord for his goodness: Rejoice! Be glad! Extol God! Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

2024:

Week 1, Thursday:
• Scripture: Psalm 118:1, 8-9, 19-21, 25-27a (Bart Parker)
• Reflection (Patricia Dotson)
• Prayer (Karen Sculley)
• Artwork: “The Dream of Saint Joseph” (Philippe de Champaigne)
• Music: “Psalm 118” (Shane and Shane) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiDn8w70TPU

2023:

Week 1, Thursday:

  • Scripture – Psalm 118:1, 8-9, 19-21, 25-27a (Karen Sculley)
  • Reflection (Nancy Penton)
  • Prayer (Patricia Dotson)
  • Artwork: “Nativity” (Bernardino Luini)
  • Music: “His Steadfast Love Endures Forever” (Jason Silver) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcEr9OkFP-s

2022:

Week 1, Thursday:

  • Scripture: Psalm 72:18-19 (John Trotter)
  • Reflection (Karen Sculley)
  • Prayer (Paul Sculley)
  • Artwork: “Empty seat of God awaiting the Second Coming of Christ” (Paris, France)
  • Music: “King of Justice” (Ronald JJ Wong, sung by Ethel Yap) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdDxCvHtIks

Reflection on Psalm 72:18-19 (NRSV) – “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.”

Today’s Scripture is the close of a Psalm celebrating the reign of the Messiah, when the whole world will be filled with the glory of God. The first part of today’s Scripture, rendered in various translations as “praise be to the Lord God” or “blessed be the Lord,” comes from a Hebrew word telling us to kneel, in other words, to bless God by adoring Him. Thirteenth century theologian Thomas Aquinas explains that adoration is the worship and homage that is rightly offered to God alone: to bless God by adoring Him means that we submit ourselves to the absolute Lordship of Christ; we acknowledge our dependence upon God; and we affirm the excellence of our uncreated Creator, who alone is worthy of all our praise.

Advent is a great season in which to ponder adoration. We and those close to us can tell who or what we adore by what we spend our time on, what we spend our money on, what we dream about, what we invest in. It’s good to take periodic pulse checks and make course corrections as needed.

To adore the Lord, which is to worship God with our bodies and our spirits, is to encounter Him personally. And every time we encounter God personally, the Holy Spirit transforms us, and we are filled with joy. Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Blessed be the Lord’s glorious name forever! May God’s glory fill the whole earth!

Each short Multimedia Advent Devotional is an invitation to set aside time each day during a typically busy season preparing for Christmas to rejoice in the coming of our Savior, Christ Jesus, and to respond to God’s invitation to us to join with Him in what He’s doing today.

Advent is a season of the liturgical year observed in most Christian denominations as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for both the celebration of the Nativity of Christ at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity and is part of the wider Christmas and holiday season. Advent is a period in which we are invited to set aside time each day during a typically busy season preparing for Christmas to rejoice in the coming of our Savior, Christ Jesus, and to respond to God’s invitation to us to join with Him in what He’s doing today.

This collaboration is brought to you by Liberty Vineyard Church

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