The Psalms in Worship

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Colossians 3:16). Paul here calls upon the Church to make the language of the Psalms our own in our interactions with one another both in private prayer and in corporate worship. The use of the Psalms in worship arose from the Jewish synagogue and temple and has been retained by the Christian Church throughout all of Church history. In the Early Church, Psalms were sung before the Mass as the people gathered to await the priest’s arrival, and they found their home within the Mass in places like the Introit and Gradual. The Psalms were utilized to an even greater extent in the Daily Offices, the short prayer services such as Matins and Vespers sung each day during the week. Certain Psalms were appointed for each day and time, and several Psalms were sung in each service. This frequent repetition fostered learning by heart.

In his 1545 Preface to the Psalter, Luther lifts up the Psalms as a summary of the whole Bible. The center of all the Psalms is Christ (Luke 24:44). The Psalms are not only about Christ but are also the very prayers which He Himself prayed to the Father. When we pray the Psalms, we join our prayers to Christ’s. Luther also commends the Psalms as a mirror of the true human condition before God. The Psalms give voice to every imaginable circumstance. “Where does one find finer words of joy than in the psalms of praise and thanksgiving?... Where do you find deeper, more sorrowful, more pitiful words of sadness than in the psalms of lamentation?” (Luther’s Works, vol. 35, p. 255). The Psalms are a window into the souls of the saints and a model for prayer as we pray God’s Word back to Him. The Church takes up the Psalms as the language of faith to meditate on the Scriptures and to pray for ourselves and those around us.

Within corporate church services, the singing of Psalms can take many forms. With responsorial Psalmody, the congregation sings a simple refrain or antiphon while a cantor or choir chants the rest of the Psalm. These refrains are short and meant to be memorized. Direct Psalmody involves the congregation singing the whole Psalm together, whether chanting or singing a hymn paraphrase such as “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” (LSB 709; Psalm 23). Lastly, antiphonal Psalmody involves two groups singing in alternation, usually verse by verse. This method emphasizes the parallelism found in the Psalms. However they are sung, the Psalms join our voices together with Christ’s as we approach the Father in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.

The Hymn of the Day

The natural response of faith upon hearing the Gospel is to sing. Scripture gives several examples of this, such as the Song of Moses, sung after the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and were delivered from Egypt (Exodus 15), and the Magnificat, which Mary sang upon hearing Elizabeth’s confession of the presence of Christ in Mary’s womb (Luke 1). The command to sing is also found throughout the Scriptures, such as in Psalm 96: “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His name; tell of His salvation from day to day.” These three examples also demonstrate the content of our music: we ought to sing about God’s work of salvation for us!

Hymns have been sung in the Divine Service since at least the Middle Ages, but they were primarily sung by the choir in Latin. Many hymns were written in the vernacular, but they were used in home devotional life. When Martin Luther wrote his reforms of the liturgy, he saw an opportunity to proclaim the Gospel even more clearly in both word and song, so he added congregational hymns in German alongside the choral music in Latin. The hymn placed next to the Gospel reading was called the Gradual hymn or de tempore hymn (meaning, “of the time”). As more Lutheran hymns were written in the vernacular, the Reformers developed a schedule of hymns for each Sunday and festival of the Church year. This schedule corresponds with the lectionary readings and elevates the hymn of the day to a similar status as the other appointed Propers since it is appointed for us and used by the whole Church. Much like the lectionary, this calendar developed slowly and organically over many centuries—each generation keeps and passes along what it has received, and adds the best new hymns of its own time. As a result, many of the hymns of the day that we sing today are the same hymns of the day that were used at the time of Bach (18th century), with some extending back to the time of Luther (16thcentury). We also sing many hymns from the Early Church, though they were not yet appointed as a hymn of the day.

The purpose of the hymn of the day is to expound on the theme and Scripture lessons from the day, most often the Gospel reading. It provides an opportunity to meditate on the readings and prepare to hear the sermon. In a sense, the hymn of the day preaches the Gospel to us as we sing to one another. Other hymns in the service are chosen to further reflect on the theme of the day or season, considering the congregation’s specific context. Hymns proclaim Christ crucified and teach the faith as the Word is imprinted on our hearts through music.

The Salutation, Collect, and Readings

The salutation is more than a simple greeting. When the pastor says, “The Lord be with you,” he is announcing that the Lord is truly present with His people to bless them through the Word which is about to be read. The salutation comes directly from Scripture. As but one example, when the angel Gabriel greets Mary, he says, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). Gabriel is proclaiming the imminent presence of Jesus who would become incarnate to bring salvation to the world. In the liturgy, the salutation also occurs at the beginning of the Service of the Sacrament and before the benediction. In these instances, it also proclaims that the Lord is coming to His people with His blessing in specific ways. When the congregation responds, “And with your Spirit,” they acknowledge that God is working through the pastor to deliver His gifts.

The Collect of the Day is a brief prayer, chanted by the pastor on behalf of the people, that collects the prayers of the gathered faithful into one. The Collects were written anonymously and have been in use since at least the 5th century, with some being modified over time. The Collect is a Proper of the lectionary, appointed for a specific day or season of the Church year. It typically asks that God would bless the people in a specific way related to the theme of that day. The specific form used for Collects includes a basis for the petition that is made, so that we pray back to God what He has first spoken to us in His Word.

Following the Collect, we hear the Scripture lessons for the day—Old Testament, Gradual, Epistle, Alleluia and Verse (or Tract, during Lent), and Holy Gospel. The Church follows a lectionary which orders our life around the life of Christ and ensures that we hear the full counsel of God each year. Much of the one-year lectionary dates back to the 9th century or earlier, with some evidence as early as the 5th century, thus connecting the whole Church across time and space.

In the lessons, we hear the living voice of Christ as He speaks through the apostles (Epistle), prophets (Old Testament), evangelists (Gospel), and shepherds (sermon) to proclaim Law and Gospel to us for the forgiveness of sins and to equip us for Christian life (Ephesians 4:12). The Gradual and Verse are usually taken from the Psalms and put the language of faith on the lips of the congregation to reflect upon and respond to the three primary lessons. The reading of the Gospel is the first liturgical high point of the Divine Service. Through the proclamation of the Word, the Holy Spirit is active to “call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify the whole Christian Church on earth and to keep us with Jesus Christ in the one true faith” (Small Catechism II.3).