Liturgy & the Divine Services

One of the great blessings we have when we gather for worship is being able to use and participate in the liturgy. The term “Liturgy” comes from the ancient Greek word leitourgia, meaning “public service” or “work done on behalf of the people.” The liturgy is really the work of the people performed for the Lord. With our Lord as the audience, how can we not offer our best in worship?

Our hymnal, Lutheran Service Book, offers several liturgies in the form of Divine Services and Daily Offices. There are 5 different settings of the Divine Service, liturgies from the Daily offices: Matins, Morning Prayer, Vespers, Evening Prayer, and Compline, as well as other spoken and sung liturgies. Today, I’d like to highlight the 5 settings of the Divine Service. Here is how they are broken down:

• Divine Service, Setting One – pgs. 151-166
• This is probably one of the best-known Divine services in Lutheranism. It was written by Richard Hillert (1923-2010) and contains many well known and loved canticles, including “This is the Feast”, “What Shall I Render to the Lord”, and “Thank the Lord and Sing His Praise”.
• Divine Service, Setting Two – pgs. 167-183
• This setting of the Divine service has the same order and wording as setting one, however it is set to different music. This setting was written by Ronald Nelson (1927-2014). We have not used setting two in worship at St. Peter’s in many years, but are planning to re-introduce parts of it throughout this next year.
• Divine Service, Setting Three – pgs. 184-202
• This setting of the Divine service is probably most familiar to folks who remember the old liturgy from The Lutheran Hymnal (“Page 15”). It contains sung canticles like the Gloria in Excelsis (“Glory be to God on high, and on earth, peace, good will towards men…”), “Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God” and the Nunc Dimittis (“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word…”).
• Divine Service, Setting Four – pgs. 203-212
• This is the newest setting of the Divine Service. It was written by Stephen Starke (b. 1955) for inclusion in the Lutheran Service Book, and contains known canticles like “To God on high be glory and peace to all the earth…” and “O Lord, now let your servant depart in heavenly peace…”
• Divine Service, Setting Five – pgs. 213-218
• This is probably the least familiar of the Divine services. This setting was written by Martin Luther and is taken from his 1526 German mass. The sung portions of this setting use hymns that Luther wrote. These hymns are included in the hymn section of LSB. (They are referenced throughout setting five if you’d like to look them up.)

Throughout the summer, we have been using Divine Service, Setting Four on communion Sundays and the Service of Prayer and Preaching (pgs. 260-267) on non-communion Sundays. As summer transitions into fall, it’s also time to change the liturgies we use in worship. For September and October, we will be using Divine Service, Setting Three on communion Sundays, and the order of Matins on non-communion Sundays.

What about the Saturday services? Because Saturday is our blended worship service played on the piano rather than the organ, we usually do not use any of the Divine Services from LSB in those services. Those services, however, are still rich in liturgy. Throughout the summer, we have been singing a contemporary liturgy called “Now the Feast and Celebration”, written by composer Marty Haugen. While the liturgy itself was composed it in the late 1980’s, the music has a more contemporary feel to it. It has all the sung components of a regular Divine Service: Kyrie, Hymn of Praise, Alleluia Verse, Offertory, Communion Liturgy, etc., and you will find similar words that would be sung in the Sunday Divine Service, just set to different music. We will continue to use this liturgy on communion Saturdays throughout the fall, singing the musical parts we’ve already learnt, as well as introducing and singing two remaining liturgical elements we have not learned yet: the Sanctus and the Post-Communion Canticle.

No matter what service you attend, or what liturgy is used in that service, we pray it uplifts you and aids in your worship of our Lord. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16).