Cantate Domino (1928 BCP)
Cantate Domino (1928 BCP) is Psalm 98, appointed as an alternative to the Magnificat after the First Lesson in Daily Evening Prayer in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. Its Latin title means “Sing unto the Lord.” The canticle praises the Lord's victorious salvation, covenant mercy to Israel, universal kingship, and righteous judgment, summoning nations, instruments, sea, floods, and hills into one song.
Its position after an Old Testament lesson is significant. Israel's deliverance is not discarded when the Church sings the psalm; it is received as part of the history fulfilled in Christ and proclaimed to the nations. The movement of the psalm is outward: from God's saving arm, to Israel, to all lands, and finally to the whole creation awaiting the Judge who rules with equity.
Text in the 1928 Prayer Book
The complete canticle in the 1928 Standard Book is:
O SING unto the LORD a new song; * for he hath done marvellous things.
With his own right hand, and with his holy arm, * hath he gotten himself the victory.
The LORD declared his salvation; * his righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen.
He hath remembered his mercy and truth toward the house of Israel; * and all the ends of the world have seen the salvation of our God.
Show yourselves joyful unto the LORD, all ye lands; * sing, rejoice, and give thanks.
Praise the LORD upon the harp; * sing to the harp with a psalm of thanksgiving.
With trumpets also and shawms, * O show yourselves joyful before the LORD, the King.
Let the sea make a noise, and all that therein is; * the round world, and they that dwell therein.
Let the floods clap their hands, and let the hills be joyful together before the LORD; * for he cometh to judge the earth.
With righteousness shall he judge the world, * and the peoples with equity.
The asterisks divide the verses for responsive recitation or chant. The Prayer Book permits the Gloria Patri after Cantate Domino, joining the psalm's praise to the Church's confession of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.[2]
Place after the First Lesson
The normal canticle after the First Lesson is the Magnificat; Cantate Domino is the first alternative:
After which shall be sung or said the Hymn called Magnificat, as followeth. ... Or this Psalm.
Thus Cantate is not additional psalmody before the lessons. It is a scriptural response to the lesson, occupying the place normally held by Mary's song. If the minister exercises the 1928 discretion to omit one lesson, the lesson that is read must still be followed by one of the Evening Canticles.[4]
Alexander Francis Kirkpatrick, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, judged this liturgical assignment directly:
It is fitly appointed as an alternative for the Magnificat at Evening Prayer.
Kirkpatrick explains the fitness by distinguishing without separating Israel's historical redemption and the Church's confession: a psalm of deliverance becomes Christian praise for the redemption of the world. This is not an arbitrary allegory imposed on an unrelated text. The psalm itself places Israel's mercy before “the sight of the heathen” and “all the ends of the world.”
The new song and God's victory
The opening gives both command and reason: sing a new song because the Lord has acted. His “own right hand” and “holy arm” obtain the victory. Salvation is first God's work, not the product of human strength. The language closely answers Isaiah's proclamation:
The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Isaiah and the psalm share the “holy arm,” public salvation, nations, and ends of the earth. In Christian use, the “new song” also belongs to the worship of those redeemed by the Lamb. Revelation calls the victorious hymn “the song of Moses” and “the song of the Lamb,” holding exodus and Christ's victory together:
Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
The psalm therefore teaches praise rooted in divine action. Its joy is not manufactured religious feeling: the Lord has acted, revealed salvation, remembered mercy, and won the victory.
Mercy to Israel and salvation for the nations
“Mercy and truth” are covenant words. The Lord's salvation goes to the world's ends because he has not forgotten the house of Israel. Mary's Magnificat takes up precisely this confession:
He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy.
This verbal link helps explain why Psalm 98 can stand in the Magnificat's place. Both songs proclaim that God's worldwide salvation is the fulfilment of mercy promised to Israel. The alternative changes the voice and range of imagery, but not the covenantal logic: the God who remembers Israel makes his salvation visible among the nations.
The phrase “heathen” in the Prayer Book text means the Gentile nations, not people beyond God's concern. They are the witnesses invited to become worshippers: “all ye lands” are commanded to rejoice before the Lord the King. Mission and worship meet in the same verses. Salvation is openly shown so that the whole earth may answer with thanksgiving.
The King acclaimed in common worship
The middle movement calls for voice, harp, trumpets, and shawms. These are not a decorative catalogue. They give the psalm the character of a royal acclamation: the Lord who saves is publicly hailed as King. Kirkpatrick describes the verses as the welcome offered at a king's accession, now directed to the universal sovereign.[9]
In Evening Prayer this exuberant summons is disciplined by common prayer. Cantate may be said, sung to Anglican chant, or set more elaborately, but its words remain the congregation's biblical response to the lesson. Musical beauty serves the proclamation when it makes God's victory, mercy, and kingship audible rather than turning the canticle into a performance detached from the office.
Creation and righteous judgment
The final movement widens the choir beyond humanity. Sea and world make a noise; floods clap; hills rejoice. The creation that shares the consequences of human sin is summoned to anticipate restoration:
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
The reason for creation's joy is the coming judgment. Scripture does not oppose salvation and judgment: the Judge sets the world right. His standard is righteousness, and his treatment of the peoples is equity. St Paul likewise joins a universal summons to repentance with the appointed Judge:
He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.
The canticle's last word is therefore neither vague optimism nor terror before arbitrary power. The victorious and merciful King comes to judge impartially. Christian hope rests in the risen Christ, through whom God has given assurance of that judgment.
The Church of England's contemporary liturgical prayer after Psalm 98 preserves this union of mission, creation, and judgment:
Lord God, just and true, you make your salvation known in the sight of the nations.
English and American Prayer Book history
The first English Prayer Book of 1549 prescribed the Magnificat after the Old Testament lesson and did not yet print Cantate Domino there as an alternative.[13] The later English office supplied Psalm 98 as an alternative, with an exception when it was already read in the monthly Psalter on the nineteenth day.[14]
The first American Prayer Book made Cantate more prominent because its Evening Prayer omitted the Magnificat. After the First Lesson, the office directed:
After which shall be said or sung the following Psalm, except when it is read in the ordinary course of the Psalms ...
The 1892 revision restored the Magnificat and placed Cantate after it as an alternative, the arrangement retained in 1928.[16] E. Clowes Chorley summarized the change:
New sentences were added to morning and evening prayer and the ancient chants, “The Magnificat” and the “Nunc Dimittis” were added to evening prayer.
In the 1928 office, then, Cantate preserves two inheritances. It remains the historic Prayer Book alternative to the Magnificat, and it recalls the century in which American Evening Prayer used Psalm 98 as its principal response to the First Lesson. Its responsible use does not require treating the biblical songs as interchangeable. The Magnificat speaks with Mary's voice at the threshold of the Incarnation; Cantate summons Israel, the nations, and creation to acclaim the saving and judging King.
See Also
- Evening Prayer (1928 BCP)
- Magnificat (1928 BCP)
- Nunc Dimittis (1928 BCP)
- The Psalter (1928 BCP)
- Daily Office (1928 BCP)
References
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, Standard Book accepted by the General Convention of October 1928 and printed for the Commission (1930), “The Order for Daily Evening Prayer,” “Cantate Domino. Psalm xcviii,” p. 27. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Daily Evening Prayer; 1928 Standard Book facsimile, PDF p. 34. The text was compared word for word with
sources/justus1928/EP.htm, lines 329–356, and the facsimile. The facsimile corrects two transcription defects in the local HTML: the missing semicolon before the asterisk in verse 9 and singular “people” in place of the Standard Book's “peoples” in verse 10. - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book (1930), “Daily Evening Prayer,” rubric governing the Gloria Patri, p. 25. 1928 Standard Book facsimile, PDF p. 32.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book (1930), “Daily Evening Prayer,” rubrics before the Magnificat and Cantate Domino, pp. 26–27; the ellipsis omits the 1928 note permitting one Lesson to be omitted. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Daily Evening Prayer.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book (1930), “Daily Evening Prayer,” note following the First Lesson rubric, p. 26. 1928 Standard Book facsimile, PDF p. 33.
- ↑ A. F. Kirkpatrick, The Book of Psalms, with Introduction and Notes, vol. III, Psalms XC–CL, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1901), introduction to Psalm XCVIII, p. 582. The Book of Psalms, volume III, Internet Archive.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Authorized Version (Oxford: Oxford University Press, standard text), Isaiah 52:10. Isaiah 52:10, King James Version, Bible Gateway.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Authorized Version (Oxford: Oxford University Press, standard text), Revelation 15:3. Revelation 15:3–4, King James Version, Bible Gateway.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Authorized Version (Oxford: Oxford University Press, standard text), Luke 1:54. Luke 1:54–55, King James Version, Bible Gateway.
- ↑ A. F. Kirkpatrick, The Book of Psalms, with Introduction and Notes, vol. III (Cambridge University Press, 1901), notes on Psalm 98:4–6, p. 583. The Book of Psalms, volume III, Internet Archive.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Authorized Version (Oxford: Oxford University Press, standard text), Romans 8:22. Romans 8:19–23, King James Version, Bible Gateway.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Authorized Version (Oxford: Oxford University Press, standard text), Acts 17:31. Acts 17:30–31, King James Version, Bible Gateway.
- ↑ The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England, Common Worship: Daily Prayer (London: Church House Publishing, 2005), Psalm 98, concluding prayer; the quotation stops before the prayer turns to creation and final judgment. Psalm 98, Church of England.
- ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (1549), “An Ordre for Evensong,” rubric after the Old Testament lesson. The 1549 Order for Evensong.
- ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (1662), “The Order for Evening Prayer,” rubric before Cantate Domino. The Order for Evening Prayer, Church of England.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (1789 office, 1871 Standard form), “The Order for Daily Evening Prayer,” rubric before “Cantate Domino. Psalm xcviii”; the ellipsis omits the exception for the nineteenth day. The 1789 U.S. Book of Common Prayer: Daily Evening Prayer.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: J. Pott & Co., 1892), “Daily Evening Prayer,” pp. 22–23. The 1892 Book of Common Prayer, Internet Archive.
- ↑ E. Clowes Chorley, The New American Prayer Book: Its History and Contents (New York: Macmillan, 1929), chapter VI, “The Prayer Book of 1892.” The Prayer Book of 1892, Project Canterbury.