Psalms in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)

Psalms in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP) are the appointed portions of the Psalter prayed after the Venite and before the first lesson in Morning Prayer in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. They give the morning office its chief act of inspired praise, lament, confession, thanksgiving, and trust before the Church turns to the daily lessons.

In the 1928 BCP, psalmody is not a decorative prelude to Scripture. The Psalms are Scripture prayed by the Church. Morning Prayer first places the congregation under biblical sentences, confession, absolution, the Lord's Prayer, and the invitatory; then it gives the people the language of the Psalter so that the day begins with God's own Word on their lips.

Place in Morning Prayer

The psalms follow the opening penitential order and the Venite. The immediate rubric after the Venite locates them precisely:

Then shall follow a Portion of the Psalms, according to the Use of this Church.

This order is theologically important. The forgiven congregation is not moved at once from absolution to instruction. It is first summoned into the Church's scriptural prayer. The Psalms therefore stand between the invitatory and the lessons as a bridge from praise to hearing, from common worship to the ordered reading of Scripture.

The next rubric shows that the psalms lead directly into the first lesson:

Then shall be read the First Lesson, according to the Table or Calendar.

Morning Prayer thus gives Scripture two complementary forms. In the Psalms, Scripture is prayed and sung; in the lessons, Scripture is read and heard. Anglican daily prayer is strongest when both are kept together.

Monthly Psalter and Common Prayer

The phrase "according to the Use of this Church" points to the appointed Prayer Book cycle rather than private selection alone. The 1928 BCP continues the classical Anglican habit of praying the Psalter in course, with morning and evening portions assigned across the month. This discipline prevents the office from narrowing the Church's prayer to favorite texts or seasonal moods.

The opening of the Psalter frames this discipline morally and spiritually:

BLESSED is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners.

Psalm 1 makes the Psalter a school of blessedness, judgment, delight in God's law, and rooted obedience. When prayed in Morning Prayer, that opening note fits the office's movement from repentance and absolution into a day ordered by God's Word.

The same pattern appears in Psalm 19, where praise of creation turns to delight in revelation:

The law of the LORD is an undefiled law, converting the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, and giveth wisdom unto the simple.

This is why psalmody belongs before the lessons. The Psalms do not compete with the reading of Scripture; they tune the congregation to receive it. The Church prays God's Word, praises God's works, and then listens for God's Word in the appointed lessons.

Gloria Patri and Trinitarian Psalmody

The 1928 rubric directs the Gloria Patri at the close of the psalmody:

At the end of the whole Portion, or Selection from the Psalter, shall be, sung or said the Gloria Patri.

The doxology teaches the Church to pray Israel's Psalms as Christian Scripture without detaching them from their canonical voice:

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

This is one of the characteristic Anglican ways of holding biblical and catholic worship together. The Psalms remain the Psalms of David and Israel, yet the Church prays them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Scripture, Christ, and the Church

The New Testament gives a strong warrant for psalmody in common worship. St. Paul commands the Church to let Christ's Word dwell richly in its sung and spoken prayer:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns.

Morning Prayer follows this apostolic logic. The Psalms teach as they are prayed: they admonish against sin, give words for repentance, praise God's mercy, confess his kingship, and train hope. They also carry the Church into the mystery of Christ, who reads the Psalms as Scripture fulfilled in his passion, resurrection, and kingdom.

All things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

This does not make every psalm a flat allegory. It means that Morning Prayer receives the whole Psalter within the risen Lord's own account of Scripture. Psalms of penitence, kingship, suffering, vindication, judgment, and praise are therefore prayed by Christ's Body in union with its Head.

Morning Formation

Morning psalmody forms the day by giving worshippers inspired speech before God. Psalm 5 is especially fitting for the morning office:

My voice shalt thou hear betimes, O LORD; early in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

This verse shows why the Psalms belong near the beginning of the office. They turn the first hours toward God, train attention, and give shape to desire before daily work begins. They also prevent Morning Prayer from becoming merely didactic. The office does not only teach Christians what to believe; it teaches them how to speak, wait, trust, grieve, repent, and rejoice before the Lord.

For Reformed Episcopal and classical Anglican readers, this is both evangelical and catholic. It is evangelical because the Psalms are God's Word and direct the Church to mercy, faith, obedience, and Christ. It is catholic because the same Psalter has been prayed in the Church's daily worship across centuries, binding local congregations to the wider communion of saints.

Use in Worship and Teaching

In parish worship, the Psalms in Morning Prayer should be treated as a principal part of the office, not as a section to hurry through before the lessons. They may be said or sung, responsively or in choir, but they should retain their character as common prayer.

In teaching, the topic is best approached by following the order of the office: absolved sinners answer the Venite's summons, pray the appointed Psalms, seal the portion with the Gloria Patri, and then hear the first lesson. This connects the topic naturally to Opening Sentences in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP), General Confession in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP), Absolution in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP), Venite (1928 BCP), Daily Office Lectionary (1928 BCP), and Scripture in the 1928 BCP.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Daily Office (1928 BCP)
• Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Evening Prayer (1928 BCP)
• The Psalter (1928 BCP)
• Venite (1928 BCP)
• Psalm 1 (1928 BCP)
• Psalm 5 (1928 BCP)
• Daily Office Lectionary (1928 BCP)

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer