Venite (1928 BCP)

Venite (1928 BCP) is the invitatory psalm appointed near the beginning of Morning Prayer in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. It is drawn from Psalm 95 and stands after the opening Scripture sentences, General Confession, Absolution, Lord's Prayer, and versicles, so that the forgiven congregation is summoned from penitence into common praise, thanksgiving, kneeling worship, and obedient hearing.

In the 1928 BCP the Venite is not only a psalm at the front of the office. It interprets the whole movement of Morning Prayer. The people who have confessed their sins and received the Gospel promise of absolution now come before the Lord as Creator, King, Shepherd, and "the strength of our salvation." The same text then warns them not to harden their hearts, joining praise to repentance and worship to obedience.

Place in Morning Prayer

The rubric introduces the canticle after the opening penitential order of the office:

Then shall be said or sung the following Psalm.

This location matters. Morning Prayer does not begin with the congregation's praise as though sin and pardon were secondary. It first places the people under Scripture, confession, and absolution. The Venite then gives the first extended act of praise in the office, making thanksgiving the response of those who have been restored by mercy.

The 1928 book also gives a penitential exception:

But Note, That on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday the Venite may be omitted.

The omission is not because the Venite is unfit for penitence. Its warning against hardened hearts is deeply penitential. Rather, the rubric lets the austerity of Ash Wednesday and Good Friday shape the office more sharply. Ordinary mornings move from absolution into invitatory praise; those solemn days may hold the congregation longer in penitence and the Passion.

Text and Psalm 95

The opening words give the canticle its traditional Latin name, Venite, exultemus Domino, "O come, let us sing unto the Lord."

O come, let us sing unto the LORD; let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.

These lines gather several features of Anglican daily prayer. The invitation is corporate: "let us." The praise is vocal and bodily: singing, rejoicing, coming before God's presence, and showing gladness with psalms. The object of worship is not a vague religious feeling but the Lord who saves. The Venite therefore connects the Psalter to the evangelical order of Morning Prayer.

The next movement praises God as Creator and King:

For the LORD is a great God; and a great King above all gods. In his hand are all the corners of the earth; and the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands prepared the dry land.

This is why the Venite belongs before the daily Psalms and lessons. It orients the congregation to the God whose Word is about to be heard. The Lord who speaks in Scripture is the maker of sea and dry land, the ruler of the earth's depths and heights, and the King before whom every created power is subordinate.

Worship, Kneeling, and Shepherding

The canticle then moves from cosmic praise to embodied worship:

O come, let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the LORD our Maker. For he is the Lord our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

The Prayer Book has just had the congregation kneel for confession, absolution, and the Lord's Prayer. The Venite teaches that kneeling is not only penitential. It is also adoration. The same people who kneel as sinners kneel as sheep before their Shepherd and as creatures before their Maker.

This shepherd language also answers the General Confession's admission that "We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep." Morning Prayer does not leave the congregation defined by its wandering. In the Venite, the restored people are called "the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." The movement from confession to Venite is therefore pastoral as well as liturgical.

The New Testament deepens this reading in Christ:

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

Anglican use of the Venite does not erase Psalm 95's original voice in Israel's worship. It receives that psalm in the Church as the prayer of Christ's flock, gathered by the Shepherd who gives his life for the sheep and leads them into the praise of the Father.

Hearing God's Voice

The final part of the Venite is a warning:

To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts; as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness.

This warning prevents Morning Prayer from becoming sentimental. The congregation sings, rejoices, and gives thanks, but it also hears the danger of resisting God's voice. The God praised as Maker and Shepherd must be obeyed today.

The Epistle to the Hebrews applies this text directly to the Christian Church:

Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts.

Hebrews treats Psalm 95 as the present speech of the Holy Ghost. That is a strong scriptural foundation for the Venite's daily use. In Morning Prayer, Psalm 95 is not a historical memory only; it is God's present summons before the lessons are read. The Church is warned against unbelief, called to perseverance, and invited into the rest promised by God.

Gloria Patri and Trinitarian Psalmody

The Venite is followed by the Gloria Patri unless the rubric directs otherwise:

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 doxology is one of the clearest ways the Prayer Book teaches Christian reading of the Psalms. The congregation prays Psalm 95 as Holy Scripture from Israel, and then confesses the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Anglican psalmody is therefore biblical and Trinitarian at once.

The same pattern continues through the appointed Psalms of the day. The Venite is the doorway into psalmody; the Gloria Patri is the Church's doxological seal. Together they show that Morning Prayer receives the Old Testament as Christian Scripture without detaching it from its canonical voice.

Use in Worship and Teaching

In parish worship, the Venite should be treated as the office's first great summons to praise, not as a transition to hurry through before the lessons. It may be said or sung, and its shape is naturally antiphonal or choral: invitation, praise of the Creator, kneeling before the Shepherd, and warning against hardness of heart.

In teaching, the Venite is a compact summary of Morning Prayer's theology. It shows that absolved sinners become worshippers; that worship is addressed to the Creator and King; that the Church is God's flock; that Scripture speaks today by the Holy Ghost; and that praise must lead to obedient hearing. This makes it a natural companion to Opening Sentences in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP), General Confession in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP), Absolution in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP), Psalms in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP), Psalm 95 (1928 BCP), and Daily Office Lectionary (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)
• Psalm 95 (1928 BCP)
• Psalms in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Opening Sentences in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Absolution in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer