The Preface, Proper Preface, and Sanctus

The Service of the Sacrament begins with the same salutation that began the Service of the Word as the pastor announces that the Lord is present to bring blessings to His people. He calls on the people to “lift up your hearts,” that is, to set aside worldly matters and seek the things of Christ (Colossians 3:1). With cleansed hearts, the pastor invites us to give thanks, just as Christ Himself gave thanks over the bread and wine as He instituted the Lord’s Supper. One name for the Sacrament is “Eucharist,” from the Greek word eucharisteo, meaning, “to give thanks.”

The Proper Preface has three parts. The opening section expands on our thanksgiving with a threefold ascription of praise to the Father. “At all times and in all places,” in our entire life, our relationship with the Father is one of giving thanks for the mercy He has shown to us in His Son. The middle section is based on a particular facet of the person and work of Christ, through whom we have access to the Father. This section describes the implications of Christ’s work for us with rich theological language related to the focus of each season of the Church year. The conclusion of the Proper Preface is a transition to the Sanctus, reminding us that Christ’s work is not limited by time and space. We join together “with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven” in singing our hymn of praise to the Father.

The first part of the Sanctus (Latin for “holy”) comes from Isaiah’s vision of the heavenly throne room and the eternal song of praise (Isaiah 6:3), which is echoed in the book of Revelation. There is evidence that this song was part of the communion liturgy as early as the first century. Although we cannot see with our eyes, we confess with our voices that heaven and earth are full of the glory of God as heaven descends to earth in the Sacrament, a foretaste of the feast to come. The second half of the Sanctus is called the Benedictus (“blessed”) and comes from Psalm 118, the plea for salvation sung as the Ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem, and later as the people ascended to the temple for worship. This was the same cry of the people as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9). This song is a confession of the bodily presence of Christ in the Sacrament as it calls to mind Christ’s work of salvation in the events of Holy Week. He comes to us now not on a donkey riding into Jerusalem, but under the bread and wine which is His very Body and Blood given for us to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of sins. This is the confidence by which we approach the throne and altar of God—only through Christ who comes to give Himself for us.

The Nicene Creed, Offertory, and Prayer of the Church

Having heard the Word of God proclaimed in the readings, we respond by confessing the faith. In a way, the creed functions as a hymn of praise honoring who God is and what He has done for us. The three ecumenical creeds are summaries of the whole Christian faith. By stating, “I believe…” we join the personal faith given to us in Baptism to the corporate faith of the whole Christian Church. The Nicene Creed expands on the person and work of the Son, emphasizing that He is fully God and fully man. This is the creed that is traditionally spoken whenever the Lord’s Supper is celebrated.

The Offertory comes from the ancient practice of chanting Psalms as the offering was brought forward. In the Middle Ages, this procession became rather elaborate and was accompanied by a long prayer. This Offertory prayer was one of the few things that Luther excised from the liturgy. He called it an abomination because it spoke of offering the sacrifice of the Mass, as though we were offering Christ as a sacrifice to God to atone for sin. Luther’s primary concern was that focus remain on the work Christ has done for us, that He offered Himself as the all-atoning sacrifice for the sin of the whole world. Luther returned the Offertory to its ancient roots of simply chanting Psalms. Our sacrifices of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, as well as our giving of offerings to the Church and to the poor, are only done in response to what Christ has done for us. The Lutheran Service Book prescribes Psalm 51 (“Create in me a clean heart, O God…”) or Psalm 116 (“What shall I render to the Lord…”) to be sung as the Offertory, though other Psalms or hymns are also appropriate. The Offertory functions both as a response to hearing the sermon and as a preparatory prayer for the Service of the Sacrament.

The Prayer of the Church is comprehensive. We pray for the Church and for the whole world, for those around us and for ourselves. We pray that the Lord would preserve the teaching of His Word and guard the Church against false doctrine. We pray for our government and for all vocations given by God, for those who are suffering in body, mind, and soul, and for the salvation of the whole world. We give thanks for all that He provides to sustain us in this body and life, and we pray that He would keep us steadfast in the true faith and bring us to eternal life. All of the petitions in the Prayer of the Church are grounded in the prayer of the faithful, “Lord, have mercy,” as we are dependent upon God for all things.

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.