Matins/Lauds:  Opening Versicles, Monthly Psalter (see chart on pages 1436-1437 – easiest is to write the divisions into the Psalter itself), Hymn stanza, OT reading, Responsory, Canticle (Te Deum on Sundays; Benedictus all other days), Kyrie, Our Father, Prayer of the Day, Prayer for the Day of the Week (pp. 1306-1309), Collect for Grace, Benedicamus, Benediction

Vespers:  Opening Versicles, Monthly Psalter (as above), Hymn stanza, NT reading, Responsory, Writing, Versicle and Magnificat, Kyrie, Our Father, Prayer of the Day, Intercessions for family and for those who have asked my prayers, Collect for Peace, Benedicamus, Benediction

The heart of this way of using the Treasury is the Monthly Psalter.  Truly, the more I use the Psalms, the more I have come to love them and find them to be the very best prayers we as the Church can ever offer.  As Bonhoeffer said, they’re all expansions of the petitions of the Our Father.

Posted by William Weedon,  Sunday, August 29, 2010  on Weedon’s Blog

PrayNow, the application that brings Treasury of Daily Prayer content to your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, is now available from the iTunes App Store.

Check it out here.

iTunes App Store Description:

PrayNow is the daily prayer app that places the Scriptures at the center of daily meditation and prayer.

“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Daily prayer should be central to what we do as a Christians. Yet it is so easy for the pressures and stresses of daily life to crowd out the time for meaningful prayer.

PrayNow is designed to meet the needs of the Christian who wishes to follow a disciplined order of daily prayer centered in the Scriptures and to use the rich resources of the church’s ancient daily orders of prayers with writings from the Church Fathers.

PrayNow provides you with the following:

• Complete texts for each day:

o A reading from the Psalms

o An Old Testament reading

o A New Testament reading

o A selection from a writing by a church father

o A hymn stanza

o A prayer for the day

• Complete orders for daily prayer:

o Matins

o Vespers

o Compline

• Features the feasts, festivals, and commemorations of the Christian Church Year

• The full text of the Psalms is available with, or without, chant notation

• A full collection of prayers for the days of the week and for various aspects of your life in Christ

Technical Features

o Full texts for every day appear automatically according to the calendar

o Dynamic calendar allows you to display text for any day

o Choose between five different fonts

o Fully scalable font size

o Night reading mode

o Bookmarking capabilities

Treasury of Daily Prayer

This is a reminder for Treasury users that Holy Trinity closed the Time of Easter, and that today you make the transition to the Time of the Church–from days to calendar dates. Easily done; you will have to move several pages forward–to May 31^st–to find the correct day’s devotion.

For those using the seasonal Propers for Matins and/or Vespers, they are found on the black-tipped pages in the center of the book, page O-68.

More

To learn more about the Daily Lectionary used in Treasury see WHITE PAPER #2: Concordia’s Treasury of Daily Prayer: The Shaping of the Daily Lectionary

Numbers 23:4-28

What If God Was One of Us?

God is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?  (Numbers 23:19)

Joan Osborn wrote a rather well-known song that was entitled, “What If God Was One Of Us.” This song was not a grammatical treasure nor can its lyrics be considered anything close to theological insight. But when I contemplated today’s reading from Numbers 23, verse 19 brought to mind the idea of Osborn’s song.

Here’s Osborn’s chorus to the song :

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us?
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin’ to make His way home

Listen again to verse 19:

God is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?  (Numbers 23:19)

What if God was one us? Just on the two comparisons made in Osborn’s chorus, to think of God in terms of being just one of the guys, to be just another stranger on the bus with us, is disturbing. That He might lie, or maybe even worse, change His mind, that thought is  frightening.

My meditation meandered around and I began to really think about how much different we are from God. Although created in the image of God, we are so far from God’s image that it sometimes seems impossible that we could  ever be spiritually connected to Him.

From the inception of sin into the world through Adam and Eve, man has continually expanded the great spiritual divide by choosing worldliness over and holiness. Yet God—despite all of our faults, —God still loved us—loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, so that whoever believes in Him, would not perish on account of their sin, but have everlasting life. Despite all of our mistakes, God still cares about us. Despite all of our poor choices, God still would not condemn us to eternal death. And yet even after two thousand years since Christ laid down His life for us, mankind  still makes choices, time and time again, that are directly opposite the will of God, to the direction that God has for our lives.

God is not man, that he should lie. Have you ever been the subject of someone’s lie; have you ever been cut by someone’s words? How did it feel? What did you think?

James 3 tells us the tongue is a small thing but oh what damage it can do, like a tiny spark setting an entire forest on fire. Paul encourages us to not let corrupt words proceed out of our mouth, but to speak only what edifies others and imparts grace to the hearers (Ephesians 4:29). Yet we also know that the same tongue can speak both blessings and curses, the same mouth can build up and tear down.

Can you imagine if God were a liar? If all of the promises of the Bible were not true? Can you imagine if there was no mansion waiting on us in heaven? Worse yet, can you imagine if there were no heaven, no life after death at all? Can you imagine if there was no forgiveness and death is just the end of it? Can you image if there some undiscovered tomb in the Middle East where the body of someone called Jesus Christ,s still buried. This would make God a liar, just like one of us. A slave to sin just like one of us.

God is not… a son of man, that he should change his mind. We make decisions based on the best possible information we have at hand; if we need to, we will change our mind, change our direction. We make choices that we justify as being necessary, useful, even beneficial for others. Yet we also make decisions that serve self over God, ourselves over others. We change our minds when it suits us, or when it protects or advances our interests.

Can you imagine what the world would be like if God had not been true to His promises; if He had abandoned Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? What reason would we have to have faith in and trust in God.

What if Moses and the children of Israel were left out on their own in the face of the Egyptian army with their back to the Red Sea? What if David had failed against the giant Goliath? What if the lion had eaten Daniel? What if sharks had eaten Jonah when he was thrown overboard? What if the woman who had the issue of blood had gone to Jesus and still bled to death? What if Paul had died when the poisonous snake bit him? What if Job had cursed God and died?

We would have nothing to base our faith on if God is not trustworthy. If God was one of us, could we put total trust in Him?

And what would it be like if God changed His mind about you? Can you imagine? If He was just like one of us, every time you did something that He didn’t approve of, His love and mercy would turn into righteous wrath against your sin. We would no longer be alive and we’d already be burning in hell’s fire.

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us?
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin’ to make His way home

God is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?  (Numbers 23:19)

God is not like one of us. The Bible clearly states in our text that God is not like a man. He was not created out of dirt clay and spittle. Before the world was created, God already existed. God is holy and God is Spirit; that means that He cannot be subjected to worldly things. He cannot be convinced to do things that are not holy. He is not a liar, nor can He be misdirected by lies because He already knows the truth. He is not like man. He is not a liar nor does He act in His on self-interest. He is not vengeful or filled with hate. He is not sinful by nature because His nature is perfect holiness.

Because He is holy, God does not have to repent. He does not have to turn from evil because there is no evil in Him. He is not the son of man, meaning that He was not born of the seed of a man like you and I are conceived and born. Even when God took on our human form and was incarnate, Jesus the Son of God did not sin, He obeyed the will of the Father perfectly, making Him the only perfect man who ever lived.  Jesus is not a son of man, He was not born into sin like you and I. But He is the incarnate Son of God conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary.

And ultimately that is the reason that we are thankful that God is not one of us. We required a Savior who is both true God and true Man; a Savior who was holy and without sin to live the perfect life we can not life; a Savior who could not only live perfectly but stand in our place before the justice of God and take the punishment for the sin of the world, for your sin and my sin. We need a Savior who is not like one of us, a Savior who is the Son of God whom death could not hold, who satisfies the Law and breaks the hold of death over us.

We put aside the idle speculation and thank God that He is God and not like one of us. You can rest assure that all of His promises will be fulfilled. Sometimes the way gets dark, but God will still shine light upon your path. Sometimes is seems like life is more than we can bear, but God has promised to be our burden-bearer. He’s not a liar. He won’t let you down. He has loved you with an everlasting love, and because of Christ, He will never change His mind about you.

A prayer for Treasury of Daily Prayer

The following note and letter were received from Presbyterian layman, Dan Delph. In giving me permission to share his words, it is his prayer that those who worked on Treasury of Daily Prayer are encouraged, and that as they move forward, “his Lutheran brothers and sisters” are encouraged as well.

Scot,

In early November of 2008, I was lead to search for a new approach to my daily devotional life. I discovered your Treasury of Daily Prayer just when it was newly published and available only from Concordia. Not even Amazon had it in stock at that time.

I knew I had found something extraordinary; something of historical significance. You will understand what your work has meant to me and my family when you read the attached letter that I wrote today to my daughter and her fiancé who will be married in October. You should know that I have been a Presbyterian for most of my redeemed life, and never a member of the Lutheran tradition. I will be mailing the letter today, along with their personal copies of the Treasury.

Your work has changed my devotional life, Scot, and given back to me the rich heritage of the historical church. Thank you for following God’s leading to bring this profound gift to the Body of Christ in our day.

Daniel Delph

________ , Texas

Dan’s letter to his daughter and her fiancé:

May, 2010

______ and ______,

Mom and I are excited that you have begun your Premarital Program at __________. We want to supplement that instruction with something that will help you continue to grow individually—and consequently together—for the rest of your lives.

The book you now hold is a work of extraordinary significance. It is a treasure trove of the ancient traditions of the Christian faith. In order to truly appreciate this book, a little background is in order.

To my knowledge, I and my siblings are the first generation of regenerated believers in a very long line of Roman Catholics. Many centuries ago the Roman Catholic Church became corrupt and lost its way. The Protestant Reformation, led by the Augustinian monk Martin Luther, was a movement by God to restore the Roman Church.

It is important to realize that Luther’s desire was to reform the Church of Rome, not abandon it. However, when the Roman leadership refused to repent, Luther endeavored to retain the historical and biblical truth, goodness, and beauty that had been entrusted to the church before its decline.

As such, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Lutheran denomination for faithfully preserving over the centuries the historical traditions of the early church—sacred liturgy, hymnody, written prayers, ancient music, the daily office, propers for daily prayer, sacramental preparations, biographies of early saints, writings of the church fathers, sung prayers (chant melodies), catechisms, psalter, invitatories, antiphons, responsories, and the ancient church calendar.

So many in post-modern Christianity have thrown the baby out with the bath water. They consider the ancient traditions to be obsolete, lifeless, and guilty by association with some denominations in spiritual decline. However, it is only the hearts of men that grow lifeless, not the Word of God. Any man or woman filled with God’s Spirit and genuinely seeking him will find in these pages great depth and life. These are the forms of worship and spiritual disciplines of the early church. They are meat, not milk. As such, they may be an acquired taste to a generation raised on spiritual fast food.

In a historical sense, we are all reformed Catholics. That may be hard for some to swallow, but the living Body of Christ today stands on the shoulders of the early church, whose practices were handed down from the teachings and instruction of the apostles and early church fathers. This volume represents the rich legacy of our early Roman Catholic heritage, preserved for us by our Lutheran brethren.

What makes this particular work so extraordinary is how the editorial team, led by Scot Kinnaman, has harmonized the content. In the readings of any given day, they have skillfully correlated a psalm, an Old Testament passage, a New Testament passage, a verse of a hymn, a historical writing, and a written prayer. It is powerful, and a thing of beauty.

It has become my daily devotional guide. One day, God may lead you to do the same. Wait until then. Don’t force it, and don’t force each other. Just keep it in a handy place. If that day comes, purpose to slowly and prayerfully make your way through, each at your own pace. Although the daily offices (readings) are aligned with the annual church calendar, don’t expect to read through it in one year. Rather, approach it like a fine wine, to be sipped, savored, and contemplated. Mediate your way through it, asking God to grow your spiritual tastes and appetites.

The editors have taken the pains to also record the ancient chant melodies of the prayer offices (e.g., Matins, Vespers, Compline, the Litany, etc.) found in section O in the middle. Meditative prayer is a lost discipline in our day. The early church understood what the psalmist meant by “I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.”

I have included special pens that work well on the paper of this book. Make notes as you go. Mark and underline passages that speak to you. Place question marks where you need more understanding and revelation. Talk to God in the margins. Document your thoughts, desires, and prayers as you read and meditate. Make this something your children will one day page through and discover insights into your walk with God.

God promises rich blessings as you engage his grace and encounter his steadfast love and mercies in these pages, new every morning.

All our love.

To the assisting editors, to countless contributors, to the production editors, the copy editors, the designer and the many others who had their hand in bringing this book from dream to reality: congratulations. My name cannot appear in association with Treasury without the complete understanding that it could not have been done alone. Together we are part of something bigger than ourselves, something that God has been pleased to use for the care and life of His Bride, the Church. Praise be to God. To Him alone be the glory.

Sant Crux, Lucia, Cineres, Charismata Dia
Ut sit in angaria quarta sequens feria.

Which for those of us who don’t think in Latin:

Holy Cross, Lucy, Ash Wednesday, Pentecost,
are when the quarter holidays follow.

This coming Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday (2/24, 26, and 27) are the Lenten Ember Days. Oh, want to know more about Ember Days? Check out What are Ember Days?

And these propers are supplied by the Brotherhood Prayer Book:

He Was Crucified from CPH

Ember Wednesday:

Morning Prayer – Matthew 12:38-50
Evening Prayer – 1 Kings 19:3-8

V. God shall give His angels charge over thee.
R. To keep thee in all thy ways.

Antiphon for Benedictus:
An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign: and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.

Antiphon for Magnificat:
For as Jonas was three days and nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of Man be in the earth.

Collect:
We beseech Thee O Lord that Thou wouldest graciously hear our prayers, and stretch forth the right hand of Thy majesty to be our defence against all adversities; through Jesus Christ…

Ember Friday:

Morning Prayer – John 5:1-15
Evening Prayer – Ezekiel 18:20-28

V. God shall give His angels charge over thee.
R. To keep thee in all thy ways.

Antiphon for Benedictus:
An angel of the Lord went down from heaven and troubled the waters; and whosoever did step therein was made whole.

Antiphon for Magnificat:
He that me whole, the same said unto me: Take up thy bed and go in peace.

Collect:
We beseech Thee, O Lord: mercifully to have compassion on Thy people, that they, which by Thee are enabled to serve Thee, may ever be comforted by Thy gracious and ready help; through Jesus Christ…

Ember Saturday:

Morning Prayer – Matthew 17:1-9
Evening Prayer – 1 Thessalonians 5:14-23

V. God shall give His angels charge over thee.
R. To keep thee in all thy ways.

Antiphon for Benedictus:
And Jesus taketh his disciples, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart: and was transfigured before them.

Antiphon for Magnificat:
Tell the vision which ye have seen to no man: until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead.

Collect:
We beseech Thee O Lord: graciously to hear the prayers of Thy people, and of Thy great goodness turn aside from them the scourges of Thine anger; through Jesus Christ…

What is Treasury of Daily Prayer?

Treasury of Daily Prayer

Treasury of Daily Prayer is designed to meet the needs of the Christian who wishes to follow a disciplined order of daily prayer centered in the Scriptures, and using the rich resources of liturgy, hymnody, prayer, and writings from the Church fathers and the Confessions, and to have this devotion work in a busy schedule. Treasury is designed to be an all-in-one resource for daily devotions for individuals, families, and small groups. It features the Daily Lectionary developed for Lutheran Service Book.

Throughout the length and breadth of the Lutheran tradition, Scripture, psalmody, and hymnody have provided a core diet for Christ’s holy people—all within a Church Year calendar that observes the life and teachings of Christ, as well as remembers and gives thanks for the lives of faithful Christians gone before us in the midst of that “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1; Ap XXI 4–7). In this way, an observance of daily prayer finds itself integrally connected with the prayer life of the church catholic—both in time and throughout the world today. Treasury of Daily Prayer is firmly rooted within this astonishingly rich tradition.

The Daily Lectionary

The beating heart of Treasury is the Daily Lectionary. While based on ancient lectionary patterns that preceded it, this Daily Lectionary is unlike most daily lectionaries in that it begins where the development of the Church Year began historically—with the Lent—Easter cycle centered in the celebration of Easter, the “Queen of Feasts.” Psalms, hymns, prayers, and a selected writing from the church fathers or the Lutheran Confessions all find their orbit around the appointed Scripture for the day.

Orders for Daily Prayer

In the physical center of Treasury you will find the Orders for Daily Prayer. These are easily recognized by the color-indexed pages. These orders are taken from Lutheran Service Book and represent the rich tradition of daily prayer in the Christian congregation. Whichever order you may choose, it is our prayer that you will consider a commitment to use one or more of these orders daily as you pray. These orders of daily prayer can be arranged in a system of prayer known as “office” or the “divine office.” A nice introduction to the use of the orders of daily prayer in Treasury in the context of the divine office can be

found in the introduction of Treasury, pages 17—20, here and here. During the time of the Middle Ages these became obligatory especially among the monastic communities where they developed eventually into seven set “hours” of prayer, hence the expression,  “liturgy of the hours.”

Seasonal Invitatories, Antiphons, and Responsories for use with the orders of Matins and Vespers (beginning on p. O—61) provide you with opportunity to celebrate and commemorate many of the feasts and seasons of the Church Year through the use of these seasonal texts. While these seasonal texts are presented here with Matins and Vespers in mind, several of the texts, like the seasonal antiphons, can certainly be used in other settings of daily prayer and devotion.

Propers for Daily Prayer

The propers for each day are noted and arranged according to the Daily Lectionary. Propers are those texts within an order of worship or service that change with the seasons and days of the Church Year. In most instances the texts chosen for the propers support one of the readings from Scripture. The complete text of the propers are conveniently found together, arranged by day or date, in on place in Treasury.

Encouragement to Persevere in Prayer

cph.org/prayer

For many users, Treasury offers more resources than they have time for in the normal course of a day. The breadth of the resources, in part, account for the size of the book. It should never be assumed that unless you use everything in Treasury your devotions are deficient. This view of daily prayer will place an unnecessary burden on anyone who sees daily prayer as something that must be done, and will leave the offender—and that is what you will eventually come under this view—feeling guilty when life intrudes and an Hour or even a day is missed. The Scriptural understanding of the Church is that it is Christ’s body, in that perspective, the Church exists prior to individuals joining it. Individuals become Christians precisely through their incorporation into this community through baptism. The Daily Office is not an individualistic endeavor. Instead it is the way an individual participates in the prayer of the community, the Church. Thus, one does not need to feel burdened to participate in a particular office every day, or feel guilty when a time is missed. Rather, when you miss a time you typically set aside for prayer, be conscious that the prayer goes on as the people of God throughout the world call on their dear Father — you do not catch up with it, rather you join the ongoing prayer again when you can. If you decide to use the Treasury as a whole or in any part, it is helpful to put time limits on when a particular office is prayed. If, for example, your discipline is to pray Matins/Morning Prayer you might decide that you do not pray Matins after 10 a.m. If you miss the time window, you pick up the discipline again in the evening with Vespers, or before bed with Compline. In these matters there are no laws; rather there is the freedom in the Gospel to use or not to use the offices according to one’s needs and personal piety.

Strategies for using Treasury of Daily Prayer

Elsewhere on the Web (talked about here for example), and within the posts of this blog (here and here) are various discussions and strategies for using Treasury of Daily Prayer.

For those who might be intimidated by Treasury, or for those who are looking for ways to work through Treasury for a second time, I offer some suggestions for your consideration.

Order of Prayer. If you are new to Treasury or to using a devotional structure or order, you might want to simply turn to the day or date reading and praying through the propers. A next step would be to use one of the shorter orders found in Daily Prayer for Individuals and Families on pages O—42 – O—46. If you are praying in the morning, and time allows, add Close of the Day (O—46) or Compline (O—17) to your schedule.

Evening & Morning

If you are looking at Matins, Vespers, Compline, Morning Prayer, or Evening Prayer and feeling intimidated by the music, or are hesitant to use these orders in family devotions because you don’t feel confident leading the singing, check out the music accompaniment to the orders of daily prayer called Evening & Morning from Concordia Publishing House.  Played on a CD for family devotions or ripped onto your MP3 player for individual use, the beautifully sung ordinaries (those parts of the service that don’t change) will assist you in using these orders.

Psalmody and Psalm. If you’re new to Treasury, use the psalmody as part of your devotion. If last year you used the Psalmody, this year use the “Additional Psalm” instead. The Psalter begins on page 1323. If you have opportunity to be in structured prayer twice or more a day, use the psalmody in the evening, and read the Psalms at morning prayer using one of the schedule in Treasury (pages 1436 and 1436.

Readings. Choose to read either the Old Testament or the New Testament reading for the year. If last year you read both OT and NT readings, this year choose to read the Old Testament reading. If you read only the OT reading last year, than read the New Testament reading this year. If your schedule permits, supplement the reading of the Old Testament by reading out of The Lutheran Study Bible and exploring the notes associated with the appointed reading.

Writings. Each day’s Writing is comment on the Old Testament reading, the New Testament reading, or on the context of the Church Year. If you have divided your readings by year, a quick look ahead will let you know if the writing fits with the reading. While the writings included in Treasury are rich and certainly worth reading for several years, you may wish to supplement the appointed writing with other orthodox devotionals. That’s fine, go ahead, my feelings won’t be hurt. Several good selections are available from CPH, including God Grant It: Daily Devotions from the sermons of C.F.W. Walther, To Live with Christ: Daily Devotions by Bo Giertz (on sale now for only $8), and Meditations on the Gospels.

Hymnody. Using Lutheran Service Book the whole hymn could be used on any given day.

Prayer. Add additional prayers to your devotion. The appointed prayer of the day is a collect, that is, it collects the thoughts expressed in the various readings, or the time of the Church Year, and carefully presents them for your consideration and prayer. But these are not the only prayers in Treasury of Daily Prayer. The section, Prayers, Intercessions, and Thanksgivings (pages 1306—1318), offer meditative prayers for each day of the week as well as prayers for various times and need. Also included here is the Litany, a comprehensive prayer that remains the pattern of prayer for the Church.

Luther's Seal

Suggested Book of Concord Reading. By design, the appointed writing will take you through a decent portion of the Book of Concord. If you haven’t read the Book of Concord in its entirety, working through Treasury a second time might be the time to do so. Using Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, or even the Book of Concord Online, following the suggestion at the end of each day will take you through the whole of the Confessions over the course of a year.

Finally, sometimes the best encouragement to start and continue in a new venture is to do it with someone else. If you don’t have such a friend, colleague, or family member, maybe it would support your daily prayer to join the owners of one of these blogs dedicated to Treasury of Daily Prayer:

Treasury of Daily Prayer

Alex Kirk Means Nurtures the Church

Keeping and Treasuring the Word

It takes a lot of determination to blog every day. Few bloggers can manage it. If you are going to check out these good people, drop them a note of encouragement in their comments so that they know someone is listening.

Treasury of Daily Prayer

Users of Treasury of Daily Prayer will need to make the Great Skip in preparation for devotions on February 17th, Ash Wednesday. With the beginning of Lent, the Daily Lectionary changes from using calendar dates to using liturgical days. This handily accommodates the changeable dates of the festival half of the Church Year, which are all based on the date of Easter.

So, long story short: February 17th, move your bookmark from the back of Treasury to page 24 in the front. And then carry on.

(There is another Lesser Skip that happens at the conclusion of the Season after Easter, but well remind you about that in May.)

* Matins (Tracks 01–08)
* Vespers (Tracks 09–14)
* Morning Prayer (Tracks 15–21)
* Evening Prayer (Tracks 22–29)
* Compline (Tracks 30–38)
* Litany (Track 39)

Evening and Morning: Music of Lutheran Daily Prayer is a wonderful complementary product for user of Treasury of Daily Prayer.

List of tracks:

Want to know more about the Kantorei? Check out this post at CyberBretheren.