The first steps in this ladder are made by the use of the Book of Psalms, which is divided into sections for these daily Services, and so arranged that they supply different Psalms for 30 mornings and 30 evenings. If there are 31 days in the month, those for the 30th day are repeated on the 31st: in February, the (29th and) 30th are omitted.
There are many words which originally meant a Song, but in course of time have come to mean a special kind of song, or the music which belongs to a song. Thus Cantus, a song, gives us Chant, the music of a psalm verse; and Canticle, a psalm after a Lesson. psalmos, a song, gives us psalm, a hymn, but not metrical, hymnos, a song, gives us hymn, a song in metre.
Versicles and Psalms.
Before the Psalms begin there is an injunction to praise the Lord exchanged between the Minister and the People. Four other Versicles and Gloria Patri are interposed after the Lord's Prayer—all in the form of Verse and Respond.
{40} Ps. li. 15 is the Psalmist's grateful cry when his sin was forgiven and his praises began to break forth.
Ps. lxx. 1 supplies the second couplet.
The Gloria Patri follows these Psalm verses.
The Venite exultemus Domino, briefly called Venite, is the 95th Psalm. The Rubric provides that it is to be said every day, but not twice on the 19th day[1]. It is the first of the Morning Psalms, and formerly was sung with an Anthem (see Chapter XIII.) which was known as the Invitatory, and varied with the Season.
Antiphonal, i.e. alternate, singing dates from the services described in 1 Chronicles vi. 31-33, 39, 44, from which it appears that there were three choirs of singers—one in the centre, and one on either hand. Thus the interchange of replies from either side and a chorus of all the voices were provided, 1 Chron. xvi. 7-9 makes it clear that the Psalms were sung, as indeed the word Psalm (from Gr. psallo, I sing) implies. See also Neh. xii. 24.
The Authorised Version (A.V.) of the Bible is a translation made at the beginning of James I.'s reign, after the Hampton Court Conference (Jan. 1604). It was published in 1611 with a title-page stating that it was "appointed to be read in churches." There is, however, no evidence of any formal adoption of it until the statement made in the Preface of the {41} Prayer Book (1662) that "such portions of Holy Scripture as are inserted into the Liturgy," "in the Epistles and Gospels especially, and in sundry other places . . . are now ordered to be read according to the last Translation." It is evident that this "last Translation" is the Version of 1611: for the Epistles and Gospels are quoted from it in the Prayer Book of 1662. The Translation of 1611, then, is that from which are to be taken "such portions of Holy Scripture as are inserted into the Liturgy." This appears to be the general rule of the Prayer Book of 1662. But that Prayer Book gives authority to various exceptions. The most notable of these is the provision, in a footnote to The order how the Psalter is appointed to be read, "that the Psalter followeth the division of the Hebrews and the translation of the great English Bible, set forth and used in the time of King Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth."