Psalms & Canticles

The Invitatory: Psalm 95 (Venite, Exultemus)

Psalm 95, known by its Latin opening as the Venite, is the Invitatory — the first psalm of the day in the Liturgy of the Hours and in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer's Morning Prayer.

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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. 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. 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. Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Psalm 95, Coverdale Psalter (Book of Common Prayer, public domain)

About the prayer

Its place at the head of the day is very old: St. Benedict assigned it to the opening of the night office in the sixth century, and it has held that position ever since. The psalm has two movements. It begins as pure invitation and praise, then turns sharply at "Today, if ye will hear his voice" into warning, recalling Israel's hardness of heart in the wilderness. That turn is deliberate. The Church begins each day by summoning herself to worship and, in the same breath, refusing to let the worship become routine. The translation here is from the Coverdale Psalter of the Book of Common Prayer, public domain.

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