The update for Lutheran Service Builder to version 1.07 contains many wonderful fixes to how Builder handles moving information from the included databases into your documents. This has also afforded us a great opportunity to use the distribution of 1.07 as the launching point for providing service planners and staff with the propers for Year A (which, until 1.07, were missing from the Builder databases).

As part of this shift into a new Lectionary year, we have made some small changes to the Year A Psalms to better reflect their intended usage and to provide planners with content they may not have had even as part of the past Lectionary year. We’d like to take a moment today to point out one change that may be one of the most obvious to those who have been using Builder for some time.

In the past year, whenever a Psalm was included in a service, it looked much like this:

¹ The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and sum- | mons the earth*
from the rising of the sun to its | setting.
² Out of Zion, the perfection of | beauty,*
God | shines forth.
³ Our God comes; he does not keep | silence;*
before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty | tempest.
⁴ He calls to the heav- | ens above*
and to the earth, that he may judge his | people:
⁵ “Gather to me my | faithful ones,*
who made a covenant with me by | sacrifice!”
⁶ The heavens declare his | righteousness,*
for God him- | self is judge!
⁷ “Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify a- | gainst you.*
I am | God, your God.
⁸ Not for your sacrifices do I re- | buke you;*
your burnt offerings are continually be- | fore me.
[...]
Glory be to the Father and | to the Son*
and to the Holy | Spirit;
as it was in the be- | ginning,*
is now, and will be forever. | Amen.

There is one thing notably missing from this Psalm: the antiphonal verses assigned in the propers for the day. There’s also one mistake that we let slip into the Lectionary – the use of the Gloria Patri during Holy Week, where it should be reserved for use until Easter Sunday. In 1.07, we will continue to add the Gloria to every Psalm, as it’s given in the Psalter itself, but we’ll make sure it’s only there when it’s supposed to be there. Also, we’ll be including the antiphonal verses by default automatically (you can delete them in Word later if you want).

A 1.07 Psalm looks like this:

The Lord sends forth from | Zion*
your mighty | scepter.*
The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my | right hand,*
until I make your enemies your | footstool.”
The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty | scepter.*
Rule in the midst of your | enemies!
Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy | garments;*
from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth | will be yours.
The Lord has sworn and will not | change his mind,*
“You are a priest forever after the order of Mel- | chizedek.”
Glory be to the Father and | to the Son*
and to the Holy | Spirit;
as it was in the be- | ginning,*
is now, and will be forever. | Amen.
The Lord sends forth from | Zion*
your mighty | scepter.

Notice anything missing?

We’re removing the verse numbers by default in Psalm output starting with Year A. The citation will still be included as part of the subcaption (displayed on the right margin of your page), so your people will still have access to the Scripture reference and know where the assigned Psalm comes from. The citation will also now include the anitphonal verse in parentheses, just like the citation given in the propers.

This also emphasizes the fact that the Psalm is intended to be used as a proper in the service to augment the readings, and not as a “fourth reading.”

We hope that you will enjoy this change and look forward to continuing to improve out methods for text display and for calling up service elements for your use. With 1.07, you’ll see many beneficial changes, a few of which we’ll continue to write about in this space as a set of previews of what you can expect in the next major update to Lutheran Service Builder.