Five liturgical songs repeat in worship, offering consistency and flexibility in proclaiming the eternal gospel.

Around us in eternity will be “a great multitude that no one [can] count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9). Like us, they will be the ones who come out of the great tribulation. Together with us, they will cry out in a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God . . . and to the Lamb” (Revelation 7:10).

Worship through the ages

Already now the worship has begun: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). What has the church been singing? Two thousand years of New Testament church history are only a drop in eternity’s bucket, but it’s still worth our time to consider five songs of the liturgy that so many of Christ’s royal priests have been singing for much of that time:

1. Kyrie Eleison, “Lord, Have Mercy”
2. Gloria in Excelsis, “Glory Be to God”
3. Credo, “The Creed”
4. Sanctus, “Holy, Holy, Holy”
5. Agnus Dei, “O Christ, Lamb of God”

These five songs of the liturgy are part of the Ordinary, which means that they repeat from week to week and don’t change based on the seasons. They provide a solid framework for the Proper: the Scripture readings and hymns that vary by Sunday and season according to the liturgical church year.

Continued use of worship songs

Because the songs repeat, we may be tempted to take them for granted and to sing them without thinking. What’s so extraordinary about these five songs of the Ordinary?

For starters, their Christ-centered texts are designed to pry our fleshly attention off ourselves and onto the enthroned Lamb we long to view with Spirit-worked faith. But this is true of any well-designed pattern of worship. The five songs of the liturgy offer more. Their broad use and long history heighten our sense that there is one church, while their familiarity honors each worshiper with the implicit invitation to sing along. Their unchanging texts form and shape us while offering a creative space for changing musical adornment. Their standard form is a hedge against careless novelty, while their musical flexibility invites the unique gifts of every tribe, nation, people, and language. If they’re familiar to you, singing them is like coming home. If they’re not familiar to you, they don’t take long to learn. Weekly repetition enables even little children to participate.

We’re not in heaven yet, but already now we have the eternal gospel to hear and proclaim. Even now, we are the Lord’s chosen people, his royal priesthood, his holy nation, his special possession. Whatever songs our worship leaders choose in freedom to sing in church, let’s sing his eternal gospel with one voice, with all the best gifts the Lord has given us.

Song #1: Kyrie Eleison: “Lord, Have Mercy”

A beggar sits by the roadside outside Jericho. Maybe someone generous will pass by. The man is blind, so he can’t work, but he still has a voice. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” he shouts (Mark 10:47). A crowd has gathered, and the man knows he is bothering them, but he’s desperate. So he shouts louder: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Our need

Maybe you’re not visually-impaired or living in poverty. You might have a career you love with great pay and amazing benefits. The fact remains: “The whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8:22). This is the world in which we live. It might not seem like you need much help with your walk of faith. You might be a regular worshiper in God’s house and have a shining record of service. The fact remains: “Every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood” (Genesis 8:21). It’s true for every believer: Those who want to be Jesus’ disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow him (Matthew 16:24). We all need mercy.

After his death, the last words Martin Luther wrote were found scrawled out on a scrap of paper. He had spent half a lifetime plumbing the depths of God’s grace, and he wrote: “We are beggars.”

Our prayer

Outside Jericho stands the Son of God in human flesh, the beggar who would endure heaven’s cold shoulder in our place. He turns to the blind man and asks what he wants. The man says, “Rabbi, I want to see” (Mark 10:51).

We long for the day when all our suffering will come to an end, when there will be no more sins to confess, when Jesus will say to each of us one last time what he said to the man that day: “Your faith has healed you” (Mark 10:52). Until that day, we remain beggars, and we acknowledge it every time we go to church.

In past worship practice, we have said the Kyrie Eleison (KEE-reeay ay-LAY-ee-sohn), “Lord, Have  Mercy,” in connection with the Confession of Sins. But we depend on God for everything else too; he’s the only one who can help us. So the prayer is now offered after the Absolution and has been applied to petitions related to every area of life. This world finds such naked dependence distasteful, but we’re desperate and believe in the One who has promised to help us. As surely as we will always need his mercy this side of heaven, that’s how certain it is that he will always give it.

And so, one of the best prayers any of us will ever learn also happens to be one of the shortest. The first of the five canticles of the liturgy is a prayer that’s been emptied of all pride. It’s a prayer for every day of our life in this world. How appropriate that we should sing or say each week in worship this humble, faith-filled prayer of a beggar: “Lord, have mercy.”

This is the first article in a four-part series on the songs of the Ordinary.

Author: Jon Zabell
Volume 112, Number 03
Issue: March 2025

Musical flexibility

Although the texts of the five songs of the Ordinary have remained largely unchanged throughout the years, history bears testimony to a rich, global diversity in musical style and instrumentation—and new music is still being composed.

We in WELS have easy access to musical variety, both old and new, within our own suite of hymnal resources. This offers worship planners a great amount of musical flexibility for these age-old texts.

• Christian Worship: Hymnal pew edition contains three different musical settings of the liturgy and a number of additional canticle settings (CW 933-958).
• Christian Worship: Service Builder offers two more full musical settings of the liturgy as well as many options for singing the five songs to the melodies of familiar hymn tunes.
• The online Christian Worship: Musician’s Resource from Northwestern Publishing House provides support for cantors and choirs, solo instruments, piano and guitar ensembles, organ and brass, and more.