We continue our look at the service of Compline; we pick up at the bottom of page 255 with the responsory. This responsory comes from Psalm 31 verse 5 which reads, “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” The verses of one and two of this responsory communicate both parts of this Psalm verse, in verse one we focus on commit, the idea that we give up our spirit to the Lord; not in the sense of Christ on the cross or St. Stephen at his stoning in which they both die, rather give up the sinful self and our personal wills to God and His will. The second verse focuses on the redeeming work of the Lord, in of our selves we cannot redeem ourselves from sin and the punishment we deserve, however, He can and does for us. This committing and redeeming we need constantly throughout the day, for we are always tempted to give ourselves over to our will and we are in constant need of redeeming, and so we in the morning, the noon time, and when we go to rest need to commit ourselves to the Lord and ask for His redemption. The third verse is the gloria verse, in which we give honor to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who guard and keep our faith.
 

After the responsory a hymn may be sung, and since we are Lutherans, “the singing church,” I would encourage the singing of a hymn. After the hymn we begin the prayer section of the service in which we start out with some responsories on page 256, which includes: Psalms 102 verse 1 “Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you!” Psalm 17:8 “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings,” and Psalm 17:15 “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.” As you can see the first two are taken word for word out of the Psalm, whereas the third one is changed up a bit to fit the responsory style for worship while keeping the essence. These verses call us to turn to Him and to ask Him to hear our prayers.
 

This takes us to page 257, in which we have our prayer petitions. Notice the 5 parts of the prayers: 1. First address to God (typically to God the Father) 2. Truth, quote, promise from Scripture 3. The petition 4. Second address (typically to God the Son) 5. The amen. These prayers have the theme of overnight concerns. The first one has us ask God that though life may change, the rest He gives does not, and may He watch over us while we sleep, which He has promised to do. The second one has us asking God to watch over our bodies over the course of our whole life in which we walk through “the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4) and to keep us until He gives us the final rest in eternity beginning on the last day. In the third prayer, we ask Christ our light and life to shine, that we may be protected from the darkness. The fourth prayer has us call on Him to send His Angels to guard and watch over us, that we may be kept from the evil one and may have His eternal peace, which only He can give. In the fifth prayer we pray that the Lord would watch over those who work overnight, that they would be kept awake and given the strength to do their duties well. We also confess that all hours of the day are His, for they are His creation and that He still takes care of those hours as well. Lastly the sixth prayer is an all-encompassing prayer in which we give thanks for the day He has given us and the rest He is about to give us. We pray not just for ourselves but also for the whole church . We pray that He would keep us in faith through Word and Sacrament, and we pray for the strength to overcome the attacks of the Devil and His darkness.
 

Christ blessings

Rev. David J. Walsh