The Lutheran reformation transformed the medieval monasteries into useful Christian schools and pious colleges. In the former, they “bawled against the walls,” says Luther, while the latter trained Christians in the Bible. Instead of seven monastic services per day, Luther suggested a more practical schedule of two: morning and evening prayer. He realized most people could not attend these services, but he expected that pastors and students could. With psalms, readings, preaching, and prayer, Luther envisioned Christian schools where the Word of God dwelt richly among all the students and teachers (Col. 3:16). “For this is how,” he said, “genuine Christians were made in former times . . . and could also be made today.”
Luther Classical College is not a monastery. We hold classes, we study, we eat, we work, and we play. But we are a Lutheran college, and this means that, above all, our common life is bound together in the Word of God and prayer. We follow Luther’s advice and hold regular Matins and Vespers services in which we regularly pray the entire psalter together over the course of the academic year.
The psalms are the prayerbook of the Bible. Our Lord Jesus Christ would have learned the psalms by heart as a young boy and even prayed them as He died on the cross. Jesus quoted the Psalms after meeting the disciples on the road to Emmaus and preached to them of the psalms’ fulfillment in His own death and resurrection (Luke 24:44).
One of the greatest blessings LCC gives to me and to our students is the opportunity to regularly pray through the psalms in community. Chapel at LCC is not just for a certain subset of the campus but is attended by all students, faculty, and staff. That makes for a special environment both in the chapel and in the classroom. Although I have always prayed the psalms privately, I have never before been privileged to do so corporately as part of the regular twice-daily services such as Luther described.
The psalms teach us how to pray, how to praise, how to lament; they show us how faith wrestles with God while at the same time resting in His unfailing promises. My colleagues and I are continually amazed at how a random psalm schedule can coincide so well with the daily readings and the prayer needs of our student body. Of course, we shouldn’t be so surprised—the same Holy Spirit who is the Author of all Scripture is also He who intercedes for us when we know not what to pray.
We like to say that LCC is Lutheran first, classical second, and everything else third. A classical education is a beautiful training for any mind. But a piety shaped by the Word of God, the best of our Lutheran hymnody, and especially by the psalms is worth more than gold, “even much fine gold” (Psalm 19:10). Our students pray together in their dorms and dwellings. They ask to borrow extra hymnals so they can sing together in the evenings. They study, they goof off and have fun, and they sing their prayers and praises. Students cannot stay in college forever, but I know that the formation of their piety taking place even now at LCC will stay with them and their future families forever. As Luther reminds us:
“One thing is needful, namely, that Mary sit at the feet of Christ and hear His Word daily. This is the best ‘portion’ which we are to choose, and which will never pass away. It is an eternal Word. All else will perish, no matter how much cause for work it gives Martha. God help us to choose it. Amen.”