The text of the Nunc Dimittis is taken from the Song of Simeon in Luke 2:29-32, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” The Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he would not taste death until he saw the promised Messiah (Luke 2:26). When Jesus was born and brought to the temple, Simeon took him up in his arms and sang this canticle, declaring that he was ready to die in perfect peace because he had beheld the salvation of the whole world in the infant Christ.
The Nunc Dimittis is a most fitting canticle to sing after receiving the Lord’s Supper. Although we do not see Christ in human flesh with our eyes as Simeon did, the Holy Spirit works in us to behold Him with the eyes of faith to see that Jesus is truly present in His body and blood on the altar to bring us the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Just as Simeon took up the infant Jesus in his arms, so we too have touched Christ in the eating and drinking of His body and blood. We therefore confess along with Simeon and the whole Church that we are ready to face death because we have seen the Lord’s salvation. We are at peace with God because Christ has covered us with His righteousness, and we are at peace with one another because Christ has knit us together as His body, the Church.
The Nunc Dimittis is a relatively new addition to the Divine Service. There is some evidence that it was sung in the Mozarabic Rite in ancient Spain, but it was more commonly used in the early and medieval churches as a canticle in the Office of Compline, a late evening prayer service (LSB p. 253). It began to appear in a few Lutheran orders of the Divine Service in the sixteenth century, but it did not gain widespread popularity until Wilhelm Löhe included it in his Agenda in 1844 for Lutheran churches in America.
Some settings of the Divine Service in theLutheran Service Bookinclude an alternate post-communion canticle, “Thank the Lord.” This text is drawn from the Psalms and calls upon us to give thanks to God for His wondrous works among us, namely, the incarnation and passion of our Lord, and our reception of Christ’s body and blood in the Sacrament. Our joyous gratitude to God prompts us to proclaim His wonderous deeds to all people that they too might be brought to saving faith in Christ.