Liturgy - what is good about it?

I grew up southern baptist, married a lutheran, have attended churches from both and also assembly of god, evangelical free, evangelical covenant,  and non-denominational.  I am an evangelical mutt.  Rich Mullins really opened my mind to liturgy with his song Creed.  I never knew the Apostle's Creed even existed, much less what it said.  And we are exploring joining another Lutheran church.  Pastor has encouraged me to develop my own liturgy to pray - for those times when I am feeling lost, distant, despondent, basically a mess.  Easier said than done.  Especially for a person who wants to do it perfectly and not mess it up.  (Likely not possible, but...)  I do know that when we went to a lutheran church previously, the days that I felt less than worshipful. less than wanting to be there. less than joyful with God. Just saying the liturgy in the service helped slowly turn my heart most days.  Some days it was simply words...but I said them anyway and I believe that despite the poor attitude on my part - he accepted my obedience in even just saying them.  SO - I am working on my own personal liturgy... in my own convoluted, uneducated, confused way.

I stumbled upon an interesting website that talks about liturgy and the whys of it.

Basically - even 'non-liturgical' churches use 'canned' materials - the Bible (not very spontaneous), hymns (how many churches make up new hymns every week - on the spot?), set service structure from week to week.  Not very spontaneous or extemporaneous.  Sounds kinda canned - like liturgical churches are often accused of being.

What is good about liturgy?

1. Written Prayers Provide a Solid Structure for Worship - most are lifted straight from scripture and the service order follows the order of how Jesus taught us - confession, thanksgiving, communion, etc.
2. Written Prayers Allow for Common Prayer - this brings the members closer. there is a better sense of togetherness when all are praying the same prayer.  Spontaneous prayers weren't really mainstream until relatively recently. 
3. Written Prayers Allow For Real Freedom of Worship - structured prayer provides an excellent jumping off point for spontaneous prayer.  It helps get the heart and mind focused on God instead of 'wandering aimlessly.'
4. Written Prayers Connect Us to the Past and to the Wider Church - consider the Lord's Prayer.  It has been prayed for centuries in all languages.  It truly connects Christians to each other.  We can go to Tanzania and still pray the Lord's Prayer with them (although not in the same language.) but the heart of it is the same.  And our grandparent's grandparents also prayed these same prayers.  
5. Written Prayers Are Time-Tested - they are theologically sound. don't ramble without saying anything. I have been in many services where it seemed the person praying aloud was going on and on and on and on - it seemed they really enjoyed the sound of their own voice.  Meanwhile...I was sometimes fighting sleep.  A liturgical prayer has meat, thought, simplicity (at least in my experiences).
6. Jesus Gave Us a Set Form For Prayer - The Lord's Prayer aka Our Father (I was in my mid-late 20's before I realized they were one and the same.)  Jesus showed us how to pray liturgically - not conversationally - although the latter is still perfectly fine. 
7.  Written Prayers are Scriptural - they enable us to pray the scriptures.  and they harken back to the ancient jewish traditions of praying the scriptures/psalms.  

The author states, "I tend to think of written prayers like singing a favorite song. How many times do you crank up the radio and sing along to your favorite songs? Sometimes these songs are pretty old, yet we still sing them. I still sing along to Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" with the same gusto as I did when I first heard it 10 years ago. It is even the ring-tone for my mobile phone. Ultimately good songs' ages don't matter, so long as they are good, solid, songs. The same is true of written prayers."  

Now to have prayers stuck in your head - wouldn't that be cool???