Scripture Reference
Showing 73–84 of 145 results
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Psalm 136: The Gracious Love of God Will Never End
$0.00 Add to carthttps://musicblog.gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/psalm_136-the_gracious_love.mp3
Psalm 136 is a long Psalm with the repeated refrain, “His love endures forever.” The Hebrew is much richer. The word “love” encompasses loving-kindness, grace, mercy, and compassion. I arrived at a repeated refrain of “The gracious love of God will never end” and a simple call-and-response that can be learned quickly.
This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church, please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.
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Psalm 137: So Far from Home
$0.00 Add to cart[audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/08-So-Far-From-Home.mp3"][/audio]“So Far from Home” is a setting of Psalm 137, which includes the imprecation: “Blessed is he who dashes their babies against the rocks.” What is an imprecation if it’s not a curse? In this case, I decided to recast Psalm 137 in a modern context, replacing harps with guitars and the Psalms oppressors with the modern forces of human misery: slave traders, pimps, and wars.
This song is mentioned in Greg’s podcast, “Russians.”
This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to OneLicense.
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Psalm 14: We Wait for You, Our Savior
$0.00 Add to carthttps://musicblog.gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/psalm_014-we_wait_for_you_our_savior.mp3
At first blush, Psalm 14 seems almost catty. The Psalmist comes out swinging, calling the godless “fools,” “abominable,” “perverse,” and “evil.” Ouch! However, this vitriol is not aimed at random unbelievers, it is reserved for those “who eat my people as they eat bread” and who would “confound the plans of the poor.” By the end of the Psalm, anger has turned to prayer, asking God to give refuge to those in need.
This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church, please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.
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Psalm 141: O Lord, I Call to You, Please Hear Me
$0.00 Add to carthttps://musicblog.gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/Psalm-141_-O-Lord-I-Call-to-You.mp3
A jazz Psalm is out of the sweet spot of many congregations, but this might be a good place to start. A one-note refrain is paired with straightforward metrical verses. If I were leading this in a congregation, I’d likely have them sing that simple eight-measure phrase only, leaving the verses to a soloist until it became familiar.
This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.
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Psalm 143: O Lord, Hear My Prayer
$0.00 Add to carthttps://musicblog.gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/psalm_143.mp3
One doesn’t usually associate jazz with responsorial Psalms. But as you can hear, this song has everything a good responsorial Psalm needs: a quickly learnable refrain, verses that can expand or contract to match the length of the text, and clear harmonic movement to support the chant. Give it a try!
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Psalm 145: My Mouth Will Speak the Praise of the Lord
$0.00 – $5.00 Select optionshttp://musicblog.gregscheer.com/psalm_145-my_mouth.mp3
The themes of God’s greatness, goodness, faithfulness, and righteousness in Psalm 145 are bookended by verses 1-2 and verse 21. In this musical setting, verse 21 becomes a refrain that follows two verses focused on God’s faithfulness and righteousness. Notice how the verse changes halfway through, with the lyrics switching from talking about God to praying to God.
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Psalm 146: Praise the Lord!
$0.00 Add to carthttps://musicblog.gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/psalm_146-praise_the_lord.mp3
Charles Freeman wrote this text for Psalm 146, an exuberant Psalm of trust and praise. When I sat down at the piano to write the music, I immediately heard Black Gospel. I wanted this song to sit comfortably between Andraé Crouch’s “Bless the Lord” and James Moore’s “Taste and See.”
This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church, please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.
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Psalm 15: Lord, May I Dwell with You?
$0.00 Add to carthttps://musicblog.gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/psalm_015-lord_may_i_dwell.mp3
Here, Psalm 15 becomes a sung prayer of devotion. The chorus is a prayer of aspiration, “Lord, may I dwell with you?” and the verses pray for the strength and guidance to live the godly life outlined in the Psalm. The music is in a simple, Taizé-like style, with verses chanted over the chorus. This also allows the chorus to be used independently as a scripture song, focusing on the deeper message of the Psalm: a desire to dwell in God’s presence, knowing God as a refuge and our true home.
This hymn is a free download. If you sing this song in your church, please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.
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Psalm 150: Hallel, Hallelujah!
$0.00 Add to carthttp://musicblog.gregscheer.com/psalm_150-hallel_hallelujah.mp3
The exuberance and repetition in this Psalm text led me to compose a Taizé style chorus, but in a regal, rather than meditative style. You’ll notice that the song is built on a repeated 10 measure phrase. This is unusual–music is normally written in divisions of four–but the irregular phrase length keeps the repeats from feeling banal. Also keeping the song’s motion moving forward is the unresolved final chord.
This hymn is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.
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Psalm 16: The Refuge of My Soul
$0.00 – $5.00 Select options[embed]http://musicblog.gregscheer.com/psalm_016-the_refuge_of_my_soul.mp3[/embed]This song chronicles a life from birth to death under God’s care.
At first glance, it may seem like the song has little to do with the Psalm 16. It uses none of the “protect me, God” or “path of life” phrases that other settings of this Psalm use. Instead, it goes a layer deeper, into the Psalm’s structure.
Samuel Terrien proposes that Psalm 16 is made up of 6 strophes, with the first three mirroring the last three. In broad strokes, the Psalm begins its focus on things of earth and moves toward heaven. As I meditated on the Psalm it suddenly struck me that it closely follows the span of human life. It is very clear in the last two strophes, which focus on the grave and eternal life. Working your way backward, you can see further life milestones: the growth of wisdom (strophe 4) and earthly blessings (strophe 3). The first two strophes are less clear, but with a bit of imagination, I recast the first strophe’s protection and refuge as the womb and the sacrifices to false gods in strophe two as the sins of youth. It’s easier to understand when you see the Psalm and my song side by side as in this PDF.
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Psalm 17: Show Me the Wonder of Your Love
$0.00 Add to carthttps://musicblog.gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/psalm_017-show_me_the_wonder_of_your_love.mp3
In Psalm 17, the Psalmist is being pursued by enemies and calls to God for help. The six-part Psalm includes an initial appeal for God to hear, a proclamation of innocence, a petition (save me!), an accusation of the wicked, another petition, and a final word of confidence that God will save.
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Psalm 18: I Love You, God My Lord
$0.00 Add to carthttps://musicblog.gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/psalm_18-i_love_you_god_my_lord.mp3
In addition to being quite long, Psalm 18 presents the difficulty of wide-ranging content. It starts with praise for God’s strength and a plea for help, then extols God’s retribution of enemies, provides an overly flattering assessment of the Psalmist’s own piety, takes joy in the strength God gives the Psalmist, and ends with more praise for the victory God will give.
Adam Carlill’s 20 verses do justice to the original while remaining accessible to modern ears. I added a refrain–it felt like the song needed something to break up all those verses. I could imagine a leader singing a few verses at a time and then handing it over to the congregation to sing the refrain.
This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.
Showing 73–84 of 145 results
