Blended/Folk

Showing 13–24 of 37 results

  • Psalm 123: Have Mercy

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    [audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/psalm_123-have_mercy.mp3"][/audio]

    Psalm 123 is a prayer for mercy. The first half of the Psalm describes our eyes looking up to heaven–an acknowledgment of the true God–and the second half is asking God to look down and intervene against lesser authorities–those gods of this earth who abuse their power. It is a simple, but powerful Pilgrim Psalm.

    This song is mentioned in Greg’s podcast, “Psalm 123 and Mercy.”

    This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.

  • Psalm 124: If God Had Not Been on Our Side

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    [audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/psalm_124-if_god.mp3"][/audio]

    The urgent images of Psalm 124—foes, floods, and fowler’s snare—form the backbone of this song, ultimately celebrating the God who saves us from our attackers.

    This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.

  • Psalm 124: Our Help

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    [audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/psalm_124-our_help.mp3"][/audio]

    “Our Help” is the shortest of my Pilgrim Psalms. It can stand on its own or act as a “bookend” for my longer setting of Psalm 124, “If God Had Not Been on Our Side.”

    But let me suggest one more way to use the song: “Our Help” is based on the words that traditionally begin Reformed worship services: Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Why not sing those words? “Our Help” is easy to pick up by ear and is the kind of song that can be sung multiple times while people gather and focus on worship. It could also segue into an opening song like Ron Rienstra’s “The Lord Be with You.”

    This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.

  • Psalm 128: Bless Us, O Lord

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    [audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/psalm_128-bless_us_o_lord.mp3"][/audio]

    The idea of “blessing” runs throughout the Pilgrim Psalms, coming to full bloom in Psalm 128. The heart of this Psalm’s message is “Serve God, work hard, and God will bless you.” While this may sound like “works righteousness,” I would suggest a much simpler conclusion: God is very fond of us and wants to shower us with good things!

    “Bless Us, O Lord” sticks close to the theme, with the people singing only those four words in response to a leader’s verses.

    This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.

  • Psalm 129: We Won’t Stay Down Forever

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    [audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/psalm_129-we_wont_stay_down.mp3"][/audio]

    Our journey through the Pilgrim Psalms has covered a lot of emotional terrain, but Psalm 129 is still surprising: a fight-the-man screed sung by the scrappy underdog who’s waiting for vindication. What better way to express the pent up anger and down-but-not-out camaraderie of the Psalm than with the music of a full-throated sea chanty?

    This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.

     

  • Psalm 133: How Good and Beautiful

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    [audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/psalm_133-how_good_and_beautiful.mp3"][/audio]

    Psalm 133 is the quintessential ode to the unity of God’s people. I have set Psalm 133 to music three times in the past, but for the Pilgrim Psalms, I wanted to write something rougher and more muscular. Why? Because it takes a lot of work–even fighting–to achieve the kind of unity that Psalm 133 describes.

    This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.

  • Psalm 137: So Far from Home

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    [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.

  • Psalm 14: We Wait for You, Our Savior

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    https://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.

  • Psalm 16: The Refuge of My Soul

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    [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.

  • Psalm 18: I Love You, God My Lord

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    https://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.

  • Psalm 37: An Antiphonal Acrostic

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    [audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/psalm_37_demo-complete.mp3"][/audio]

    Psalm 37 is an acrostic Psalm with 22 sections built on each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This musical setting follows that pattern, with 22 connected “songlets.” The last four measures of each songlet can be sung in counterpoint to the first four measures of the next songlet, creating a 22-link musical chain. It sounds complicated and esoteric; just take a listen to the MP3 demo and everything will make sense!

    This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense. Download includes side-by-side Scripture and lyrics.

  • Psalm 4: I Rest in You

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    [embed]http://musicblog.gregscheer.com/psalm_004-i_rest_in_you.mp3[/embed]

    Psalm 4 is the lament of someone whose honor has been impugned. You can hear the theme of shame and honor recurring throughout. Ultimately, though, the Psalmist chooses to rest in the Lord. It reminds me of what Richard Foster says in The Celebration of Discipline—I believe in the section on silence—about not speaking in defense of yourself, but simply allowing your reputation to stand on its own. This lack of control is frightening, especially when your name is at stake, but ultimately we can’t control what others think of us. In this song, the lyrics and music turn the Psalm from an indignant defense (“Break their teeth, O Lord”) into a quiet prayer in the night. 

Showing 13–24 of 37 results