Blended/Folk

Showing 25–36 of 52 results

  • 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 133: How Very Good and Pleasant

    $5.00 – $25.00     Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page

    https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/psalm_133-how_very_good.mp3

    My favorite setting of Psalm 133 is Barbara Boertje’s “How Very Good,” and this song adds solo verses between the congregational refrains. My study of the Psalm tells me that the oil represents–thinking broadly–the anointing that made Israel God’s people, and the dew represents God’s blessing through food and creation. Looking through New Testament eyes, we could interpret the oil as Jesus our anointed High Priest and/or the baptismal waters that set us apart as God’s people. The dew could become the bread and wine which are a foretaste of the eternal life promised at the end of Psalm 133.

    With that in mind–and with Barbara’s permission–I wrote 2 verses to go with the original song. The verses feel like they’re cut from the same cloth as the refrain and it expands Barbara’s original idea to include the text of the whole Psalm, without increasing the difficulty of the congregation’s part.

    Note: This recording is from a previous version of the song.

  • Psalm 134: Come, You People of the Lord

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    https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/psalm134-come_you_people_of_the_lord.mp3

    Psalm 134 is both a call to worship and a benediction. Here it becomes a warm Gospel song that is easily accessible for congregational singing.

    Piano and vocal for congregational singing or unison choir. Purchase price allows you to print as many copies as you need for your ensemble.

  • Psalm 136: The Gracious Love of God Will Never End

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    https://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.

  • 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

    $0.00 – $5.00     Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
    [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 28: My God, the Rock

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    https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/psalm_028-my_god_my_rock-sandy-1.mp3

    Kate Bluett follows the three-part prayer we find in Psalm 28, teasing out the image of God the Rock, as opposed to the stony silence of a god who doesn’t hear people’s prayers. I wrote two tunes for her text and simply couldn’t decide which I like better. The first tune (SANDY, sample above) is a jazzy melody that gives the song a mournful, prayerful character and brings out the pathos of Kate’s text. The other tune (ROCKY, sample below) is more rustic and forceful, which gives the song confidence in the midst of a trial.

    https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/psalm_028-my_god_my_rock-rocky.mp3

  • Psalm 31: In Your Shadow Is My Refuge

    $0.00 – $5.00     Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page

    https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/Psalm-31_-In-Your-Shadow.mp3

    Psalm 31 has a place in Holy Week worship because Jesus quoted it from the cross: “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” Though verses 9-13 give a glimpse into the terror of the cross, much of the Psalm focuses on trust in God’s deliverance. Kate Bluett has written a lovely setting of 31 which captures not only the heart of the Psalm, but also the structure, from plea for help to description of affliction to final words of hope. It is a great comfort to me to know that I can meditate and hope in the same scriptures that Jesus recited in his time of deepest distress.

     

  • 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.

Showing 25–36 of 52 results