Showing 21–30 of 55 results
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Psalm 123: Have Mercy
[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.
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Psalm 124: If God Had Not Been on Our Side
[audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/psalm_124-if_god_had_not-ozoned.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.
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Psalm 124: Our Help
[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.
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Psalm 128: Bless Us, O Lord
[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.
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Psalm 129: We Won’t Stay Down Forever
[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.
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Psalm 133: How Good and Beautiful
[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.
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Psalm 133: How Very Good and Pleasant
Price range: $5.00 through $25.00 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product pagehttps://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.
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Psalm 134: Come, You People of the Lord
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.
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Psalm 136: The Gracious Love of God Will Never End
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.
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Psalm 137: So Far from Home
[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.