Church Music

I am up to Psalm 119 for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A. It is from Paul Mason’s Psalms for All Time Vol 3. The sheet music can purchased at Liturgical Song.

Sometimes this rendering of the psalms makes you yearn for paraphrases. Was “than large quantities of silver and gold” really the best they could do, it’s not very poetic.

Response

Lord, I love your commands.

Lord, I love your commands.

1 You, O Lord, are my portion;

I have promisd to obey your words.

The law from your mouth means more to me

Than large quantities of silver and gold.

2 Let your merciful love console me

By your promise to your servant.

Show me compassion, that I may live,

For your law is my delight.

3 That is why I love your commands more than finest gold,

Why I rule my life by your precepts, and hate false ways.

4 Your decrees are wonderful indeed;

Therefore my soul obeys them.

The unfolding of your word gives light,

Gives light and understanding to the simple.

This is Psalm 119 for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time for Year A as set by Paul Mason from Psalms for All Time Vol 3.

I suppose it is a sung Old Testament Beatitude.

Response

Blessed, blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord.

1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless,

Who walk in the law of the Lord.

Blessed are those who keep his decrees!

With all their hearts they seek him.

2 You have laid down your precepts to be carefully kept.

May my ways be firm in keeping your statutes.

3 Deal bountifully with your servant,

That I may live and keep your word.

Open my eyes that I may see the wonders of your law.

4 Lord, teach me the way of your statutes,

And I will keep them to the end.

Grant me insight that I may keep your law,

And observe it whole-heartedly.

I always forget just how much is in each volume of Paul Mason’s Psalms for All Time until I actually sit down and do each psalm. It’s not just the psalms of course it’s the keyboard arrangements – that my BIAB backings don’t touch- his commentary and all his fine music that suggest applications beyond just when that psalm is in the liturgy. The YouTube clip below lets you know just how good the keyboard arrangements are.

This is Psalm 117 from Volume 3 is for the Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C and the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C, as well for St Patrick (and many other saints) and the Common of Pastors. It is obviously a song that could be used as a Recessional as well.

My backing sounds nothing like his version:

Response

Go out to all the world, and tell the Good News.

Tell the Good News.

Tell the Good News.

1 O praise the Lord, all you nations;

Acclaim him all you peoples.

2 For his mercy has prevailed over us;

And the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

This is Psalm 113 for the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary time Year C by Paul Mason from his Psalms for All Time Vol 3.

We use ‘The Cry of the Poor” a lot for Gifts, so this could slot in there as well. Mason notes its association with Passover.

Response

Praise the lord who lifts up the poor,

Who lifts up the poor.

1 Praise, O servants of the Lord,

Praise the name of the Lord!

May the name of the Lord be blest

Both now and forever.

2 High above all nations is the Lord,

Above the heavens his glory.

Who is like the Lord, our God,

Who dwells on high,

Who lowers himself to look down upon heaven and earth.

3 From the dust he lifts up the lowly,

From the ash heap he raises the poor,

To set them in company of princes,

Yes, with the princes of his people.

This is Psalm 93 for Christ the King (properly known as Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King) Year B. It is by Paul Mason and found in his Psalms for All Time Vol 3.

If you don’t have the cantor resources to use this as a psalm it could solve the perennial problem of finding a song for this liturgy each year.

For choirs there are SATB parts for the response. I don’t like long held “D”s so it’s down from G to F at least for me.

It’s meant to be majestic but I suspect the timpanis in BIAB are over the top somewhat. My bad.

Response

The Lord is king; he is robed in majesty.

Robed in majesty; O the Lord is king.

1 The Lord is king, with majesty enrobed.

The Lord robed himself with might;

He has girded himself with power.

2 The world you made firm, not to be moved;

Your throne has stood firm from of old.

From all eternity, O Lord, you are.

3 Truly your decrees are to be trusted.

Holiness is fitting to your house,

O Lord, until the end of time.

This is better:

I keep forgetting just how much Paul Mason packs into each volume of his Psalms for All Time.

I’m still in Volume 3 with Psalm 91 for the Feast of the Holy Angels. He has SATB for the response again, if you are using a choir.

This is an alernative to the YooHoo song (aka “On Eagles Wings”) if you need a break from that one. It is more subtle and has the original text so why not.

My backing is just the melody on BIAB as usual.

Response

He has put his angels in charge of you,

To guard you in all of your ways.

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High,

And abides in the shade of the Almighty,

Says the Lord, “My refuge, my stronghold,

My God in whom I trust!”

2 He will free you from the snare of the fowler,

From the destructive plague;

He will conceal you with his pinions,

And under his wings you will find refuge.

3 You will not fear the terror of the night,

Nor the arrow that flies by day,

Nor the plague that prowls in the darkness,

Nor the scourge that lays waste at noon.

4 Upon you no evil shall fall,

No plague approach your tent.

For you he has commended his angels to keep you,

Keep you in all your ways.

This is Paul Mason’s setting for Psalm 90 for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B as found in Psalms for All Time Vol 3. It is a fine psalm for our times.

He has written SATB parts for the response for this one.

I tried the tempo shifts in BIAB but I don’t know my meno mosso from my allargando:

Response

Fill us with your love, O Lord, O Lord,

And we will sing with joy, Lord, we will sing with joy.

1 Teach us to number our days,

That we may gain wisdom of heart.

Turn back, O Lord! How long?

Show pity to your servants.

2 At dawn, fill us with your merciful love;

We shall exult and rejoice all our days.

Give us joy for the days of our affliction,

For the years when we looked upon evil.

3 Let your deed be seen by your servants,

And your glorious power by their children.

Let the favour of the Lord be upon us;

Give success to the work of our hands.

O give success to the work of our hands.

From Psalms for All Time, Vol 3, this us Paul Mason’s setting of Psalm 86 for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A.

It sounds like a hymn for Lent. There is so much going on in this song – he really is the king of overwriting.

The sheet music can be purchased at Liturgical Song.

My backings are just BIAB and don’t use his masterfully understated keyboard arrangement, which is in the clip below.

Response

Lord, you are good and forgiving.

You are good and forgiving, O Lord, O Lord.

1 O Lord, you are good and forgiving,

Full of mercy to all who call you.

Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer,

And attend to my voice in supplication.

2 All the nations you have made shall come;

They will bow down bfore you, O Lord,

And glorify your name,

For you are great and do marvellous deeds,

You alone are God.

3 You, O God, are compassionate and gracious,

Slow to anger, O Lord,

Abundantt in mercy and fidelity;

Turn and take pity on me.

O give your strength to your servant.

Continuing in Psalms for All Time Volume 3 from Paul Mason, is the psalm from the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B, which sounds like a hymn for Eucharist too.

Response

The Lord gave them bread from heaven.

The Lord gave them bread from heaven.

1 The things we have heard and understood,

The things our fathers have told us,

We will tell them to the next generation:

The glories of the Lord and his might.

2 He commanded the clouds above,

And opened the gates of heaven.

He rained down manna to eat,

And gave them bread from heaven.

3 Man ate the bread of angels.

He sent them abundance of food;

He brought them to his holy land,

To the mountain his right hand had won.

… and the hits just keep on coming.

Psalms for All Time Volume 3, available at Liturgical Song, is packed with psalm settings and commentary and I doubt I’m even half way through yet.

This is the psalm for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A.

My backing is a little bit soul and if doesn’t want me doing that he shouldn’t write soul songs.

Response

Lord in your great love, answer me.

Lord in your great love, answer me.

1 It is for you that I suffer taunts,

That shame has covered my face.

To my own kin I have become and outcast,

A stranger to the children of my mother.

Zeal for your house consumes me,

And taunts against you fall on me.

2 But I pray to you, O Lord,

At an acceptable time.

In your great mercy, answer me, O God,

With your faithful salvation.

Lord answer for your mercy is kind;

In your great compassion, turn towards me.

3 The poor when they see it will be glad,

And God seeking hearts will revive;

For the Lord attends to the needy,

And does not spurn his own in their chains.

Let the heavens and the earth give him praise,

The seas and everything that moves in them.

… or you could sing it like this: