Church Music

This is the psalm 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 the psalm 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 the psalm 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:

This is Paul Mason’s setting of Psalm 68 for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, from Psalms for All Time Vol 3.

It is a lovely tune and, as I have noted several times, these songs stand on their own if you wish to use them elsewhere in the Liturgy.

Along with his absoutely clear setting out of the sheet music, he has the sensible suggestion of capo 3 for guitarists to make our life easier. I’d make the singing easier by playing Capo 1 instead.

Response

God, in your goodness you have made a home for the poor;

A home for the poor.

1 The upright shall rejoice at the presence of God;

They shall exult with glad rejoicing.

O sing to God; make music to his name.

The Lord is his name; exult at his presence.

2 Father of orphans, defender of widows:

Such is God in his holy place.

God gives the desolate a home to dwell in;

He leads the prisoners forth into prosperity.

3 You poured down, O God, a genorous rain;

When your heritage languished, you restored it.

It was there that your flock began to dwell.

In your goodness, O God, you provided for the poor.

There’s a lot of psalms in Paul Mason’s three volumes of Psalms for All Times, and he has plans for volumes four, five and six.

This one is from Volume Three and is the psalm for the Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C and the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A. It is also a praise and worship song for any occasion you like.

The response can be replaced with “Alleluia”s for Easter.

Buy the sheet music at Liturgical Song.

You can sing along with my backing to learn it.

Response

O God let all the nations,

All the nations praise you.

1 May God be gracious and bless us

And let his face shed its light upon us.

So will your ways be known upon the earth

And all the nations learn your salvation.

2 Let the nations be glad and shout for joy;

With uprightness you rule the peoples,

You guide the nations on earth.

3 Let the peoples praise you, O God;

Let all the peoples praise you.

May God still give us his blessing

That all the ends of the earth may revere him.

Continuing with Paul Mason’s Psalms for All Time Vol 3, here is the Psalm for Mary, Mother of God, Years A, B & C.

Response

May God bless us in his mercy,

Bless us in his mercy.

1 May God be gracious and bless us

And let his face shed its light upon us.

So will your ways be known upon the earth

And all the nations learn your salvation.

2 Let the nations be glad and shout for joy;

With uprightness you rule the peoples,

You guide the nations on earth.

3 Let the peoples praise you, O God;

Let all the peoples praise you.

may God still give us his blessing

That all the ends of the earth may revere him.