When I first started going to Mass I liked to mark each song, the day’s reading, and the responses during Mass. At first, I used little strips of stiff watercolor paper, but then I worried that I’d forget these or drop them, and then I’d be littering in church. So I decided to paint the pages and write quotes from the Bible on them so if anyone found them, it would be like a bonus bookmark and maybe the quote would be helpful to them.
Finding passages to write on the bookmarks led me to the Psalms, particularly Psalms 4, 13, 25, 30, 31, 34, 40, 42, and 63. Themes of forgiveness, longing for God, trust, acceptance, and prayer and rescue run through them. They spoke to me then, they speak to me now. I especially love it when songs based on them come up on Spotify Shuffle or I find a new version on YouTube. So, in that spirit. Let me share some of the ones I keep returning to and the passages that originally drew me to them. The songs have varying degrees of fidelity to the psalms. Some are almost word for word whereas others are inspired by the psalm.
Psalm 4: The Psalm Project
4:3 -“How long, O people, will you be hard of hard of heart? Why do you love what is worthless, chase after lies?”
4:9 – “In peace I will lie down and fall asleep, for you alone, Lord, make me secure.”
Psalm 13: Alisa Turner
Psalm 25: The Psalm Project
I really like this one, particularly the fact that they kind of use 25:4-5 as a kind of chorus. Also, at timestamp ~4:49 25:15 “My eyes are ever upon the Lord,” is very powerful.
25:4-5 – “Make known to me your ways Lord; teach me your paths. Guide me by your fidelity and teach me, for you are God my savior, for you I wait all the day long.”
Psalm 30:
30:3-4 “O Lord, my God, I cried out to you for help and you healed me. Lord, you brought my soul up from Sheol; you let me live, from going down to the pit.”
30:12 “You changed my mourning into dancing; you took off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.”
The Psalm Project
Sons of Korah
Psalm 31: Aly Aleigha
31:3-4 “Be my rock of refuge, a stronghold to save me. For you are my rock and my fortress; for your name’s sake lead me and guide me.”
Psalm 34:
Shane and Shane
Sons of Korah
Psalm 40:
40:2-4 “Surely, I wait for the Lord; who bends down to me and hears my cry. Draws me up from the pit of destruction, out of the muddy clay. Sets my feet upon the rock, steadies my steps, And puts a new song in my mouth, a hymn to our God.”
Poor Bishop Hooper
Sons of Korah
Psalm 42 -Journeysongs: Danna Harkin · John Purifoy · Randall DeBruyn · John Strege
I like this version because the tune is similar to “The Water is Wide” so I can actually sing along, though poorly because the bucket I use to carry a tune has holes in it.
41:2 “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.”
Psalm 63:
63:1-9. All of it.
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