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This setting of Psalm 146 was submitted by Larry Visser, who also composed this organ setting.
Psalm 146
How does this psalm piece interpret the psalm?
The English trumpet tunes of the 17th century composed by Jeremiah Clarke and Henry Purcell were played for nobility, kings, and queens, and are still to this day often heard at wedding ceremonies. This neo-baroque trumpet tune based on Psalm 146 evokes the majesty and royalty not of an earthly king, but of the sovereign King of glory, the Lord of all. While the psalm is framed with words of praise, the interior verses are a call not to place our trust in human power, position, or status, but rather in the Lord, the One who created heaven and earth, cares for the oppressed and hungry, sets prisoners free, gives sight to the blind, lifts the humble, watches over the foreigner, sustains the fatherless and the widow. In a time of political divisiveness, international conflict, racial injustice, famine, sickness, and death, this psalm brings hope for those whose help is in the Lord, the God of Jacob. The music is based on the hymn tune RIPLEY (Lift Up Your Hearts #518), composed by the famous American Lowell Mason who promoted and published music for schools, choirs, and congregations.
This organ setting is most useful as a prelude, postlude, or hymn introduction in any praise-themed worship service, at a service that focuses on God’s grace, or even as a wedding recessional.
Music: Larry Visser © Larry Visser
Used by permission.
Contact: Larry Visser, www.lagrave.org/leadership
Why and how did psalm singing become such a hallmark of Reformed worship? Join Dr. Karin Maag for a fascinating journey through time, from Reformation Geneva to Scotland and from the Netherlands to New England, exploring the roots and impact of metrical psalm singing. Along the way, we will hear the voices of early modern Christians as they learned how to sing the psalms, both in unison and in harmony.
Sister Kathleen Harmon of the community of the Ohio province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Dayton, invites us to be transformed by the psalms and experience them as the whole story God is revealing to us. As we keep praying and singing them, the psalms interpret us, and that’s when the transformation comes.
Vinroy D. Brown Jr.—conductor, musicologist, educator, and minister of creative worship and music at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City—explores the vibrant intersection of Black sacred music and the psalms. He talks about Black composers and how they have reimagined the psalms through choral music, spirituals, and the gospel tradition for the benefit of everyone.
Why and how did psalm singing become such a hallmark of Reformed worship? Join Dr. Karin Maag for a fascinating journey through time, from Reformation Geneva to Scotland and from the Netherlands to New England, exploring the roots and impact of metrical psalm singing. Along the way, we will hear the voices of early modern Christians as they learned how to sing the psalms, both in unison and in harmony.
Sister Kathleen Harmon of the community of the Ohio province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Dayton, invites us to be transformed by the psalms and experience them as the whole story God is revealing to us. As we keep praying and singing them, the psalms interpret us, and that’s when the transformation comes.
Vinroy D. Brown Jr.—conductor, musicologist, educator, and minister of creative worship and music at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City—explores the vibrant intersection of Black sacred music and the psalms. He talks about Black composers and how they have reimagined the psalms through choral music, spirituals, and the gospel tradition for the benefit of everyone.
John Goldingay, an Anglican priest and the senior professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, posits the psalms are the densest material in the entire Old Testament. They expound the nature of God as the compassionate, faithful, and committed one, but also as the one who makes demands upon us. The psalms help us talk to God, even about difficult things—and when we do, we are talking to someone who is in a position to do something about it.
