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Psalm 37
How does this psalm piece interpret the psalm?
A number of months ago, my mom mentioned that Psalm 37 is one of her favorite scriptures, so I thought I’d set it to music. Little did I realize what an undertaking it would turn out to be!
You see, Psalm 37 is an acrostic with twenty-two four-line poems, each based on a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. What’s more, it is a wisdom psalm on the theme of good things happening to wicked people. This is not the stuff of Chris Tomlin hits, but because I’m committed to setting all 150 psalms to music, I decided to roll up my sleeves and get to work.
What I composed is twenty-two “songlets,” each starting with a letter of the English alphabet (through V, the twenty-second letter). Each of these songlets is eight measures long; the second four measures of each songlet can be sung together with the first four measures of the next songlet, creating a musical chain of twenty-two links.
Yes, this is perhaps the nerdiest psalm song ever written. However, I believe that the form and poetic devices of the psalms are too often overlooked in our musical interpretations. We take the content of the original psalm’s words and send them through our favorite musical sausage-grinder: metrical, responsorial, or praise chorus. By attempting to address deeper structural issues of the original text, we can get closer to the psalmists’ intent.
In this case, that means a twenty-two-section musical setting that is reasoned rather than passionate. We aren’t used to worship music being intellectually rigorous, but that is certainly at the heart of Psalm 37.
Obviously, a fifteen-minute psalm rendition would be a stretch for most congregations. I hope to eventually lead it in a cantata-style worship service. Until then, I hope a few sections could be used on their own as scripture choruses.
Text and Music: Psalm 37; Greg Scheer, © Greg Scheer
Used by permission. CCLI #400063.
Contact: CCLI License or Greg Scheer, greg@gregscheer.com
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.
