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This setting of Psalm 8 was composed and submitted by Josh Rodriguez. It is a musical response to the opening lines of this psalm.
Psalm 8
How does this psalm piece interpret the psalm?
In the 16th century, Louis Bourgeois contributed many simple yet elegant tunes to John Calvin’s Psalter. I wrote this solo cello piece as both a personal meditation on Psalm 8 as well as a musical meditation on the Genevan Psalter’s tune for Psalm 8. “Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic” is an invitation to ponder what the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins referred to as the “dearest freshness deep down things” of God.
As an instrumental work that celebrates the majesty and creative power of God, it can be used as a musical response to a sermon on Psalm 8 (as a time for congregants to reflect on the preached Word) or as prelude/offertory music in a service with this theme. This work moves beyond a mere arrangement of the Genevan psalm tune to become a new work appropriate for use in a liturgical or concert setting.
Text and Music: Psalm 8; Josh Rodriguez, © 2016 Josh Rodriguez
Used by permission.
Contact: Josh Rodriguez, josh.rodriguez.music@gmail.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.
