Update 10/6/20: Sheet music for this song can be downloaded here.
First of all, my humble apologies for letting 9 days go by without posting a new song. I’m sure some of you have spent more than a few sleepless nights wondering if the well had finally gone dry. Never fear, my friends. The well is still wet, but there just hasn’t been enough time to tell you about the latest, refreshing drinks from the cool waters of my musical mind. (How’s that for a metaphor?…)
On September 9 at Church of the Servant, Cindy VanderKodde led my new setting of Psalm 1, “Blessed Are They.” Yes, there are lots of very good settings of Psalm 1 that I could have used, but two things pushed me to write a new one: First, as I was going through my files in preparing the service, I found a draft I had written a few years ago. It was too much for me to resist. Second, Psalm 1 has lots of “blessed are they (read: me)” set against the wicked who reject God and curse themselves to destruction. This sort of thing is bitter medicine for moderns, who see things in far less binary terms. A spoonful of musical sugar can go a long way with a Psalm like this.
And so, I finished this new setting of Psalm 1 and we sang it the following Sunday. Take a listen to the MP3 or print out a PDF of the music (see link above).
