Lift your Eyes

Lift your eyes and seek the Lord enthroned in heaven high above

As a chi-ld to a mother, gazes seeking naught but love,


Unlike workers hearing orders from a manager or boss,

Look to God expecting mercy in excess of what youโ€™ve lost.


Lord, have mercy on us, weโ€™ve had more contempt that we can take.

Weโ€™ve been scorned by proud detractors. Our souls scorned until we ache.


In response we seek your touch of mercy, healing, righteousness.

See us kneeling, hear us praying, come and save us from this mess.ย 


Photo: by Kat J on Unsplash

Source: Psalm 123

Text: ยฉ David Alexander, 2020

Tune: Ae Fond Kiss

Score:  https://www.smallchurchmusic.com/2011/Score/WhoWouldEver-AeFondKiss.pdf 

Audio: www.smallchurchmusic.com  Used by Permission

Flatland Living

When life is boring, dry and flat, I look for elevation.

Depression threatens evโ€™ry step. Horizons lack elation.


If any help is to be found, it wonโ€™t come down from mountains.

No spirit yearns; no passion burns; I need refreshing fountains. 


My footing slips; the landscape dips. I need a steady keeper.

No slumberer should be on watch and, even less, a sleeper.


Protection from the sun at noon and from all nighttime terrors, 

is needed here for evilโ€™s near, and I am prone to errors.


Photo:  by Agnieszka M on Unsplash

Source: Psalm 121

Text: ยฉ David Alexander, 2020

Tune: Barbara Allen, Public Domain

Score: https://www.free-scores.com/download-sheet-music.php?pdf=63001

Audio: www.smallchurchmusic.com  Used by Permission

Glad to be Invited (Psalm 122)

I was glad to be invited to a very special place.

In my mind I was excited and my heart began to race.

As I turned in that direction and beheld the sturdy gates

where the ancestors had entered, through the years to celebrate.


Not in statues nor on tombstones of the heroes from back when

things were calmer, things were greater than theyโ€™ll ever be again,

but in peace that we can work for, far beyond what we have dreamt,

May all seekers find the pathways to our own Jerusalem.ย 


Photo: Tainan Theological College, 2017

Source: Psalm 122

Text:  ยฉ David Alexander, 2020

Tune:ย  Yr Hun Gan, ย  Public Domain

Score: https://www.smallchurchmusic.com/2011/Score/HolySpirit-YrHunGan.pdf  

Audio: www.smallchurchmusic.com  Used by Permission.

We Stand For Peace and Righteousness

In my distress I call to God in hope to get an answer,

for slanderers are all around, their poison worse than cancer.

Deliver me, O Lord, from tongues awaiting to deceive me.

Within your house I seek, O God, the truth that will relieve

me.


What shall be done to lies that lead a nation to destruction;

where people die for want of care, and youth get poor instruction?

Woe unto all who stir up strife โ€˜gainst anybody diffโ€™rent.

We stand for peace and righteousness, resisting falsehoodโ€™s current.ย 


Photo:   by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Source:  Psalm 120

Text:  ยฉ David Alexander, 2020

Tune:  Bishopgarth, Public Domain

Score:  https://www.smallchurchmusic.com/Score_PDF/ToTheeOGod-Bishopgarth.pdf 

Audio:  www.smallchurchmusic.com  Used by Permission

Palace Living

The Lord had given David rest from enemies all โ€˜round.

He called a prophet to his house of cedar well renowned.

โ€œIโ€™m living in a palace near the Lordโ€™s ark in a tent.โ€

โ€œGo, do all that you have in mind, The Lord is with you yet.โ€


But that same night the word of God came to the prophetโ€™s ear.

โ€œI need no house. I move around. You cannot keep me here.โ€

โ€œSo tell the king what I have done, his greatness comes from me.

In future time an heir to him will reign eternally.โ€


Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash 

Tune: Ny hazo nijalianao ry Jeso Tomponay Public Domain

Source: 2 Samuel 7:1-6 +

Text: ยฉ David Alexander, 2008  

Score: https://www.smallchurchmusic.com/2014/Score/AtTheCrossYouSuffered-Compsaton.pdf

Audio: www.smallchurchmusic.com  Used by Permission

Direct Us to the Onramp

You built it better, God, than human minds will ever know.

Not just the hardware, but the software, too, that makes it go.

The ways your creativity is found in all design,

Are seen within the circuits tuning us to the divine.

—–

Your lawโ€™s not rule but roadway through a sordid human mess

thatโ€™s turned what you have gifted us to blasted wilderness.

Your love is steadfast, not like ours, which varies with the wind.

We often run on empty while we wonder who has sinned.

—–

Direct us to the onramp, post an arrow on a sign,

and shine a light upon it so weโ€™ll see it in the night.

Amid the clutter in our lives the map has gotten torn.

Send someone to attract us to where we can be reborn.

———-

Photo: by Andre Benz on Unsplash

Source:  Psalm 119

Tune: Leveque

Text: ยฉ David Alexander, 2020

Score: ย https://www.smallchurchmusic.com/2011/Score/AtMeribah-Leverque.pdf

Audio: www.smallchurchmusic.comย  Used by Permission

Love That Doesn’t Change

For love that doesnโ€™t change, O God, we give our thanks to you.

No credit to us people, though. Your love is nothing new.

When in distress we cry and find a different, broader place;

where nobody can harm us, for weโ€™re in your strong embrace.

—–

When we take refuge in you, Lord, the haters have no chance.

Their powโ€™r and rank mean nothing, for you view them in askance.

They sting like bees and blaze like thorns; they push on evโ€™ry side.

Weโ€™re confident in you, O God. You are our strength and might. 

 —– 

The righteous sing of victory won by the Lordโ€™s right hand.

We shall not die, but live to tell Godโ€™s deeds throughout the land.  

The gates of righteousness stand widely open in advance.

That we may enter to give thanks in voice and song and dance.

—–

The stone that was rejected when the builders set the wall

became the one to bear the weight so others wouldnโ€™t fall.

This is the day the Lord has made. Be glad in it, rejoice!

We ask you, God, to grant success, for we are yours by choice. 

—–

Bless everyone who in Godโ€™s name has come to any place

rejoicing in Godโ€™s steadfast love and everflowing grace.

For love that doesnโ€™t change, O God, we offer thanks to you.

Your light has shined upon us. Weโ€™ll respond by shining, too.  

———-

Photo:   by Karl Groendal on Unsplash

Source:  Psalm 118

Text:   ยฉ David Alexander, 2020

Tune: Spes Celestis, Public Domain

Score:  https://www.smallchurchmusic.com/Score_PDF/HowHappyEveryChild-SpesCelestis.pdf

Audio:  www.smallchurchmusic.com  Used by Permission

Faithfulness Endures


Godโ€™s ste-ad-fa-st love ex-tends to us, Godโ€™s faith-ful-ness endures.

So praise t-he Lord all peoples, na-tions. Pra-ise t-he Lord for sure. 

——-

Photo: by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Source: Psalm 117

Text:   ยฉ David Alexander, 2020

Tune:  University, Public Domain.

Score:   https://www.smallchurchmusic.com/2017/Score/OForA1000-University-Chords.pdf 

Audio:   www.smallchurchmusic.com  Used by Permission.

What Shall I Return? (Psalm 116)

The Lord has heard my voice and plea, I prayed, โ€œLord, save my life.โ€

The Lord  inclined an ear to me โ€˜mid snares of death and strife. 

The Lord is gracious, merciful, to people such as me.

My soul can rest in God who deals with people bountifully.

—–

From death Iโ€™ve been delivered and my eyes are free of tears.

My feet as well from stumbling. I walk living with no fears.

When stricken and afflicted, thinking everyone a liar

My faith in God remained, though all around me things were dire.

—–

Godโ€™s given me so much and I have nothing to return,

But worship and devotion and a way of life to learn.

The lives and deaths of faithful folk are precious to the Lord.

Godโ€™s servants find their freedom in the sacraments and word.

—–

Give thanks and offer sacrifice and call upon Godโ€™s name. 

Where congregations gather, join the song and raise the strain.

In city, country, wilderness; alone and in a crowd.

Raise praising unto heaven. Sing with confidence out loud.  

———-

Photo: by Akira Hojo on Unsplash  

Source: Psalm 116

Text:  ยฉ David Alexander, 2020

Tune: Cripplegate, Public Domain

Score: https://www.smallchurchmusic.com/2014/Score/IHopedThatWith-Cripplegate.pdf

Audio:  www.smallchurchmusic.com  Used by Permission

When Oppression Ends (Psalm 114)

When oppression ends things start to change. 

Borders shift, the land and the sea rise.

That is God at work: rearranging.

Tremble if you even think youโ€™re wise. 

———-

Photo:  by Anisetus Palma on Unsplash

Source:  Psalm 114

Text:  ยฉ David Alexander, 2020

Tune:  Randolph, Public Domain

Score:   https://www.smallchurchmusic.com/Score_PDF-2010/GodBeWithYou-Randolph.pdf

Audio:   www.smallchurchmusic.com  Used by Permission

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