Psalms for the Spirit

Set to the Irish tune the Old Cross of Ardboe, this is a Psalm of joy and thanksgiving, having come through a trying time and experienced God’s listening ear, leading, and help. This is no trite expression of praise ~ it emerges out of a deep and real experience of God’s kindness and support, compassion and love, and ignites a genuine desire to give heart, life, and soul in return. Continue your r...

Happy Still-Easter! Yes, it is still Easter and will be until the first week of June this year, with Pentecost. But, this will be my last Easter Psalm. This song pulls together the last three Psalms and weaves them with some of the words of the traditional song Happy Are We All Together. It’s a song full of life and joy, and it speaks especially to the pleasures of life. I’ll never forget when, af...

This Psalm, set to the tune Rathlin Island by Brian Connors, is written from the farthest oceans and the ends of earth and seeks a reminder of hope out of a place of despair. Wondering if God will listen when facing a difficult situation, and remembering God as Creator of the mountains and silencer of storms, the Psalmist takes strength in God’s great salvation and redemption of even the greatest...

In this week’s Easter Psalm, we hear a song of praise to the healer of our souls. It’s a Psalm that creates a vibrant image of earth, moon, and stars singing praise together to the God of Love. Following the season of Lent, this Psalm takes on a deeper meaning. This is a song of joy in the God who doesn’t ignore our laments, but offers solace for the soul. And at the end of the song, we hear the w...

Written by Ireland’s great composer Turlough O’Carolan, Eleanor Plunkett is a cascading tune, set here to a Psalm of yearning and praise. It begins with longing like a “dry land,” acknowledging our deep desire to be in God’s presence, through which we can be “satisfied” as though our thirst is quenched. Continue your reflections with the accompanying journal, which includes further questions for r...

Happy Easter, listeners! I can’t lead a Lenten series without marking its culmination in the joy and hope of Easter. For the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some of the Psalms of joy and hope that come at the end of the book of Psalms. What I love about those Psalms is that the hope they offer doesn’t ignore the suffering and brokenheartedness of the world ~ they tend to those hurts and pains, and...

This arrangement, set to the wordless tune ‘Caisleán an Óir,’ portrays the urgency and energy with which the psalmist may have written these words. In this Psalm, we find numerous images of the various ways God can provide refuge and shelter for us when we feel we are at the “end of earth.” Continue your reflections with the accompanying journal, which includes further questions for reflection and...

In this final week of Lent, Holy Week, we really settle into what we’ve been preparing ourselves for since Ash Wednesday: the silence of Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The questions that, for a time, went unanswered. The injustice and cruelty that couldn’t be undone. The cavern of grief and loss, of betrayal and failure. The abandonment, the forsakenness. All this we find in the brutally honest qu...

Telling the story of a person hurt by human relationship, this Psalm captures the desire to find shelter in the midst of turmoil. Exploring the concept of home being a place where our hearts can be at rest, this Psalm set to the moving Irish traditional melody Ned of the Hill, addresses that yearning we all have for a place where we can be truly ourselves, fully accepted, safe from the tempests an...

Lent is a time in the church year when we look inwardly at our own betrayals, small or large, our own missteps or wrongdoings, our own culpability and responsibility in the dynamics of the structures of the world we live in. This can leave us feeling uncomfortable and exposed. It’s hard to admit and acknowledge where we ourselves have gone wrong, where we ourselves need to seek forgiveness ~ from...

This Psalm is known for its messages about a clean heart, forgiveness, and a renewed spirit, and is often used during Lent. Set here with the Irish traditional tune Logan’s Lament, this paraphrase focuses on the imagery of a parent kindly and gently washing away the layers that “hide” us, or that cover up the God-given beauty each one of us possesses, thereby allowing us to be restored to the joy...

As we come a little closer to the part of Lent in which we follow Jesus to the cross, we remember the loneliness of betrayal and the weariness of his suffering. With this season of the church year in mind, perhaps we hear Psalm 102 a little differently. This is a Psalm written from the experience of someone whose life is cut short before its time. The loneliness and weariness of that particular su...

The lyrical air ‘Dawning of the Day’ (Fáinne Geal an Lae) conveys this Psalm’s message of courage and hope. Through the imagery presented in this Psalm, we see mountains falling into the sea, and the world in upheaval ~ yet, we are also presented with the assuring image of a river that brings joy, and the message that we might be still and know that God is the ultimate ruler over all. Get your acc...

The Psalms help us express a wide range of emotions, but one form of expression they are well known for is Lament. Lament is a cry out against injustice, it’s a complaint against the way things are, it’s an expression of deep sadness or anger. Lament is all that ~ but that’s not all it is. The Lament form of prayer found in the Psalms follows a template that holds all those things in their raw, ba...

This psalm of longing is set to the relatively well-known traditional melody, ‘Down by the Salley Gardens.’ Its iconic imagery of the deer panting or longing for streams of water, as our souls thirst for God, leads us into this depiction of someone whose soul is “cast down” and needing to be reminded of something to hope in. Get your accompanying journal, which includes further questions for refle...

This may not be your typical Lenten Psalm, but at a time when the world is springing to life and the days are becoming longer (in the hemisphere I live in, anyway), this week we’ll be hearing Psalm 19. We might think of Lent as a time for more sombre reflections - and while it is important to do that, and we will be allowing space for that in this series - Lent can also be a time to find inspirati...

This prayer for strength, courage, and refuge during a time of distress is combined here with the Irish traditional song Spancilhill. The Psalm resolves by transitioning into a testament to God’s help in the past, and an encouragement to those in distress as it offers the words “May courage fill your hearts.” Get your accompanying journal, which includes further questions for reflection and some i...

During Lent, we create a space to listen to our longings. Many of us heard scripture passages this last Sunday about wandering in the wilderness this past Sunday, and in today’s Psalm we hear about our souls longing for God like a dry land. We often ignore our longings, push past them, resist them. And we might even think that Lent is the time to do just that - to fast from things that are unhealt...

Proclaiming God’s power to transform sorrow into ‘dancing and song,’ this Psalm is sung to the uplifting Irish melody, “Green Grows the Laurel.” It’s a testament to coming through a time of sorrow and mourning, and finding dancing, song, and joy once again. Get your accompanying journal, which includes further questions for reflection and some invitations to prayer and practice Paid subscribers re...

Welcome to Psalms and Practices for Lent , a new series in Psalms for the Spirit . In this series, there will be a weekly podcast that will come out on Wednesdays throughout Lent. And for paid subscribers, on Fridays, you will receive a short video leading you through a practice each week, as well as an mp3 of the Lenten Psalm. Toward the end of Lent, I will also be offering a Lenten Practices Wor...

The air ‘Down in Yon Banke’ is originally a wordless Scottish country dance song, and in this rendition becomes a prayer for God’s eternal presence, especially in times of turmoil and fear. The Psalm speaks of enemies stumbling and falling in the midst of raging war, and expresses that longing to behold God’s beauty and to see God’s face. Get your accompanying journal, which includes further quest...

In this Psalm of discernment, the writer expresses the longing to hear God’s guidance in the stillness of prayer. Set to the traditional Irish melody “For Ireland I’ll Not Tell Her Name,” this song sits with the longing to know how to walk in the right paths of truth and love. Get your accompanying journal, which includes further questions for reflection and some invitations to prayer and practice...

This beloved Psalm, describing God shepherding us through green pastures and dark valleys, is set to the well-known traditional Irish air ‘The Parting Glass.’ In this Psalm, we hear themes of restoration for our souls, accompaniment through challenging times, and the hope of a feast and a future of goodness and mercy. Get your accompanying journal, which includes further questions for reflection a...

Set to the Irish air ‘Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore,’ this song captures the lament of the Psalm while adding a drive and energy that brings to light the hope offered at its conclusion. This Psalm typically accompanies reflections on Good Friday, though it is an important accompaniment to any time in which we struggle with a sense of forsakenness. Get your accompanying journal, which includes furth...

This soaring Irish traditional melody, ‘The Lark in the Clear Air’ brings a lightness to this Psalm about God’s revelation in both creation and scripture. The words of the Psalm remind us that the skies tell a story of who God is, and teach us important things, without words. Get your accompanying journal, which includes further questions for reflection and some invitations to prayer and practice...