Songs and Psalmody

The Shorey Psalter 

 

The Psalms mean much to me, and I’ve given much effort to putting them to music so they can be sung. An actual collection of my Psalter is in the works and will appear at a later date. What is here now will undergo much change in that process, but this section will give an idea of what may be ahead. The goal is to improve singability and lyric quality while staying true to the text of the Psalms. Please pray that this effort will meet with success.

It was the spring of 1990—about 31 years ago at this moment. I was recovering from a bout with viral meningitis that would leave me with what is now a 31-year-long headache (about which you may read in my book, 30/30 Hindsight: 30 Reflections on a 30-Year Headache). While recovering from meningitis, I was too feeble to budge very much from my big chair, but my mind wanted to worship. That was when I tried my hand at something I had done little to none of before: putting Scripture to music. Specifically, I wanted to help my church learn to sing the Psalms (since, after all, they form the original hymnbook of the church). But in order to sing the Psalms, they needed to be put to familiar music. So I began to write lyrics which followed the words of each Psalm pretty closely, setting them all to familiar tunes. My efforts led to a complete “Shorey Psalter” which our church sang through twice. No one will ever read or sing… Read More

Latest Psalms

(Both the song-sheets and the musical accompaniment for this new psalter have been produced by my good friend and brother, Dave Estornell. Thanks for catching a vision for this project along with me, Dave!)
This project is on hold as Dave and I work on other efforts.   

Psalm 23

Reading: Psalm 23 Our Comments: Few of the psalms are more well known than, or affecting as, Psalm 23. People by the many millions the world over have either read or heard these comforting...

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