This is another psalm setting, this time of Ps42 by John Bell and Graham Maule of the Wild Goose Resource Group. Have a listen to the short extract at AOV – it is a beautiful piece of music. The text would be great as a blues I reckon.
John Bell’s notes for this song are:
Psalm 42 is a very poignant lament of someone for whom the days of fulfilling faith and worship seem in the past. Fate, choice or circumstance has removed the individual from his or her own spiritual roots and the memory of the happy past contrasts with the depressing present.
This paraphrase of vv1-5 is in long metre. When using this tune, it is very evocative to have the middle two verses sung solo with the other voices humming their parts.
(Psalms of patience, protest and praise p23)
If you get a chance to see the session John Bell gives on the Psalms in his DVD “Singing the Unsung”, it is most worthwhile.
My backing is at 114bpm and is more lamentable than lament.
Verse 1
Just as a lost and thirsty deer
longs for a cool and running stream,
I thirst for you, the living God,
anxious to know that you are near.
Verse 2
Both day and night I cry aloud;
tears have become my only food,
while all around cruel voices ask,
“Where is your God? Where is your God?”
Verse 3
Broken and hurt, I call to mind
how in the past I served the Lord,
worshipped and walked with happy crowds
singing and shouting praise to God.
Verse 4
Why am I now so lost and low?
Why am I so troubled and confused?
Given no answer, still I hope
and trust my Saviour and my God.
© WGRG, Iona Community, 1989.
http://www.iona.org.uk/wgrg_home.php