Resources

Psalm 8

Here is an example of a Psalm appointed for responsive reading between a leader and the assembly along with a sung musical refrain. This refrain is drawn from Native American hymnody. This approach to the Psalms has been most common in a variety of Protestant traditions, including published Psalters in the United Methodist Church, United Church of Christ, and others. This form of Psalmody is arguably one of the easiest forms of psalmody to adapt to many cultural contexts. Many familiar scripture songs or hymn refrains can be used as a sung refrain (take care to choose texts that are appropriate to the content and feel of the Psalm).

Refrain

¹ O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens. ² Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; ⁴ what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
⁵ Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
⁶ You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
⁷ all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
⁸ the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
⁹ O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Refrain

Source: Sing! A New Creation, 23. Grand Rapids: CRC Publications, 2001. Public domain.
Scripture: NRSV