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Welcome to Psaltery and Harp

Hello! I'm Becky Mynett. I'm Director of Music at an ordinary parish church in Bedfordshire. Our church has a psalm at the Sunday morning communion service most weeks. We use responsorial psalms, where a soloist sings the psalm text and the congregation respond with a refrain. But it proved difficult to find easy settings with meaningful refrains that were also musically interesting. So I decided to write my own, using skills learned both when I studied liturgical composition for my MA in English Cathedral Music and when I worked as a professional translator. I am delighted to offer my settings here at Psaltery and Harp, alongside some of my other compositions. I hope you enjoy encouraging your congregation to sing the psalms in worship as much as I do.

Above a dark city there is a gap in the heavens with a tiny figure of Christ ascending to a golden globe.
The Seventh Sunday of Easter (Sunday after Ascension) - Verses from Psalm 68
For the Sunday after Ascension, the lectionary specifies verses 1-10, with an option of adding verses 32 to the end. When I got to the stage of dividing the psalm into stanzas and deciding where the refrain should come, (I do this after completing a...
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The sixth Sunday of Easter - verses from Psalm 66
Yet again, the Common Worship Psalter numbers the verses of this psalm differently from most Bibles, so if you’re comparing my version with the one in your Bible, you’ll find that these verses are numbered 8-20. This time I have taken the first vers...
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Photograph of a ruined castle on a rocky outcrop. There is a steep and narrow path leading to it and the sky is a deep blue.
The fifth Sunday of Easter - Verses from Psalm 31
Sunday’s psalm is headed ‘To the director of music, A psalm of David’. In the Septuagint (LXX) there is an additional description of the psalm, which Brenton’s English Septuagint translated as ‘an utterance of extreme fear’. In my version, the first...
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The frontispiece of 'Sunday at Home' Magazine 1880 omnibus. There is a decorative border around three sections. In the top panel a shepherd leads his flock through a flat landscape. In the middle is the text of the Authorised Version of Psalm 23 and at th
The fourth Sunday of Easter - Psalm 23
It was with some trepidation that I approached translating the most famous psalm of all! Because the metrical version of this psalm is so familiar, I wanted to help congregations to hear the text afresh, so I may have made some choices that you will...
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A page showing King David playing the harp from the Psalter of Jean de Berry France Bourges, BNF (Francais 13091), folio 31r by Pseudo-Jacquemart (name assigned to otherwise unnamed painter), , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Third Sunday of Easter - Psalm 116
Last week I took a break as I was on holiday. I hope everyone reading this has had a restful post-Easter break and is enjoying the Easter season! This Sunday’s Psalm is the beginning of Psalm 116 – another psalm where the verse divisions and numberi...
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Triptych of the Resurrection by Hans Memling (1433-1494). Christ is in the centre, an angel is sliding the lid of a table tomb and Jesus is stepping out. The left panel has a young man wearing only a loin cloth that resembles white underpants! In the righ
Easter Day - Psalm 118
Last week for the Liturgy of the Palms we had verses 19 – 24 of Psalm 118. This week for Easter Day we have those verses again, prefaced by verses 14 – 18, forming the refrain and first two stanzas. In verse 16 I chose to use ‘lifted high’ rather th...
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Jesus rides a donkey up to the gate of a renaissance-style city representing Jerusalem. Painted c.1435-40 by by Pietro di Giovanni d'Ambrogio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Palm Sunday - Psalm 118
Palm Sunday is unusual in having two psalms set for the Principal Service along with two Gospel readings. Local traditions vary, but in our Church we have the main Liturgy of the Palms outside with a smaller gathering of those of us unable to do the...
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A photograph of a dark cave with an opening above, through which light streams in a triangular shape. At the point of the light we can see a person in orange high viz pointing to the light. Trees can be seen above the cave. Photo by Aaron Ruy Musa, CC BY-
The Fifth Sunday of Lent - Psalm 130
Psalm 130 is one of the fifteen psalms (120 – 134) prefaced by the words ‘Song of Ascents’. As I have mentioned before (see my post on Psalm 122), these were probably sung by Jewish pilgrims visiting Jerusalem for the pilgrimage feasts of Passover, ...
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A painting of Jesus blessing the children. He is holding babies and surrounded by mothers on the right and fathers on the left. Painting by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515–1586). Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Mothering Sunday - Psalm 34
This week, I am going to talk about the verses of psalm 34 set as one of the options for Mothering Sunday. Apologies if you are using the other option or keeping Lent 4. The first stanza calls children to come and listen. Which is probably why it i...
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A 17th Century painting of Moses striking the rock by Jan Steen. The image is dark on the left and light to the right, presumably where the promised land is. Moses is above some people and the water flows down into cups they are holding up. Public Domain
The third Sunday of Lent - Psalm 95
This is a psalm of contrasts, which, of course, had some challenges when it came to fitting it to a responsorial psalm structure. It starts with a very up-beat and celebratory couple of verses, calling people to worship before explaining why they sh...
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An impressionist painting of the Road to Jerusalem. A narrow path passes rocks and a green slope on the right. A white-walled city is on the hill ahead. Anna Boberg, 1921. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Second Sunday of Lent - Psalm 121
Psalm 121 is one of fifteen psalms (120 – 134) that are prefaced by words that translate as ‘Song of Ascents’. There are several theories as to what this means, but many scholars think that they were traditionally sung by Jewish pilgrims approa...
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A page from a 1586 part-book (probably the top voice, or cantus) showing a setting of Psalm 32 by Simon Bar Jona Madelka, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The First Sunday of Lent - Psalm 32
This psalm is headed ‘Of David. A Maschil.’ According to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon, a maschil is a contemplative poem. The numbering of this psalm follows the BCP and Common Worship psalters, dividing verse 5 into two verses. Verse 1 has a cla...
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The Sunday Before Lent - Psalm 99
This week I have set the alternative psalm for the Sunday before Lent, Psalm 99, rather than Psalm 2. This is partly because it is shorter, but also because it comes up again later in the year. Translating and setting all the Principal Service lecti...
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An illustration of the Creation from an illuminated manuscript from around 1490, God is depicted as a king in a read cloak facing a crowd of newly created animals. The sun an moon are above looking down (they have faces!) Digital image courtesy of Getty’s
Second Sunday before Lent - Verses from Psalm 136
A few weeks ago I wrote about the challenges of translating Psalm 40, an exceptionally wordy psalm. This week, I have the opposite problem. Although Psalm 136 is a psalm of praise rather than lament, it is essentially in the form of a litany. Each v...
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A 15th Century painting of Mary at the entrance to the temple giving the baby Jesus to Simeon to hold. Mary wears a long draped blue cloak. Behind her is Anna and Joseph and two other figures. Simeon wears a pink habit and has some boy attendants behind h
Candlemas - Verses from Psalm 24
Today’s blog is going to focus on the psalm set for the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, commonly known as Candlemas. Apologies to anyone keeping Epiphany 4 this Sunday (click through for the music and text for Psalm 36 if you need it). For Can...
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