Until All the Psalms Are Sung Again (Poor Bishop Hooper)

We all need God’s Word, and we need it desperately—this is why Jesse and Leah Roberts embarked on EveryPsalm, a project to help get people singing psalms.

Jesse and Leah are parents, pastors, and musicians living in Kansas City, MO. They began their EveryPsalm project on January 1, 2020, after years of talking about the idea. They explain, “EveryPsalm is a three-year long musical journey consisting of simple, meditative songs based on the psalms. Starting with Psalm 1 and ending at Psalm 150.” Each song is based on a psalm, and almost all of their lyrics are taken word-for-word from the Bible. Their goal with this project is to help their listeners interact with Scripture in new ways by singing psalms and to make God’s Word applicable to any circumstances people might face.

In this episode, Jesse and Leah talk with Dru Johnson about their project thus far (they’re up to Psalm 75) and their goals for the rest of the songs to come. They discuss the songwriting process and how putting Scripture to music aids memorization and deeper engagement.

You can check out their Youtube channel to listen to every song of the EveryPsalm project along with their other free music. You can also check out their website for more information and to subscribe to their weekly song release.

Show notes:

• 0:00 How Jesse and Leah use the Psalms to write songs
• 6:39 How they pick their tone for each piece
• 10:02 What they’ve learned about the Psalms as they’ve worked through them
• 11:40 The role of lament in singing psalms
• 16:07 How they safely interpret each psalm
• 22:10 Putting words to music
• 26:50 How they avoid “telling others how to feel”

Show notes by Serena Tuomi.

The featured image and the music featured in this episode were used with permission from Poor Bishop Hooper. The audio clips are from “Psalm 7,” “Psalm 13,” “Psalm 16,” and “Psalm 40.”

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