Church of the Servant is pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 New Psalm Contest:

First Place goes to

“My Heart, O God, Is Steadfast” (Psalm 108)
by Elizabeth Busch Lerourneau

Second Place goes to

“Lift Up Your Eyes” (Psalm 121)
by Ephrem Feeley & Alan Hommerding

In its fifteen years, the Church of the Servant New Psalm Contest, in memory of Ben Fackler, has garnered many quality Psalm songs from a diverse group of songwriters.  We are grateful to all the Psalm writers, whether this is the first year they have submitted, or their fifteenth year of submitting!   We hope that this contest will be an encouragement to songwriters to continue writing new settings of the Psalms.  And we hope that this contest will be a blessing to the Church, continuing to provide it with new Psalm songs for congregations to sing. 

The judges are always looking for melodies that are both easily singable by a congregation and yet musically interesting.  They thought the Celtic-feeling melody and rhythms of Elizabeth Busch Letourneau’s Psalm 108 setting were just that – the musical hook came comfortably to them without being boring.  The judges also appreciated that the lyrics stuck close to the text of Psalm 108.  They thought the text all flowed off the tongue easily, and allowed room for the congregation to hear what they need in the text without forcing a particular interpretation on them.  The judges also appreciated the descant and cello parts.  They both added beauty and musical variety.   

“My Heart, O God, Is Steadfast” (Psalm 108): PDF, MP3, Cello part

The judges enjoyed singing Ephrem Feeley and Alan Hommerding’s setting of Psalm 121 together.  They thought the text was particularly well-crafted.  They liked the call-and-response nature of the text, and could see a variety of ways to split up the parts of the melody between cantor/choir and congregation, or even different parts of the congregation.  The judges also appreciated the musical interest in this setting.  The chord progression expands beyond the simple I, IV, V chords.  The F-natural in the melody on “lift” came as a surprise after the first phrase began on an F-sharp.  But that surprise seemed quite fitting of the call-response text.  The judges thought it felt much like the Marty Haugen liturgical-folk style song that our congregation (and many others) love.  Regarding the text, the judges thought the verse 3 “Lift up your hearts” rounded out the verses nicely, making it work well as a song, even if not a strict rendering of Psalm 121. 

“Lift Up Your Eye” (Psalm 121): PDF, Lead Sheet

We will premiere both winning entries in our
worship service on
Sunday, February 9, 2025

We welcome visitors to join us for this service in person or by Zoom.
Visit our church website that morning to find the Zoom link to the service.

Thank you to all those who submitted a composition for this year’s contest. We were blessed to sing, discuss, and reflect on the submissions and are pleased to see so many musicians undertaking the work of writing new Psalm settings for worship.

Thank you also to our judges, who volunteered many hours to make this process possible.  If you would like to read more about our judging process, please visit our description of the process here: Judging Process.

COS and the judging committee are grateful for the generosity of the donors who have faithfully funded this contest for over 10 years. If you are interested in donating to the New Psalm Contest please contact Maria Stapert Vander Berg at psalmcontest@coscrc.org or you can contribute online HERE.

You can stay up to date on COS Psalm Contest news or subscribe to our mailing list HERE.

You can print and hear the winning entries from past years at www.churchoftheservantcrc.org/newpsalmcontest