Singing the Psalms

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Up next: the poetry of prayer.

Reviewer Caleb Welde says two recent albums by a Texas-based singer-songwriter will have you singing along with God’s Word.

MUSIC: [Psalm 1]

CALEB WELDE: Singer-songwriter Caroline Cobb is clear on her mission: “To help people remember and rehearse God’s big story.” The Texas wife and mother writes in between track meets and soccer games.

COBB: The heart is that everyone would be able to rehearse this story as they're driving around town or changing a diaper or driving to work.

Cobb began walking with… and trusting God… her junior year of high school. She began writing songs around the same time. Over the years, Cobb produced a string of Bible-based albums with titles like A King & His Kindness, A Home & A Hunger, and The Blood & the Breath. Thirteen years later, with her 30th birthday on the horizon, she set a goal to write a song from every book of the Bible.

COBB: And that year, as I was writing, always from Scripture, and trying to tell these stories as faithfully as I could, I realized that this is really a sweet spot for me because it marries these two loves: of God's word and of songwriting.

Her two most recent albums about the Psalms share that approach. In her 2023 album, Psalms: The Poetry of Prayer, she includes this song titled “Shepherd Walk Beside Me.” It draws from Psalm 23.

PSALM 23: Oh, Lord, you’re my shepherd, and I am your sheep.

Though Cobb doesn’t sing Psalm 23 word for word, the lyrics remain deeply Scriptural. She sometimes includes New Testament insights, such as references to Jesus.

PSALM 23: Oh Jesus, good shepherd, you laid down your life. To find your lost lamb you would leave the 99. The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy. But you’ve come to raise us to lasting joy…

Cobb says studying the Bible always felt comforting. But she sometimes struggled to know how to pray. That led to her to try singing the Psalms.

COBB: So I just pray and I'd get distracted. I tried to journal my prayers, and I was just like, Am I just dumping on you, like all my feelings? And so and that's fine, but I just have been really helped by praying God's word back to him.

Cobb’s 2023 album is composed of 11 songs. They aren’t quite as produced as other songs topping the Christian music charts–and their soundscapes are fairly simple. Still, the melodies are catchy, and with contributors like Wendell Kimbrough, the vocals, give the album authenticity.

PSALM 92: [With Wendell Kimbrough]

She wrote several songs during COVID lockdowns.

COBB: For me, these are meant to be prayers that people can use when they're feeling anxious, or when they're not sure of God and his sovereignty, and he'll be good in a hard situation….

“Don’t Hide Your Face”, inspired by Psalm 102, was written for a family in Cobb’s neighborhood grieving over the death of their young daughter. Cobb was friends with the mother.

COBB: And she had posted about Psalm 102 being a big comfort for her, and kind of talked about how raw it was, and how it really put words in her mouth for what she was feeling. You know, tears are my food, I'm lying awake in bed, I don't want to eat, you know, just that deep, deep sorrow.

MUSIC: [Don't Hide Your Face (Psalm 102)] And I cannot sleep.

CHORUS: But You, You are on your throne / Help me to remember You

MUSIC: [Like A Tree (Psalm 1)]

Cobb aims at a musical style that reflects the idea of a Biblical passage. In January of this year, she released an album of companion instrumentals, a collection of the same songs, but without lyrics. It’s titled The Poetry of Prayer: Instrumentals.

COBB: I hope it's a good companion for the Psalms album where you can listen to the Psalms album and sing those words and pray and then maybe you have the instrumental album where you're actually just praying your own words and being still and quiet with God.

Cobb said she does struggle with the busyness of life, and her desire to make music can sometimes conflict with her desire to be with her family. Nevertheless, she seeks to be faithful through each season of life. Her Psalms albums can help listeners, do the same.

MUSIC: [Like A Tree (Psalm 1)] I want to be like a tree by the river, plant me down by the deep deep water. When the sun gets hot, my leaves wont wither. Oh plant me down like a tree by the river.

For WORLD, I’m Caleb Welde.

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