Psalm 45
My heart is stirred to sing the sweetest theme
I bring my song before my king
May my tongue be like a fountain pen of life
Held by a skilful scribe
To the most beautiful I’ve ever seen
To one who whispers words of grace
Bless-ed be Your name beyond the end of time
In majesty sublime
Your throne O God lasts forever and ever
Your throne will last always
Your throne O God lasts forever and ever always
You ride in majesty for righteousness
Victorious in the cause of truth
All your enemies will fall and rise no more
The nations will adore
Your throne O God lasts forever and ever
Your throne will last always
Your throne O God lasts forever and ever
Your throne will last always
Your throne O God lasts forever
And ever and ever always
© 2023 JG Songs, CCLI Song # 7216341
In October 2021, the Resound Worship 12 Song Challenge set the task of writing a corporate worship song based on a psalm. By the end of that month, the songwriters taking part had written at least one song on each of 90 psalms. That was quite an achievement.
In March 2023, the challenge set the task of writing the remaining 60. I chose Psalm 45 simply because it was the first one in Book 2 of Psalms on the list that no one had yet tackled.
I started on the guitar and simply started scatting the first melody that came into my head while reading the New Living Translation version. For some reason I felt the melody shift to A even though I was writing in the key of G. This was an unusual shift.
Looking through the psalm for a hook to hang the chorus on, I came across verse 6 which seemed to fit the bill
Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever.
Psalm 45:6, NLT
At this point, I felt like I needed to shift to the piano. For the first time in 33 years of songwriting, I felt like the guitar was limiting me somehow. Once I’d changed instruments, the rest came pretty easily.
On the piano, playing chords is physically much easier than on a guitar and the layout of the chords seems much more intuitive. The move from A to Am and then B and B7 at the end of the verses seems so very natural on the piano and much less so on a guitar.
The same natural shift in chords resulted in the end of the chorus.
Melodically, the song is much richer for the chord changes that the piano naturally presented to me. I was pretty encouraged by how just shifting an instrument can give you a completely different dimension in songwriting.
