Melanie Penn’s brand of pop is based in roots—of music, of humanity, and of faith. Grounded in an aim to comfort those lost in the struggles of our new and uncertain times, Penn’s ‘Psalm 23’ speaks to those most afflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic and other struggles. Forward-driving as the arrangement may be, it’s also graced with a gentleness in its delivery that soothes. The next single in Penn’s ongoing album release, More Alive, could not come at a better time.
On ‘Psalm 23’, Penn reflects, “Sometimes we take the images from this famous Psalm for granted. But what does it mean to set a table in the presence of a threat? When the sky is falling who takes time to set a table, cook beautiful food, and dine with leisure? Anxious people can’t even eat!”
“Right now it seems like God is preparing a table for our whole society. In the presence of a threat do we have enough inner peace to just sit and eat? The war wages outside. Will we stay in, dine as best we can and hang tight while God fights a battle for us?”
“Unfortunately pandemics are nothing new. It is comforting to know that when David wrote this psalm he suffered through a plague or two in his lifetime. And here we are as modern people finding comfort in his poems. What poems are being written right now that will comfort generations to come?”
Words by: Jonathan Frahm