“The more you can know about both, the more you feel you have something to offer when you start to write.” “If you’re writing liturgical music, your two main sources are the rite and the Scripture,” he said. “Shepherd Me, O God” stays close to the words of the psalm, with verses such as “Surely your kindness and mercy follow me all the days of my life I will dwell in the house of my God forevermore.” Haugen’s tight lyrical adherence to Scripture comes from a pastoral studies degree he earned at the University of St. “You don’t really know if a piece is going to be helpful or not until a congregation has sung it a number of times and they’ll tell you,” he added. “That piece, like everything I wrote up there, went through the grill of the community,” he said. “Shepherd Me, O God,” Haugen joked, is the one of several versions he wrote that received the least amount of criticism. That winter, with little else to do on snowed-in evenings, the community helped critique his work. Haugen said they would regularly integrate his new music into prayer time. The retreat center community held vespers every night. “It’s hard to write something that everybody knows the text to,” he said. Haugen said he knew it would be a challenge. Haugen, who is not Catholic but has worked in Catholic parishes, was living at an ecumenical retreat center in Washington State with his family when he was commissioned to do a version of Psalm 23. “My wife was finally the one who suggested … make it a verb. “I have never met a shepherd,” Haugen said. Speaking by phone from his home in Minnesota, he explained that depicting “shepherd” as an action instead of a noun brought forth the now famous song. It is cherished by many Catholics for its treatment of Psalm 23, which begins, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Haugen, 63, wrote “Shepherd Me, O God” in the mid-1980s. The illness paralyzed him in 2003, but he has recuperated well. The priest has been composing new material recently, after his recovery from Guillain-Barre syndrome. “I have been amazed to find congregations singing the entire thing, because I think the verses are somewhat difficult,” said Father Joncas, who, with fellow composer Marty Haugen, participated in a liturgical arts conference in Honolulu in the fall. Congregants would join in singing the simpler chorus. Father Joncas said the verses were meant to be sung by a cantor capable of handling the wide range of notes. The song’s colorful imagery is woven together by a melody with airy highs and a crescendo refrain. “I have been humbled by the number of times people have spoken or written to me about how God has used the song to bring them comfort and peace,” Father Joncas said. “And he will raise you up on eagle’s wings, bear you on the breath of dawn, make you to shine like the sun, and hold you in the palm of his hand.” Lyrics include the lines “You need not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,” and “For to his angels he has given a command to guard you in all of your ways.”Īlthough there are no mentions of eagles in Psalm 91, the song’s chorus uses the metaphor to depict God’s high, secure places the verse describes. The song is based on Psalm 91, its lyrics drawing from the Scripture’s descriptions of God’s protection and providence. Father Joncas wrote “On Eagle’s Wings” in the days that followed and it was was sung for the first time publicly at the friend’s father’s wake service. One evening, Father Joncas’ friend got word that his father had suffered a fatal heart attack. by MusicServices.“Most people associate me with this single piece,” Father Joncas told the Hawaii Catholic Herald via email.įather Joncas said the song came about when he was visiting a friend at the major seminary in Washington. by ) / Here's to JO (BMI) / West Lodge Music (BMI) (adm. © 2016, 2018 Getty Music Publishing (BMI) / Getty Music Songs, LLC (adm. Words and Music by Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, Kelly Minter, Chris Eaton and Stuart Townend