A short, attractive setting of Psalm 121 composed by Philip Le Bas for three-part (SABar) choir and piano. It is written with parish choirs in mind (with their abundance of soprano and alto voices, but relative lack of male voices!), and consists of three sections. The first part presents the richly harmonised piano accompaniment in the form of a ritornello and the principal, rising melody from the choir, looking "to the mountains" for an answer to life's challenges and asking "from where shall come my help?" The second section presents short, pithy phrases sung by each voice separately expressing different ways in which God comes to their aid. The initial melody and accompaniment, repeating the first lines of the psalm, finally return in an altered form (both harmonically and melodically), and the setting ends with a celebration of confidence in the Lord "who made heaven and earth."

Psalm 121:

I lift up my eyes to the mountains. From where shall come my help? My help shall come from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

He will keep your foot from stumbling. Your guard will never slumber. No, he sleeps not, nor slumbers, Israel's guard.

The Lord your guard, the Lord your shade, at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord will guard you from evil; he will guard your soul. The Lord will guard your coming and your going, both now and for ever.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains. From where shall come my help? My help shall come from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.