40 Days of Chant, Psalm 11

There is a brightness about this psalm, but it also expresses a lot emotions.  So, I wanted to be both firmly in Bb but also hint at other keys.  I love chromatic mediants because they bring both brightness and ambiguity to a progression.  I split it with a single chant for the first three verse and another for verses 4-8.  The tone of the psalm changes in verse four from less pleading to proclaiming.

1 In the Lord have I taken refuge; *

     how then can you say to me,

     “Fly away like a bird to the hilltop;

2 For see how the wicked bend the bow

     and fit their arrows to the string, *

     to shoot from ambush at the true of heart.

3 When the foundations are being destroyed, *

     what can the righteous do?”

4 The Lord is in his holy temple; *

     the Lord’s throne is in heaven.

5 His eyes behold the inhabited world; *

    his piercing eye weighs our worth.

6 The Lord weighs the righteous

    as well as the wicked, *

    but those who delight in violence he abhors.

7 Upon the wicked he shall rain

    coals of fire and burning sulphur; *

    a scorching wind shall be their lot.

8 For the Lord is righteous;

    he delights in righteous deeds; *

    and the just shall see his face.