Welcome to Songs of Praise
A Songwriting Collaboration Site
This site was originally created by Elton Smith and Gilberto Barreto in 1996. It has changed a lot over the years as contributions from people around the world were added.
There are 558 songs in 20 languages, 4 musicals, 783 images, and one science fiction story on this site.
Everything is freely available for non-profit use. Many of our songs are registered with CCLI and reporting church use of our songs helps keep this site running. CCLI membership is not required to use the songs.
If you have written a song you would like people to hear on this site, contact me. In the past, people have sent songs, translations, musicals, recordings, artwork and a lot of encouragement. I look forward to hearing from you. -
Elton Smith.
Songs
Select a language to find songs
English (354),
Spanish (35),
Dutch/Flemish (31),
Italian (29),
Portugese (23),
French (13),
German (12),
Chinese (10),
Russian (9),
Finnish (8),
Afrikaans (5),
Estonian (2),
Maltese (2),
Hebrew (1),
Romanian (1),
Slovak (1),
Swahili (1),
Swedish (1), and
Tagalog (1).
Many of the songs on this site have
YouTube
videos made by many different people.
Your Love Won't Abandon My Soul
Elton Smith wrote the music and started the lyrics. Steve Israel and Larry Holder helped complete the song. Belén Mariscotti and Rhesa Siregar provided tracks which Elton mixed.
Into Your Hands
Rich Buquet in Texas wrote this song and it was performed by the church praise band. We sang this moving song many times in church. The video uses the theme of a potter molding clay.
Adoration
Rick Founds wrote the great lyrics. Rhesa Siregar wrote the music. Paul and Elton wrote the melody. Be sure and hear the studio recording by Paul's group Azimuth. In the adoration of the living God Most High!
Come Fill My Heart
Elton, Larry and Steve wrote this song for the play we were working on. The image is a reimagining of the painting Lena Kittrell sent for the play of a butterfly emerging from a cocoon. Tina Arseneau sang the song at the suggestion of her friend Dan Zigler.
All I Long For
Larry shared a poem he had written, which eventually became the chorus. The musical style is somewhat enigmatic, but maybe it's from the Scottish highlands. Elton used paintings by his grandmother to make the video. The recording was a collaborative effort.
Musicals
Dan Zigler was the driving force in creating the first 3 musicals. He liked the songs and wanted to write plays featuring them. It was a labor of love. You can see photos from the presentation of the first two musicals.
The Perfect Gift
A Christmas musical with scenes from the birth of Jesus. Written by Dan Zigler and Elton Smith. Contains 8 songs from this site. Pictures from 3 churches. Available in English, Portuguese and Spanish.
Resurrection Song
An Easter musical by Russell Adams, Larry Holder, Steve Israel, Joe Medrek, Rhesa Siregar, Elton Smith and Dan Zigler. Pictures from 4 churches. Available in English and Portuguese.
Come Fill My Heart
Written by Dan Zigler and Elton Smith. A story about a young woman's escape from prostitution. The theme song is sung beautifully by Tina Arseneau.
God Cares For You
A Musical by Larry Holder for young voices based on the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 and 6). The play and songs are on Larry's website.
Images
This started off as a display of interesting vacation pictures, but with AI image generation it has become more useful. I have been using SDXL amd DALL-E to create song videos and am in the process of creating an image depicting each song (see examples in the song section above). Here are some examples from the AI Art category and a list of topics available.
- AI Images from the "A Purpose and a Promise" video
- AI Images from the "The Stars Are Out Tonight" video
- AI Images from the "You Opened My Eyes" video
- AI Images from the "How Long?" video
- AI Images from the "Your Love Surrounds Me" video
- Alaska: Photos of Alaska and British Columbia
- California: Photos from our vacation in 2000
- Coins: Photos of Ancient, US and Colonial coins
- Dallas World Aquarium: Photos of plants and animals
- England: Scenes and places in England
- Florida: In 2005 we drove to the Florida Keys
- Hawaii: Photos of Hawaii
- Houston: Photos from the Houston area
- India: Trip to India in 2011
- Mesa Verde: Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado
- Nepal: Morgan's trip to Nepal in 2012
- New England: Pictures from a Fall trip
- New York City: Ground zero and other sites
- Oregon: Sightseeing in Oregon
- Paintings: Public domain paintings
- The Mediterranean: Photos from a Mediterranean cruise
- The Rocky Mountains: Scenes from New Mexico and Colorado
- Vera Griffin Paintings: Elton's grandmother was a West Texas artist
- Morgan's Drawings: Drawings by Morgan
- Washington DC: Memorials and museums
Garden of Praise
An educational website created by Patsy Stevens
Hundreds of biographies, famous artwork, games, puzzles and online tests. A great resource for home schooling.
The Latest Updates
| Added song Santo, the Portuguese version of Holy by Gilberto Barreto. | |
| Added song Your Love Won't Abandon My Soul by Elton Smith, Steve Israel and Larry Holder. Featuring vocals by Belén Mariscotti and instrumentals by Rhesa Siregar. | |
| Added Portuguese song Eu Preciso de Você by Gilberto Barreto. | |
| Added The Indigo Jewel a science fiction story about a benevolent artificial intelligence that interacts with humanity over thousands of years. It touches on many themes, and has many characters. More than a short story but not as long as a novel, it's a novella! | |
| Added song Lollipops and Cars by Eve Ray. | |
| Added song Is There A Place? and the Dutch Is Er Een Plaats?, new songs by Peter Gringhuis. Michel Jonkers sings a duet with Peter in the recording. | |
| Updated the Coloring Page and Memory Puzzles so they work again. They had died because of changes in technology supported by browsers, so I updated them to HTML5. I used ChatGPT to rewrite the Memory Puzzles. | |
| Many of the early songs only have a midi file. Converted 101 midi files to mp3 so these are more easily heard. They are labeled "Recording from MIDI" on the song page. | |
| Added a sing-a-long video for our song Mi Corazón sung by Belén Mariscotti. | |
| Added a Sitemap, displaying links to all the content on this site, and a short history of this site. | |
| Added new song, I Called You By Name, by Elton Smith and Larry Holder. Recorded by Rizyn. | |
| Added a sing-a-long video for Footprints In The Sand. | |
| Added a sing-a-long video for our song He Brings The Sunshine. | |
| Added new song A Purpose And A Promise, by Elton Smith and Larry Holder, recorded with Rhesa Siregar and Belén Mariscotti, including video. | |
| Added a sing-a-long video for our song All Of My Heart. | |
| Added a video for our song You Opened My Eyes using images created in DALL-E channeling the painting style of Leonardo da Vinci | |
| I No Longer Live, a song about missions. Originally written in Portuguese by Gilberto Barreto. Elton helped translate it to English and made the recording | |
| All The Earth Worships You, by Ralph Palladino and Lenny Smith | |
| Let Not A Wise Man, written and recorded by Steve Israel | |
| An Irish Blessing, written and recorded by Carolyn Cavanagh | |
| Worship You, a beautiful song written and recorded by Carolyn Cavanagh | |
| 2024-03-12 | Weary World, a song about the state of the world written and recorded by Van Wood
Also added an accompaniment track for Van's song Father Forgive Them |
| 2023-12-23 | L-GĦORRIEF LILU JFITTXU, Maltese version of Wisemen Still Seek Him, translated by Joe C. Aquilina |
| 2023-07-24 | How Long?, 24 years after writing this song we added a wonderful recording by Samuel in Nigeria |
| 2023-07-18 | Kiu, Swahili version of I'm Building My House, translated and recorded by the Grace & Glory Singers in Kenya |
| 2023-05-28 | Sunrise, new song by Elton Smith, Larry Holder and Steve Israel, sung by Belén Mariscotti, some instrumentals by Rhesa Siregar |
| 2023-05-28 | Amanecer, Spanish version of Sunrise, translated and sung by Belén Mariscotti |
| 2023-02-20 | Send Your Spirit Down, hear Lynn Cooper and her friends singing her new song |
| 2023-02-07 | A King at the Door, by Cathy Smith and Wes Retherford |
| 2023-01-18 | All I Long For, a new song by Larry Holder, Elton Smith and Steve Israel |
| 2022-09-28 | You Are Our God, a new song by Peter Gringhuis and Elton Smith |
| 2022-09-28 | U Bent Onze God, Dutch version of You Are Our God by Peter Gringhuis |
| 2022-12-30 | Your Spirit Soars Around Me Like A Song, a new song by Elton Smith and Larry Holder, with Rhesa Siregar helping with the recording |
| 2022-08-25 | God Bless the Children, a song by Patsy Stevens, sung by Belén Mariscotti with Rhesa Siregar accompanying her |
| 2022-06-06 | By These Things, a new song by Elton Smith and Larry Holder, with Steve Israel helping with the recording |
| 2021-11-30 | The Stars Are Out Tonight, a song by Elton Smith about stargazing, sung by Belén Mariscotti, instrumental by Rheas Siregar |
| 2021-11-17 | Brother Savior Friend, a new song by Elton Smith and Larry Holder, recording by Rhesa Siregar and Peter Gringhuis |
| 2021-11-15 | Dear Jesus, Everything, Amen, a new song by Jill Elizabeth Keller, recording by Steve Israel |
| 2021-11-14 | God Who Am I?, a new song by Peter Gringhuis |
| 2021-11-13 | Heroes Left Behind, a new song by Elton Smith and Larry Holder about heroes from the past and how they are remembered through road signs, featuring accompaniment by Rhesa Siregar and Steve Israel |
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A sample of comments received on songs and images.
