Philip Garside Publishing Ltd, Wellington, 2016, A5 size, 79 pages. Good secondhand condition.

Two Jewish men inspired this book. 3,000 years ago king David wrote a collection of songs to express his love, hopes and fears to God. Theyve been collected as the Psalms of the Old Testament. Thirty years ago Leonard Cohen published a collection of secular prayers, originally called The Book Of Psalms but finally published as Book Of Mercy. Reading about Leonards process with Mercy sparked Mark's desire to do some writing. This book is a response to those two great writers and especially to God, to whom they both sing. Redemption Songs isnt a paraphrase, though from time to time that occurs. Mark started by writing responses to The Psalms, but soon found himself wandering to all sorts of places, the Psalms being good jump-off points. Mostly he didnt write them as songs to be sung, though a few things that started their life as song lyrics have snuck in. The 71 songs are numbered instead of having titles, in the hope that this leaves a degree of open-ended-ness, so that God can say to you what you need to hear.