These past few weeks have made my country look like an insecure nation, under no god but Self-Interest, easily divisible, with persecution and injustice for all.

Perhaps there is a lesson here — that we should not seek hope in the promises of politicians, or in the pride of patriots, or in Facebook memes. I need to go back to the Psalms — including contemporary psalms — for solace.

I’ve prepared a playlist of songs for these dark days. You can read all about it, and the troubles that inspired it, in my latest installment of “Listening Closer” over at Christ and Pop Culture.

And here are some of the songs that my Facebook friends recommended for the playlist that we ran out of room to include. But they’re well worth playing…

And there are even more here.