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 527 songs in 19 languages, 4 musicals and 783 images 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 (373),
Spanish (35),
Dutch/Flemish (31),
Italian (29),
Portugese (22),
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.
All of My Heart
Written in 1997 by Elton Smith and Larry Holder. Available in Afrikaans, Chinese, Dutch or Flemish, English, French, German, Italian, Maltese, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak and Spanish. Be sure and hear the new recordings in English and Spanish.
Your Love Surrounds Me
Written by Elton Smith and Larry Holder. The video is set in ancient Rome and includes military scenes, volcano eruptions, and early Christians. My soul is safe because your love is all around.
How Long?
Written by Elton Smith, Steve Israel and Larry Holder. The video is set in the American south after the Civil War. Samuel in Nigeria did a great job on the recording.
Love Found Me
Written and recorded by Susan Krauter. A moving song inspired by the real adoption of a child from China. The children singing in the background sounds great.
He Brings The Sunshine
Written by Elton Smith, Larry Holder and Steve Israel in a Middle Eastern style and available in Afrikaans, Chinese, Dutch or Flemish, English, French, German, Russian and Spanish.
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 to create song videos and am in the process of creating an image depicting each song (see examples in the song section above). I will make large versions of these available. Here are some examples from the AI Art category and a list of topics available.
- 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