Rector’s Reflections
Monday 9th September 2024
A Different Take on Psalm 23
There are so many hymns based on the familiar words of the 23rd Psalm. I wonder if you have a favourite? Perhaps the most well-known version is that usually sung to the tune Crimond, which often features in funeral services – this is the version which starts “The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want”. Another popular hymn based on psalm 23 begins : “The King of love my Shepherd is, whose goodness faileth never”. This hymn can sometimes be confused with George Herbert’s version of the psalm, which has a similar first line: “ The God of love my Shepherd is”.
These are all excellent hymns. But there is another version of psalm 23, which is less familiar. Indeed, I cannot remember the last time it was sung in our local churches. This is the version which starts : “The Lord my pasture shall prepare, and feed me with a shepherd’s care”. I wonder if you are familiar with this version?
The hymn was written back in the early 18th Century by an English journalist and essayist by the name of Joseph Addison. I am going to share some reflections based on Addison’s hymn in the days ahead. It might be out of fashion, but I think it still has much to teach us in our efforts to express and develop our relationship with God.
Let me start by giving the text of the hymn. I will then give some background on its author. After this I will look at each verse of the hymn in turn, and share some reflections on what the hymn might have to say to us today.
The hymn goes as follows:
The Lord my pasture shall prepare,
And feed me with a shepherd’s care;
His presence shall my wants supply,
And guard me with a watchful eye;
My noonday walks he shall attend,
And all my midnight hours defend.
When in the sultry glebe I faint,
Or on the thirsty mountain pant,
To fertile vales and dewy mads
My weary wandering steps he leads,
Where peaceful river, soft and slow,
Amid the verdant landscape flow.
Though in a bare and rugged way
Through devious lonely wilds I stray,
Thy bounty shall my pains beguile;
The barren wilderness shall smile
With sudden greens and herbage crowned,
And stream shall murmur all around.
Though in the paths of death I tread,
With gloomy horrors overspread,
My steadfast heart shall fear no ill,
For thou, O Lord, art with me still:
Thy friendly staff shall give me aid,
And guide me through the dreadful shade.
Addison published his hymn in The Spectator on 26th July 1712. At which point, you may well be saying to yourself: who was Joseph Addison? Why might his life and writings be of any interest today? We shall look at this in tomorrow’s reflections.