Psalter Hymnal (Gray) ‎#23

23. The LORD, My Shepherd, Rules My Life

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Hope Publishing: one copy

In order to use resources from the Hope Publishing Company, you must reside in the United States or Canada. Hope Publishing Company owns or administers the contents in these territories.
You may download one copy of this selection for your own personal use. To make any further copies or to perform the work you must get permission from Hope Publishing Company or belong to and report the copying activity to CCLI, LicenSing or OneLicense.net. By selecting "I Agree" you are verifying that you reside in the U.S. or Canada and will only legally use this selection.

Text Information

• First Line: The LORD my shepherd rules my life
• Title: The LORD, My Shepherd, Rules My Life
• Versifier: Christopher M. Idle (1977)
• Meter: CM
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 1987
• Scripture:
  Psalm 23
• Topic: Comfort & Encouragement; Funerals; Shepherd, God/Christ as; Sickness & Health; Trust in God; Songs for Children: Psalms; Assurance; Easter; Lord's Supper; Walk with God
• Copyright: Text © 1982, Hope Publishing Co. All rights reserved. Used by permission
• ONE LICENSE: 17361

Tune Information

• Name: CRIMOND
• Composer: Jessie Seymour Irvine (1872)
• Harmonizer: David Grant (1872)
• Composer (desc.): W. Baird Ross, 1871-1950
• Meter: CM
• Key: F Major

Text Information:

A profession of joyful trust in the LORD as the good Shepherd-King.

Scripture References:
st. 1 = vv. 1-2
st. 2 = v. 3
st. 3 = v. 4
st. 4 = v. 5
st. 5 = v. 6

Psalm 23's tranquil confession of faith and hope builds on the common ancient Near East and Old Testament metaphor of the king as shepherd of his people. God is the true Shepherd-King, providing his people their every need (st. 1-2), protecting them against every danger (st. 3), and welcoming them to a banquet of bounty and fellowship at the LORD's royal table in the face of their enemies (st. 4). The people thus have the sure hope of God's unfailing care and of ready access to God's presence (st. 5). Jesus' use of the shepherd image (John 10) has further endeared this psalm to Christians everywhere.

The 1977 versification by Christopher M. Idle (PHH 20) was first published in Jesus Praise (1982). He wrote it, he said, "to provide a version of the twenty-third Psalm in familiar meter which would avoid the archaisms and inversions of the established sixteenth-century version from the Scottish Psalter" (161). Other settings of Psalm 23 include 161, 162, and 550.

Liturgical Use:
As an expression of trust, Psalm 23 is appropriate for many liturgical uses, including baptism, the Lord's Supper, weddings, and funeral services.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

Tune Information:

CRlMOND was first published in The Northern Psalter (1872), where the tune was attributed to David Grant (b. Aberdeen, Scotland, 1833; d. Lewisham, London, England, 1893), who arranged many of the tunes in that collection. However, in 1911 Anna B. Irvine claimed that CRIMOND had been composed by her sister, Jessie Seymour Irvine (b. Dunnottar, Kincardineshire, Scotland, 1836; d. Aberdeen, Scotland, 1887), who had given it to Grant to be harmonized. Irvine's authorship is generally accepted today. Little is known of Irvine's life except that she was the daughter of an Anglican minister and lived in her parents' home for much of her life.

CRIMOND became very popular after it was used at the wedding of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1947. Named after the town of Crimond in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the tune is considered by many to be among the finest of all Scottish psalm tunes.

David Grant composed the harmonization. A tobacco shop merchant by trade, Grant was an amateur musician. He composed music for bands, arranged tunes for The Northern Psalter (1872), and served as precentor of the Footdee Church in Aberdeen.

The descant composed by William Baird Ross (b. Montrose, Scotland, 1871; d. Edin¬burgh, Scotland, 1950) also gained popularity from royal use in 1947. Educated at Queen's College in Oxford, Ross became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. He was an educator and an organist in Montrose, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Stirling in Scotland.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook