Day 67 - The King of Love My Shepherd Is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWfZ-8s71-k&list=RDnWfZ-8s71-k&start_radio=1

On the fourth Sunday of Easter, the lectionary readings are a gift for worship leaders. All of the readings, except the verses from Acts, refer to sheep and shepherds.

We had The Lord’s my Shepherd, sung to Crimond, at our wedding. Unfortunately, since then it has featured in many funerals. And anyway, nowadays, I prefer the Stuart Townend version. (However, my husband still cries when we sing that version!)

I have chosen The King of Love my Shepherd is, sung to the tune Dominus regit me (which, according to Hymnary.org is used only 75% of times.) A literal translation would be the Lord rules/guides me; but it is probably meant to be translated as The Lord is my Shepherd.

Henry Williams Baker (1821-1877) became, in 1851, Vicar of Monkland, Herefordshire. During his lifetime he wrote many hymns but only eight are cheerful or jubilant. Sometimes his happy hymns have an undertone of sadness. If his subject matter had a dark aspect and a lighter one, Baker would always focus on the shadows – a 19th-century Eeyore. He stayed in that parish until he died, and his dying words are reputed to be the third verse of The King of Love my shepherd is:

Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed,

But yet in love He sought me,

And on His Shoulder gently laid,

And home, rejoicing, brought me."

That verse is why I love this hymn – whatever 8787 metre tune it is sung to. It was, in my opinion, a stroke of genius to add Gospel references into Baker’s rendition of Psalm 23.

In the middle of his loose replication of Psalm 23, Baker introduced the lost sheep/the prodigal son from the Gospel according to Luke. It is not tacked on as an afterthought, it is there in the middle. Verse four also highlights Jesus:

In death's dark vale I fear no ill,

with thee, dear Lord, beside me;

thy rod and staff my comfort still,

thy cross before to guide me.

I can remember a sermon from the 1980s where a minister brought a rod and a staff as visual aids. The staff looked as expected – a thinnish wooden shaft with a hook on the top, for rescuing sheep who have fallen into deep holes. The rod would nowadays count as “going equipped”. It is a short, fat club to beat away wolves, foxes, dogs etc. So the shepherd as described in Psalm 23 and John 10 is prepared for the doziness of sheep and the wiliness of predators. But Baker extends this and the line in verse 4 thy cross before to guide me links with the last two verses which describe Heaven as Baker saw it, concluding with: Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise within thy house forever.

Then let’s sing a choral Amen!

Elaine Kinchin