THE LORD’S MY SHEPHERD

The Book of Psalms in the Bible…as far as we know…is the oldest hymnal!  Throughout the ages, Christians have always desired to sing praise to the Lord using “psalms, Hymns, and spiritual songs”.  Quoting Augustine, John Calvin once wrote, “We shall not find better songs nor more fitting for the purpose than the Psalms of David…”

However, the Psalms were originally written in Hebrew, and, when translated, they typically lost the rhyme and rhythm for easy singing.  In the early 1640’s Francis Rouse, an English Puritan, rendered all 150 Psalms from Hebrew into metrical English.  The Church of Scotland then subjected this work to a revision committee who, over the next 6 years, painstakingly compared the metered Psalms with the original Hebrew.  Their purpose was to develop a singable translation that was accurate.

Finally, in 1650, the Scottish Psalter called the "Psalms of David in Meter" was released.  Although this is one of the great treasures, the portion most widely sung beyond Scotland is its beautiful rendition of Psalm 23…with the resounding truth…”THE LORD’S MY SHEPHERD, I’ll not want!”