The King of love my Shepherd is,
Whose goodness faileth never,
I nothing lack if I am His
And He is mine forever.
Where streams of living water flow
My ransomed soul He leadeth,
And where the verdant
pastures grow,
With food celestial feedeth.
Thou spread’st a table in my sight;
Thy unction grace bestoweth;
And O what transport of delight
From Thy pure chalice floweth!
And so through all the length of days
Thy goodness faileth never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing Thy
praise
Within Thy house forever.
About the writer: Sir Henry Williams Baker, an eminent English clergyman, was born in London in 1821. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, he took holy orders in 1844 and became vicar of Monkland, Herefordshire in 1851. He was editor in chief of Hymns Ancient and Modern, to which he contributed several of his hymns. A contemporary wrote, “Of his hymns four only are in the highest strain of jubilation, another four are bright and cheerful, and the remainder are very tender but exceedingly plaintive, sometimes even to sadness.” He died in 1877. His last audible words were a quotation of the third stanza of his rendering of the twenty-third Psalm: “Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed; But yet in love He sought me, And on His shoulder gently laid; And home rejoicing brought me.”
Key Verse: The LORD is my shepherd; I have everything I need. –Psalm 23:1