Psalm 23:1

I SHALL NOT WANT

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I shall not want: in deserts wild
Thou spread’st Thy table for Thy child;
While grace in streams for thirsting souls,
Thro’ earth and Heaven forever rolls.

I shall not want: my darkest night
Thy loving smile shall fill with light;
While promises around me bloom,
And cheer me with divine perfume.

I shall not want: Thy righteousness
My soul shall clothe with glorious dress;
My blood-washed robe shall be more fair
Than garments kings or angels wear.

I shall not want: whate’er is good,
Of daily bread or angels’ food,
Shall to my Father’s child be sure,
So long as earth and Heaven endure.

About the writer: Charles Force Deems was a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. From 1866 until his death, in 1893, he was pastor of the Church of the Strangers, an independent congregation in New York City. In addition to being a pastor, he served as an agent of the American Bible Society, professor of Logic and Rhetoric at the University of North Carolina, and president of the Greensboro Female College, North Carolina. Deems was a popular preacher and forcible public speaker. As pastor to Commodore Vanderbilt he persuaded him to give a million dollars to the “Central University of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South” (now Vanderbilt University) in Nashville, Tennessee.

Key Verse: The LORD is my shepherd; I have everything I need. –Psalm 23:1

THE KING OF LOVE MY SHEPHERD IS

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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