It’s Sunday

LIBERTY, November 25, 2012 - The Hymn, “The King of Love My Shepherd Is,” sung to the tune, St. Columba is based on the 23rd Psalm from the Old Testament. It’s words are by Henry W. Baker, first published in Hymns Ancient and Modern in London in 1868. Its’ music is based on an Irish Melody and was sung at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in Westminster Abbey, London on September 6, 1997.

Baker was the son of Vice Admiral Henry Loraine Baker. He attended Trinity College at Cambridge, was ordained in 1844, and became assistant curate at Great Hockesley, near Colchester, Essex. In 1851, he became Vic­ar of Monkland Priory Church in Herefordshire, England, where he served most of his life. Upon his father’s death in 1859, Baker assumed the family baronetcy. From 1860 to 1877, he was editorinchief of the Anglican Hymns Ancient and Modern, and contributed hymns, tunes, and translations. This historic hymnal sold 60 million copies.

Baker's friend John Ellerton reported that Baker’s dying words were from this famous hymn:

Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love He sought me,
And on His shoulder gently laid,
And home, rejoicing, brought me.

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.

Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love He sought me,
And on His shoulder gently laid,
And home, rejoicing, brought me.

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.

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.