This paraphrase is a metrical psalm and follows as closely as possible the language of the Authorized (King James) Version of Psalm 23. Compare SDAH 197, 513, and 537, which are free paraphrases of the same psalm. These words are based on the 1641 version by Frances Rous (1524-1579), who married the sister of John Calvin, and who in 1556 wh wrote 51 of the psalms of David in metrical form. The divines of the Westminster Assembly made a further revision, and it was altered again before appearing in the Scottish Psalter of 1650. For more on this book, see SDAH 62, “How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place.” Other hymns in SDAH from the Scottish Psalter are Nos. 19, 63, and 552.

Brother James was the nickname taken by James Leith Macbeth Bain, born about 1840 in Scotland, who was a mystical poet, writer, and spiritual healer. He fluctuated from belief to agnosticism, and back again to a belief in divine love. He formed a Brotherhood of Healers (who went about treating people for both spiritual and physical illnesses), writing poems and singing to the patients as a part of the healing process. In 1906 he published a book, The Brotherhood of Healers. Being a Message to All Practical Mystics… and an Introduction to the Study of Essential Principles of Spiritual, Psychic and Mental Healing. Toward the end of his life he worked for the slum dwellers of Liverpool, and at a home for children. He died September19, 1925.

The musical arrangement SDAH uses is adapted from an anthem by Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob, born near London, July 5, 1895. He was a British composer with a D.Mus., a teacher at the Royal College of Music, and a writer of the book Orchestral Technique, 1931. His works include two symphonies, four orchestral suites, six concerti, and vocal and chamber music. He retired in Saffron Walden, Essex.

📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.