CHRISTIAN LIFE >> Guidance
SDAH 552
The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want.
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green; He leadeth me
The quiet waters by.
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Introductions for Sabbath School Song Service (based on specific lesson quarterlies):
For comments on this close paraphrase of Psalm 23, see SDAH 546. For comments on the Scottish Psalter see SDAH 62.
The identity of the composer of the tune CRIMOND (a village 33 miles north of Aberdeen, Scotland) was in doubt until hymnologist Millar Patrick cleared it in an article in the Bulletin of the British Hymns Society:
“In the Scottish Psalter it is ascribed to David Grant (1833-1893), an Aberdeen [Scotland] tobacconist who was a musical enthusiast and had a flair for skillful harmonization. This attribution is a mistake. The tune was composed by Jessie Seymour Irvine, a daughter of the manse of Crimond, one of the parishes in the northeastern part of Aberdeenshire, known as Buchan. Her father was a minister there in the middle of the [nineteenth] century. The people of the district are firm in their conviction that Jessie wrote the tune, and their belief was corroborated by her sister in 1911, who was then 82 years old.
“Having written the tune, she had no skill for harmonizing it, and so sent it to William Carnie, once famous in the Northeast as a conductor and teacher, and as editor of the Northern Psalter [1872], which he was then compiling. Carnie, recognizing its merit, handed it to Grant to put it into shape for of authorship as he did, unless the tune as submitted by Miss Irvine needed publication. It is difficult to understand why Grant tacitly accepted the credit some reshaping as well as harmonizing.”
This combination of words and music was sung at the wedding of Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) and Prince Philip, and also at a service in St. Paul’s Cathedral for the silver wedding anniversary of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. So CRIMOND is firmly established as the tune for Psalm 23 in England.
Jessie Seymour Irvine was born July 26, 1836, at Dunnottar, near Stonehaven, Scotland; she was the daughter of the parish minister there. She moved with him when he served at Peterhead and then at Crimond, where she wrote the tune. She died September 2, 1887, at the age of 51 at Aberdeen, Scotland.
📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.
Text
1
The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want.
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green; He leadeth me
The quiet waters by.
2
My soul He doth restore again.
And me to walk doth make
Within the paths of righteousness,
E’en for His own name’s sake.
3
Yea, though I walk in death’s dark vale,
Yet will I fear no ill,
For Thou art with me; and Thy rod
And staff me comfort still.
4
My table Thou hast furnished
In presence of my foes;
My head Thou dost with oil anoint,
And my cup overflows.
5
Goodness and mercy all my life
Shall surely follow me;
And in God’s house forevermore
My dwelling place shall be.
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
See 546
Text Source
Scottish Psalter, 1650
Hymn Tune
CRIMOND
Metrical Number
C.M.
Composer
Jessie S. Irvine (1836-1887)
Alternate Tune
BROTHER JAMES’ AIR, SDAH 546
