Written by Henry W. Baker (1821–1877), this masterful paraphrase of Psalm 23 first appeared in the 1868 appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern. The eminent hymn writer John Ellerton described it as “perhaps the most beautiful of all the countless versions of Psalm xxiii.” Unlike a strict Old Testament paraphrase, Baker deliberately interprets the psalm through the lens of Christ and the New Testament sacraments: the “living water” washing the “ransomed soul” alludes to Holy Baptism, while the “food celestial” refers to Christ’s body given in the Eucharist, and “Thy chalice floweth o’er” makes this a particularly fitting distribution hymn for Eastertide. The most touching story surrounding this hymn is that the last words on Henry Baker’s lips as he lay dying were from this very paraphrase: the text of the third stanza, “Perverse and foolish oft I strayed.” The Lutheran Service Book pairs the text with ST. COLUMBA, an ancient Irish folk melody named in an 1874 hymnal after St. Columba (ca. 521–597), an early Irish monk and missionary to western Scotland.
Sung at Our Saviour
2025