"And home, rejoicing, brought me."
The King of Love My Shepherd Is

Hymn 645, The Christian Life 
Sir Henry Williams Baker (1821-1877), 1868
Irish melody, St. Columba, D Major - Harmony from the "English Hymnal," 1906
The Hymnal of the Episcopal Church 1982

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.

Emporium #122

​Henry W. Baker, who had a major responsibility for the creation of the earliest edition of “Hymns Ancient and Modern,” was the first chairman of the committee, a post he held for twenty years. In addition he edited and/or contributed to several other hymnals.  

​The oldest son of Admiral Henry Loraine Baker, Bart., he was born on May 27, 1821, at Belmont House, Vauxhall, London.  He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1844 and a Master of Arts in 1847 from Trinity College, Cambridge.  Ordained in 1844, he became vicar of Monkland in Herefordshire in 1851, where he remained for the rest of his life.  The Hymnal he edited, “Hymns Ancient and Modern” broke all existing sales records with over sixty million copies sold. 

“The King of Love My Shepherd Is” has been described as perhaps the most beautiful of all the countless versions of the 23rd Psalm.  The last words of the author at his death were from the third stanza. 

The Tune St. Columba is named for the Irish saint who “carried the torch of Irish Christianity to Scotland” (and who has the dubious distinction of being the first to report a sighting of the Loch Ness monster, in 546).  The tune is one of the Irish melodies collected by George Petrie (1789-1866) and given in Charles Villers Stanford’s “Complete Collection of Irish Music as noted by George Petrie,” in 1902.  There it is said to have been sung at the dedication of a chapel in the county of Londonderry.  The association of the tune with this text, and also its harmonization, are from “The English Hymnal,” 1906.  https://zionslutheranchurchweatherlypa.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/the-story-of-the-hymn-the-king-of-love-my-shepherd-is/