Monday, May 4, 2009
I am the Good Shepherd
Yesterday's Gospel lesson was from John 10 where Christ describes himself as the Good Shepherd. One of the hymns we sang at St. Andrew's was Saviour like a shepherd lead us. Of course, there are many other hymns with a shepherd theme, particularly Psalm 23. I have no statistics to back me up, but I would guess that Psalm 23 is one of the best known passages of scripture. That thought then followed to, "What would be the second best known passage?" I'm guessing The Lord's Prayer. So why are there so many different settings of Psalm 23 (I can think of half a dozen or so without much difficulty.) and only 2 or 3 well known musical settings of The Lord's Prayer? Does one passage speak to us more than the other? Are we more willing to be comforted by the words of Psalm 23 than we are to earnestly pray the words of The Lord's Prayer? Your comments are welcome!
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4 comments:
Though we remember our Lord in the time of joy, we tend to seek Him more in the time of sorrow and suffering. The Lord's Prayer is powerful, but for me, it stays as a prayer without definiteness, at a time like that. The verse that speaks to me most in Psalm 23 is this: 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.' This 'statement' gives me more certainty than the petition to 'deliver us from evil.'
Thank you for this food for thought!
Perhaps it's also a bit of a metrical issue? Short lines that are more difficult to paraphrase in a poetically consistent way?
Good point, Merrem. You may just have something there.
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