It most likely happened at a summer camp. The year was 2018, and Joshua Sherman and two other musical collaborators, Laurel Taylor and Steven Musso, reached back for a song that was very old, in order to drawn something that remained potent from its object of worship. “Psalm 23 (I Am Not Alone)”, which drew upon what one shepherd once wrote about another greater shepherd, spoke to these three 21st Century songwriters. David’s version, and so many other renderings since his day 3,000 years ago, engender peace and contentment; Joshua, Laurel, and Steven, while in the camp atmosphere of The Emerging Sound, took David’s thoughts to a place of elation and pure excitement as they considered what the Great Shepherd provides. He gives the people of His pasture so much right now, and if what’s to come because of His provision could possibly be fathomed, that would really blow the top off of all we can imagine. That’s what Joshua, Laurel, and Steven seem to want us to drink in.
Joshua, Laurel, and Steven come from different places in the eastern part of the United States, so one can guess that they came together somehow to mull over, share, and create something that their ancient songwriting brother would have recognized. These three heard and read what David said, and just to rearrange his lyrics some would have been profitable, and yet they evidently had some other objective in mind when they thought about Psalm 23. Joshua ministered in Boynton Beach in southern Florida, Laurel was Nashville in Middle Tennessee, and Steven was in Albany in east-central New York, so did the three talk by phones or via some other remote devices to craft the song? Part of it may have emerged from such an interaction, but since they cite The Emerging Sound as a part of their collective composing team, we can be pretty certain that they were together at one of the summer camps that this organization hosts to foster songwriting and ultimately the spread of the Good News. They thought David’s words about the Great Shepherd and what He provides were worth repeating – protection, anointing, guidance through valleys, refreshment and restoration, the mercy and grace He offers, and the comfort and confidence that makes our souls overflow. That’s a lot. Wrap up all of that in a single package, and how does one feel? That is what is expressed in this Psalm 23 version, and you and I are invited to feel as Joshua, Laurel, and Steven unmistakably felt as they sat with each other at a campsite. They used words that David must have also felt, but left unspoken. Hallelujah and Victory (vocalized six and fifteen times, respectively, throughout the song) raise the lyrics to a new height, testifying to a thrilling awareness for what He’s laid up for us to have in His presence, in His home. We can anticipate and be confident that He will, and is already providing for us, as these three remind us that ‘my Comfort, always holds me close’, an antidote to this life of frequent challenge that He alone bestows. David surely knew all about this too, and that ‘Your Spirit lives within me’, though he did not explicitly pen these phrases. Joshua, Laurel, and Steven thought David’s heartstrings beat pretty strong in these unspoken phrases through what he did write, so why not include them three millennia later? Good idea!
Not much more needs to be said to expose what three contemporary Christian songwriters discovered eight years ago. Others probably have felt similarly as they have read and thought about David’s ode to the Great Shepherd. Too often, though, it is consigned to rather sad occasions, at funerals. Its comforting tone is appropriate for soothing the wounded hearts at those times, certainly. But our great Redeemer and Protector is more than a soother, as this new version of the 23rd Psalm communicates so powerfully. Sing the hallelujahs and victories now that we implicitly know David had in his own soul, and which Joshua, Laurel, and Steven have seen fit to shout aloud. Say them again, and again, and again. Keep doing it. Live like it, and see who else will join in. (Click on one of the links below to get yourself in the correct frame of mind!)
Hear a very stirring rendition of the song here from one of the artists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpTXb_-sir8
Read some about the primary composer here: https://www.jasministries.com/
Read about another of the co-writers here: https://www.themussos.com/about
Read about another of the co-writers here: https://www.thechristianbeat.org/artists/laurel-taylor/
Read about the songwriting group that helped spawn the song here: https://www.theemergingsound.com/
See information about the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bernhard_Plockhorst_-_Good_Shephard.jpg... This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States….the image may be found in this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep
