The Lord My Shepherd Is – Isaac Watts

Let’s play a little game, sorta like ‘Name That Tune’, except this is called ‘Name That Speaker’, OK? Try this one --- ‘Hmmm, named must your fear be, before banish it you can.’ Or how about this one ‘..do not underestimate the powers of the Emperor, or suffer your father's fate you will.’ That’s right, it’s Yoda – the little green creature of Star Wars, the master Jedi instructor! If you ever noticed, Yoda’s wisdom is often imparted with the verb or a portion of the verb of his sentence in last place, a rather peculiar trait, at least in the English language. Now, Isaac Watts lived some three centuries before the Star Wars genre, but one might ask if he was visited by Yoda, since he recast a familiar hymn with the verb in the last place. “The Lord My Shepherd Is” might appear to be a basic rephrase of the hymn “The Lord Is My Shepherd” written about 70 years before Watts tried his own hand at King David’s 23rd Psalm words. What was Watts up to when he moved the verb?

“The Lord My Shepherd Is” is an example of the extra-Biblical poetry that the 35-year old Watts, the “father of English hymnody”, was helping promote in 1719. This practice was first introduced by John Calvin in the 16th Century, a method which generally put forth alternate words to Psalm verses so that congregations could use more familiar words. “The Lord My Shepherd Is” was obviously adapted from David’s 23rd Psalm, which was recapitulated in the Scottish Psalter hymn that Francis Rous composed for us in 1650. While we don’t know exactly why Watts moved the verb (maybe he was just trying to emphasize his composition’s divergence from the original?) if you look closely, Watts made some interesting additions to the original Davidic/Rous composition. The changes show us what his state of mind might have been, as follows: Verse 1: Watts adds that ‘I am His’ (on top of ‘He is mine’) -- so one senses that he was really in touch with a reciprocal relationship with God. Verse 2: Watts proposes that the water is more than merely gentle…it imputes full salvation to the believer. Verse 3: He writes ‘If e’er I go astray…’, is this a confession of some sin by Watts? Then, there are three additional verses (4,5, and 6) that we often don’t see that correspond to the same ones in the Psalm (see the link below, which also provides some detail on three different tunes associated with the song). Verse 4: Watts avoids ‘rod’ and ‘staff’, in order to be more direct in noting God’s aid. Verse 5: Watts exults in the joy that his overflowing cup provides. Verse 6: Watts injects a call to praise, a pledge he offers for the temporal and eternal blessings from the Lord.

Watts felt more, obviously, than he thought David had communicated for him. By 1719, the theologian-, preacher-, and logician-Watts was an accomplished communicator. His earthly father was a Nonconformist, twice jailed for his beliefs. In his own nonconformist way, Watts’ song divulges an effort to renew David’s psalm, giving his fellow believers fresh thoughts about the Shepherd and themselves, something that wasn’t rote scripture. Watts’ wisdom was thus widely respected…some might even say its repute was ‘Yoda-like’ (a la the fictional character), although Watts preceded Yoda historically. And, both Watts and Yoda encourage those who would listen to battle evil by drawing upon a higher power. A verb-last speaking style, and a call toward a higher authority – not a bad combination, as promoted by two different voices. Maybe they’re not all that different. May the Shepherd-force be with you.

See this link for song audio, including an alternate tune and additional words beyond what you may know: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/l/o/r/lordmysi.htm

Biographies of the composer are found here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/w/a/t/watts_i.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Watts

Speak, O Lord -- Keith Getty and Stuart Townend

I have a secret I’ll share with you about one of my vocational goals – maybe it will resonate with those of you who call yourselves writers or speechmakers. I wish, just once, that I could write something truly significant, and a piece that would need no editing whatsoever, something that would be perfectly pristine. Now wouldn’t that be something! Above my desk at work, I have a rolled-up sock with an amateurish face scrawled upon it in crayon, and a jagged paper clip stuck in it. It’s my somewhat twisted way of dealing with “editor frustration”, aimed at those folks who scrutinize my work to the nth degree, it seems. As I imagine my editor’s visage in the sock, I regain a measure of composure with a jab or two, deep into the sock…ahhh. Hey, you may call me Edgar Allen Poe (a la the tormented soul in “The Tell-Tale Heart”) or a voodoo witch-doctor, but this method hasn’t backfired on me yet! Seriously, I marvel at those craftsmen of the English language who can capture the reader’s attention with seemingly so little effort. Writers of the music language, too…how do they do it? Is it magic? Keith Getty, who has written many well-known contemporary Christian songs with Stuart Townend, including “Speak, O Lord”, shares his insights into music-writing (see the link at http://www.calvin.edu/worship/stories/getty.php), and he tells me something about this art-form that maybe you haven’t heard before. Simple is better, more powerful, and more memorable. Getty says that he has two goals in front of him when he creates – teaching theological and Biblical truth that speaks to listeners in everday life, and creating melodies that large groups, like churches, can sing. “… what we sing becomes the grammar of what we believe,” he says. Perhaps Getty’s maxim for song-writing springs out of his upbringing, one which leans on Irish folk songs and the hymns he sang in a Presbyterian church in Belfast. He’s also schooled himself, not by listening to pop music, but by listening to classical songwriters like George Gershwin, and to English folk music contemporary Kate Rusby. Getty’s songs, besides being simple, powerful, and memorable, also often fit into particular parts of the corporate Christian worship service. “Speak, O Lord” may be used for sermon preparation, as the hearer’s plea for an honest, open heart and mind to receive truth from Him. If Getty’s song really is the “grammar of what I believe”, I look at its words with more conviction. Do I really believe what I sing? Do I want to stand under the light of His truth, to be changed and used by Him? Do I trust God to direct me through this life? I think I do, and the melody and its words, in an uncomplicated way, invite me to approach God at this level – I need Him, and He is available, in all His GLORY, to help simple, imperfect, little me. I may speak (or write) in a weak, trembling voice, but in love, God listens and imparts His strength to me.