The Lovliest Psalm in the Loveliest Musical Setting
For Sunday, March 15, 2026
The Lord Is My Shepherd by John Rutter
By David Jolliffe
If there was a poll asking respondents to list their favorite psalm, I’d hazard that many (most? all?) would select the twenty-third, with its familiar opening line in the King James translation, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want.” Not surprisingly, this psalm has been a favorite of composers, who have set it to music hundreds of times over the past three centuries. The St. Paul’s choir will sing one of the most popular (and I’d argue the most beautiful) settings of the psalm, by the prolific John Rutter, at the 11 am service on March 15.
Rutter takes the lyrics from Pslam 23 from the 1928 United States Book of Common Prayer:
The lord is my shepherd:
Therefore can I lack nothing.
He shall feed me in a green pasture:
And lead me forth beside the waters of comfort.
He shall convert my soul:
And bring me forth in the paths of righteousness
For his Name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil:
For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff comfort me.
Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them
That trouble me:
Thou hast anointed my head with oil
And my cup shall be full.
But thy loving-kindness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the house of the
Lord for ever.
In Rutter’s version, after a short instrumental introduction, the first verses are sung by the sopranos, while the men's voices continue in unison "He shall convert my soul.” "Yea, though I walk thro' the valley of the shadow of death" is expressed by five parts (with divided bass voices) in low register, while "I will fear no evil" turns to a four-part setting, which is kept for the following verses, structured by instrumental interludes. In a recapitulation of the beginning, sopranos and now also tenors sing in unison "But thy loving kindness.” All four voices begin in unison "And I will dwell" but divide for the climax "in the house of the Lord", reaching forte this only time in the piece. The words are repeated a few times, diminishing and slowing down to a soft “forever.”
Rutter joins the ranks of famous composers who have set the psalm to music: Franz Schubert, Antonin Dvorak, and Leonard Bernstein (in the second movement of his Chichester Psalms: Howard Goodall, in his setting that is widely recognized as the theme of the BBC series The Vicar of Wibley; even the contemporary Bobby McFerrin.
Rutter (born 1945) studied music at Clare College in Cambridge, where he served as director of music from 1975 t0 1979. In 1981, he founded the Cambridge Singers, an ensemble he continues to conduct.