The Lord My Pasture Will Prepare
109

Text: Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
Music: Dmitri Bortniansky (1751–1825)
Tune name: ST. PETERSBURG

All of us depend for our safety and comfort on the Lord. But not often enough do we express our gratitude for his protection. Of “The Lord My Pasture Will Prepare,” J. Spencer Cornwall stated, “Trust and confidence in the Lord are given poetic grace in the lovely lines of this hymn” (Stories of Our Mormon Hymns, 120).

To give meaning and vividness to his message of comfort, poet Joseph Addison chose a comparison that is familiar from many scriptural passages, Psalm 23 in particular: the Lord’s care for us is like the shepherd’s care for his sheep. Just as the shepherd protects his trusting flock from hunger, predators, and heat, so the Lord guards his children from dangers that surround them. He is with them at every moment, whether it is noon or midnight. If, in spite of his watchfulness, one should wander into a place where danger threatens, He gently leads the way back to beautiful meadows and peaceful rivers. The poem first appeared in The Spectator in 1712.

Some of the words in the second verse of this hymn may be unfamiliar. A glebe is a field; thus a sultry glebe is a place too hot for the sheep. Vale and mead are simply poetic terms meaning “valley” and “meadow” respectively. Verdant means “green.”

The soothing melody of this hymn tune, dating from 1825, speaks an equally peaceful message. When Dmitri Bortniansky wrote this tune, he was director of the Imperial Russian Choir in St. Petersburg—hence the tune name.