My Shepherd Will Supply My Need

My Shepherd Will Supply My Need - Thompson

Click the link above to enjoy one of the loveliest choral arrangements ever. The Washington Cathedral Choir does a wonderful job with it, though no one could match Ross Magoulas conducting the Berry Singers back in the day. Magoo (our nickname for him) would vary the tempo of the verses in a way that gave the song more energy.

Mack Wilberg has a lush, beautiful arrangement of the same words and basic tune. Enjoy this performance by the Baylor A Cappella Choir conducted by my conducting mentor, Alan Raines.

My Shepherd Will Supply My Need - Wilberg

No one conducts singers better than Alan Raines at his best. We sang this song at a tour through Finland, Estonia, and Russia just as I completed my Master’s in Choral Conducting at Georgia State University in 2004. Dr. Raines asked me to play flute while Katie Baughman played the violin. Mostly due to my lack of technique as a flutist, as well as having an instrument in need of an overhaul, I felt the flute was too shrill and pitchy to work well with the violin. I ended up playing the Yamaha recorder that I always kept in my flute case. It just worked better.

Katie Baughman has gone on to earn a PhD in voice and is now a cantor at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception as well as having done a stint in the Army as one of the Singing Sergeants. Well done, Katie!

My trip down memory lane with this song was actually a distraction. Music can be that way sometimes. The text came to mind as I was out walking today. These are sobering, sad times. No choirs are singing, much less performing international tours. Parents of school-aged children are being asked to make decisions based on the shifting sand of scientific recommendations. Our politics have gotten so toxic that the average person is rightfully suspicious of anything that comes out of the mouth of an elected official.

I started Life Without Lack by Dallas Willard right about the time the pandemic struck the US. I’m going slowly, savoring every sentence. It is a study of the 23rd Psalm, which the above songs are based on. What do we mean when we say “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want?” It means that in God we have everything we need; we can truly live a life without lack. We don’t need assurances about how and when things will be more normal, he is our shepherd. He’s got it. We are already part of his flock, his kingdom, and that will not be shaken, even by death.

I need to spend more time in that book.