The Lord is my Shepherd (Rutter) written over 20 years. For that version, he used also soloists. The biblical text is Psalm 23, in the King James 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". "Yeah, though I walk thro' the valley of the shadow of death" is expressed by five parts (with divided bass voices) in homophony in low register, while "I will fear no evil" turns to four part setting, which is kept for the following verses, structured by instrumental interludes. In a recapitulation of
Psalm 23 English was made in 1565 by Thomas Sternhold. Other metrical versions to emerge from the Protestant Reformation include those from "The Bay Psalm Book" (1640) and a version influenced by Sternholm published in the Scottish Psalter (1650). The latter version is still encountered, with modernized spelling, in many Protestant hymns. Other notable metrical versions include those by George Herbert, Philip Sidney, and Isaac Watts. A metrical version of the psalm is traditionally sung to the hymn tune "Crimond", generally attributed to Jessie Seymour Irvine. This version, with its opening words "The Lord's My Shepherd", is probably the best-known amongst English-speaking