Monday, April 13, 2026

It is the 13th of April 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

A happy Monday to you- it is meet, right, and salutary that we head to the mailbag we’ve got a question from Drew- a pastor in Utica Nebraska- population of about 800 people- BUT- it was the home of Mysterious Mitchell the old-timey pitcher in the 1900s and F.F. Bosworth a very early pentecostal and faith healer in the same time period.

 

Drew, knowing how to get my attention, asked: Was Psalm 23 Robin Hood’s Favorite Psalm? Or least favorite? Would a fox be pro-shepherd or anti? Anyway, with Good Shepherd Sunday coming up, I'm interested in the history of Psalm 23 usage, especially why it's been so treasured and for how long that has been the case. Any insight here?

 

Well, Drew- Robin, surely would be pro-Good Shepherd. I think Psalm 34 would be the cartoon fox’s favorite- verse 6 “this poor man cried and the Lord heard him” and then verse 10 “the lions grow weary”- King John, voiced by Peter Ustinov, is, of course, a cowardly lion.

 

But the question about the popularity of this Psalm and “Good Shepherd Sunday” coming up. If you are a Lutheran on the one year lectionary that is the 3rd Sunday of easter (this coming Sunday)- but it was moved to the 4th Sunday of Easter by the catholic Church after Vatican II and this practice has followed in the Revised Lectionary that most use- so “Good Shepherd” Sunday- wherein you get the reading from John 10 “I Am the Good Shepherd” and Psalm 23 is coming for you in one of these weeks.

 

Is Psalm 23 the most popular Psalm? Is it the most popular bible passage? How would one even discover the answer to that question? Well, we have lots of data on the internet. The most popular online bible site? Biblegateway.com.

 

And Biblegateway will tell you that the most popular verses- well, I can give you the 6 most popular- and they are verses 1 to 6 of Psalm 23. What might account for this?

 

Obviously, the parallel of the shepherd and Jesus’ own words makes this a pretty straightforward interpretation- but did you know that the “Shepherd” language was not the most used or most popular until the time of the Reformation? St. Jerome- the man behind the Latin Vulgate- offered numerous translations of the Psalms based on different texts, and the most popular didn’t have “shepherd” in it. Two textual traditions have the verb for “shepherd” as “rule/guide”- no shepherd language and so “the Lord ruleth me”- is the Catholic Douay Rheims based on the Vulgate- it was the king James which took the less popular tradition- of the verb being “shepherding”- and so “the lord is my Shepherd” becomes the favorite, especially in English. Add to that the relative shortness of the Psalm- you can memorize it- and other King James doozies like “the valley of the shadow of death”- it’s one Hebrew word- “thick darkness” is good- but that “valley of the shadow of death”.

 

The Psalm also makes a really interesting turn- my colleague Chad Bird has pointed out that it is a Psalm of 55 words, short. And in the middle we read (in English: for you are with me)- there are 26 words on either side. But as we hit the middle, we move from 3rd to 1st person. “He Guides me” becomes “you are with me,” “you prepare a table,” etc… It has become a favorite at funerals- but it’s only since the days of Mysterious Mitchell and F.F. Bosworth that it has been a part of the commonly used Anglican and Episcopal rites.

 

The Good Shepherd has long been a favorite motif- John 10 gives it to us, and some of the earliest art we have of Jesus is of him as a shepherd. What’s interesting is that the Psalm so associated with “shepherds” wasn’t for some time, but in English, with the King James, it became not only a “standard” text, but also the most popular according to Bible Gateway. It’s perhaps this and 1 Corinthians 13 on love that are the most popular- no doubt their theological content and poetic descriptions help- but also their connection to marriage and death, important religious rites, have helped cement them in the common imagination.

 

Thanks for the question, Drew. You can send me yours at danv@1517.org.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Psalm 114:

When Israel came out of Egypt,
 Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,

Judah became God’s sanctuary,
 Israel his dominion.

The sea looked and fled,
 the Jordan turned back;

the mountains leaped like rams,
 the hills like lambs.

Why was it, sea, that you fled?
 Why, Jordan, did you turn back?

Why, mountains, did you leap like rams,
 you hills, like lambs?

Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord,
 at the presence of the God of Jacob,

who turned the rock into a pool,
 the hard rock into springs of water.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 13th of April 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who wonders if Psalm 114 was a favorite of the Knicks in the 90s- getting Jordan to turn back… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who prefers the reading of verse 3 to be “saw” instead of “looked”- then you get “the sea saw”- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.