The Lord is My Shepherdess?

This Sunday's Psalm is the familiar and beloved 23rd, "The Lord is my Shepherd". I recently visited an Episcopal parish for a concert and learned that one of the works which the choir was planning to sing was the Bobby McFerrin feminized 23rd Psalm version, and they planned to do it again today for Mother's Day. He dedicated this to his mother, but that is no excuse for what he wrote,

The Lord is my Shepherd, I have all I need  

She makes me lie down in green meadows Beside the still waters, She will lead
She restores my soul, She rights my wrongs 

She leads me in a path of good things And fills my heart with songs
Even though I walk, through a dark and dreary land There is nothing that can shake me 

She has said She won't forsake me I'm in her hand
She sets a table before me, in the presence of my foes  

She anoints my head with oil And my cup overflows
Surely, surely goodness and kindness will follow me All the days of my life  

And I will live in her house Forever, forever and ever 

Glory be to our Mother, and Daughter And to the Holy of Holys  

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be World, without end

If I had done this for my mother, she would have smacked me and made me write the correct version of the 23rd Psalm one hundred times.

I spoke with one of the choir members who actually attends a real church,and who was only there to help out with the concert performance. She had not even noticed the words as she was concentrating on learning the notes to this piece and learning  the rest of the repertoire (all of which was quite traditional).

That is how revisionism works. Changes in words mean a great deal but usually go by unnoticed, slipped into something that otherwise seems traditional, subtly influencing attitudes and eventually beliefs.

I realize that Episcopalians do not care if they offend a lone traditionalist and cause them to walk out in the middle of a performance, but I am willing to bet that they would never allow an anthem based on Romans 1:25-27 to he sung under their roof for fear of offending one sinner. Not that anyone has composed an anthem with words like,

25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

I may have to pass this along to my musical friend Wallace Hartley to see if he will take up the challenge.