The King of Love: Meditations on The Twenty-Third Psalm

by J.D. Jones

For many and various reasons a preacher rather shrinks from making this short but most exquisite of Psalms his theme. To begin with, there is the familiarity of the Psalm itself. It is easier far to speak or write upon an unfamiliar passage than upon one whose every word by constant and repeated usage has become familiar and dear. And more familiar verses than those of this Psalm the Bible does not contain. People have meditated so often and so deeply upon the words of this Psalm, and so much has been said and written about it that one is naturally inclined to think that everything that can be profitably said about it has already been said, that all the truth it contains has been discovered, that its very last drop of sweetness has been extracted, and that therefore any preacher or writer who should venture to make the verses of this Psalm his theme would be but repeating a thrice-told tale.
John Daniel Jones was a Welsh Congregational minister. He was born in Ruthin, Denbighshire, the son of Joseph David Jones, a schoolmaster in the town and a respected musician and composer. The family moved to Tywyn, his mother's home town. In 1877, after the early death of his father, his mother married David Morgan Bynner, a Congregational minister at Chorley. After studying at Manchester University, Lancashire Independent College and St Andrews University, he was ordained at Newland Congregational Church, Lincoln in 1889.

65 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1998