Henry Francis Lyte wrote the hymn “Glorious Shepherd of the Sheep.”
Lyte was born in 1793 in Ednam, Scotland. While at University at Trinity college in Dublin, Ireland, he made a name for himself when he won the English Prize Poem on three seperate occassions.
He took Holy Orders in 1815. Then in 1818, he underwent a great spiritual change, that influenced and shaped the remainder of his life. A fellow clergyman he served with became ill and died.
Lyte wrote “He died happy under the belief that though he had deeply erred, there was One whose death and sufferings would atone for his delinquencies, and be accepted for all that he had incurred…”I was greatly affected by the whole matter, and brought to look at life and its issue with a different eye than before; and I began to study my Bible, and preach in another manner than I had previously done.”
The following year he moved to Lymington, England and composed “Tales on the Lord’s Prayer” in verse. Which he released in 1826.
The Psalms inspired many of his hymns. He published many in his “Spirit of the Psalms” collection which other hymn compilers have drawn from. One of his best known hymns is “Abide with Me.”
In 1823, he was appointed Perpetual Curate of Lower Brixham, Devon, England. He held the position until his death on November 20, 1847.