Funerals and burial: prayers in Protestant Christianity

Texts from their published editions. Guidance on what this tradition does at this moment is on the occasion page, and background on the tradition is at /traditions/protestant.

Texts from their published editions

Each text below comes from the edition named under it and was checked twice, independently, before it appeared. Neither check was a person. Where the two disagreed by even one character, the text is not shown here. That is a claim about wording only: these are not selected or endorsed for any particular situation, and nobody credentialed in the tradition has signed them. Older spelling is kept as the edition prints it. The full record, including the texts we held back because the two transcriptions disagreed, is at the verification record.

Psalm 23 (Coverdale)

The psalm most used in Protestant and Anglican pastoral practice at illness, dying and funerals. Anglicans encounter it in two distinct English forms that are not interchangeable: Miles Coverdale's psalter, bound into the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and used for said and sung offices, and the King James Version rendering used in most Protestant Bible reading.

English · The Book of Common Prayer, 1662, 1662Read twice, independently

The Lord is my shepherd : therefore can J lack nothing.

He shall feed me in a green pasture : and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort.

He shall convert my soul : and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness, for his names sake.

Yea, though J walk through the valley of the shadow of death, J will fear no evil : for thou art with me, thy rod, and thy staff comfort me,

Thou shalt prepare a table before me, against them that trouble me : thou hast anointed my head with oil, and my cup shall be full.

But [thy] loving kindness and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life : and J will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Church of England, 1662. Published 1662, long before 1929, US public domain. UK Crown patent applies within the United Kingdom, so this edition is used here on the US basis only. Source

Out of copyright in the United States on the basis stated here, and free to reuse there. Please keep the citation with it.

This prayer’s own page · How this text was verified

Content last changed 6 October 2026. Dates come from this page’s own revision history, not from the last time the site was deployed.

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