Hymn of the Week: November 23, 2020
Hymn of the Week: Now Thank We All Our God
Glory to God #643
Text Martin Rinkart c. 1636
Music Johann Crüger 1647 Harmonized by Felix Mendelssohn 1840
Now Thank We All Our God
1.
Now thank we all our God,
with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom this world rejoices;
who from our mothers' arms
has blessed us on our way with
countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.
2.
O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us;
and keep us still in grace,
and guide us when perplexed;
and free us from all ills,
in this world and the next.
3.
All praise and thanks to God,
Who reigns in highest heaven
To Father and to Son
and Spirit now be given:
the one eternal God,
whom heaven and earth adore,
the God who was, and is,
and shall be evermore.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! This week we look at one of the all-time great Thanksgiving hymns. The information today comes from Robert J. Morgan’s wonderful book on hymns, Then Sings My Soul 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, Nelson Press.
An old English preacher once said; “A grateful mind is a great mind,” and the Bible agrees. There are 138 passages of Scripture on the subject of thanksgiving. Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
We sing this most popular hymn every year for Thanksgiving. This German hymn is sung in Germany with as much gusto and reverence as we do our Doxology every week, and Now Thank We continued to be loved deeply on both sides of the Atlantic.
Martin Rinkart (1586-1649) was the son of a poor coppersmith and grew up feeling called to the ministry. After his theological training, he took a small Lutheran church in Eilenberg, Saxony just as the Thirty Years War was raging through Germany. As a result of this war, floods of refugees poured into the walled city of Eilenberg. It was what Dicken’s would refer to as the “worst of times.” The Swedish army circled the city gates trapping its citizens inside. As a result, famine, plague, disease, and starvation ensued. Over 800 homes were destroyed and people were dying in increasing numbers. Many pastors, in taking care of the ill and dying, died themselves from disease and exhaustion. Martin Rinkart was one of the few pastors left who buried as many as 50 people in one day.
Eventually, the Swedes demanded a ransom and it was Martin Rinkart who went to negotiate with the Swedes. The result of this negotiation brought peace to the region. Rinkart, knowing there is no healing without thanksgiving, wrote the text for this timeless hymn for the survivors of Eilenberg.
Through so much suffering, we still have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!
Stay healthy and safe! Continue to live in the hope for the day when we shall all sing this song together in the Sanctuary once more.
Philip
