Theodora
07-14-2005, 01:40 PM
"...and fills thy heart with care..." ...is the beginning of a favorite hymn of mine, which is set to Bach's Passion Chorale. (As found this a.m. in my old 1942 Episcopal Hymnal, this is #446.) I wasn't able to find this on-line, so will quote the rest of the first verse for you, "FWIW"--- and the resonant last verse which I have liked so much...
As composed by Paulus Gerhardt 1646 and translated by Arthur W. Farlander and Winfred Douglas, 1939, verse 1 of this hymn is:
Commit thou all that grieves thee
And fills thy heart with care
To him whose faithful mercy
The skies above declare,
Who gives the wind their courses,
Who points the clouds their way,
'Tis he will guide thy footsteps
And be thy staff and stay.
-
(Verse 4)
Hope on, then, broken spirit;
Hope on, be not afraid:
Fear not the griefs that plague thee
And keep thy heart dismayed:
Thy God, in his great mercy,
Will save thee, hold thee fast,
And in his own time grant thee
The sun of joy at last.
Grace and peace to you all this day....
"Forum families"!---"HOPE ON......!!!"
Theodora
P.S. Some commentary on the text under information about the poet, included the following:
"Commit thou all that grieves thee" (Befiehl du deine Wege), often sung to the same tune as the Passion Chorale. It is a hymn about trust in God in time of trouble, and is based on a poem of Martin Luther which in turn is a metrical paraphrase of Psalm 37 ("Fret not yourself because of the evil-doer.... Commit your way to the LORD and put your trust in him, and he will bring it to pass.")
Something about the poet:
Paul (Paulus) Gerhardt was born in 1607 near Wittenberg in Germany, and studied theology at the University of Wittenberg from 1628 to 1642. In 1651 he was ordained and made pastor of a church in Brandenburg, near Berlin. In 1657 he became third assistant at St Nicholas Church in Berlin. In his sermons, he maintained the Lutheran position against the Calvinists. He refused to sign a pledge not to bring theological argument into his sermons, and was deposed by Frederick William of Brandenberg-Prussia in 1666. His wife and four of his children died. In 1669 he was made archdeacon of Luebben, and died there 7 June 1676.
Despite personal suffering and the horrors of the Thirty Years War, Gerhardt wrote over 130 hymns, expressing both orthodox doctrines and emotional warmth in response to them. His work, like that of Heerman cited above, is counted by hymnologists as transitional between the Confessional and the Pietistic periods of Lutheran hymnody. He has been called he greatest of Lutheran hymn-writers. (Note that when we say "hymns," we are talking about words. The composing of hymn-tunes is another matter.)
(As found at the following URL--- http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/10/24.html )
As composed by Paulus Gerhardt 1646 and translated by Arthur W. Farlander and Winfred Douglas, 1939, verse 1 of this hymn is:
Commit thou all that grieves thee
And fills thy heart with care
To him whose faithful mercy
The skies above declare,
Who gives the wind their courses,
Who points the clouds their way,
'Tis he will guide thy footsteps
And be thy staff and stay.
-
(Verse 4)
Hope on, then, broken spirit;
Hope on, be not afraid:
Fear not the griefs that plague thee
And keep thy heart dismayed:
Thy God, in his great mercy,
Will save thee, hold thee fast,
And in his own time grant thee
The sun of joy at last.
Grace and peace to you all this day....
"Forum families"!---"HOPE ON......!!!"
Theodora
P.S. Some commentary on the text under information about the poet, included the following:
"Commit thou all that grieves thee" (Befiehl du deine Wege), often sung to the same tune as the Passion Chorale. It is a hymn about trust in God in time of trouble, and is based on a poem of Martin Luther which in turn is a metrical paraphrase of Psalm 37 ("Fret not yourself because of the evil-doer.... Commit your way to the LORD and put your trust in him, and he will bring it to pass.")
Something about the poet:
Paul (Paulus) Gerhardt was born in 1607 near Wittenberg in Germany, and studied theology at the University of Wittenberg from 1628 to 1642. In 1651 he was ordained and made pastor of a church in Brandenburg, near Berlin. In 1657 he became third assistant at St Nicholas Church in Berlin. In his sermons, he maintained the Lutheran position against the Calvinists. He refused to sign a pledge not to bring theological argument into his sermons, and was deposed by Frederick William of Brandenberg-Prussia in 1666. His wife and four of his children died. In 1669 he was made archdeacon of Luebben, and died there 7 June 1676.
Despite personal suffering and the horrors of the Thirty Years War, Gerhardt wrote over 130 hymns, expressing both orthodox doctrines and emotional warmth in response to them. His work, like that of Heerman cited above, is counted by hymnologists as transitional between the Confessional and the Pietistic periods of Lutheran hymnody. He has been called he greatest of Lutheran hymn-writers. (Note that when we say "hymns," we are talking about words. The composing of hymn-tunes is another matter.)
(As found at the following URL--- http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/10/24.html )