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.
O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.
Martin Rinkart
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Kim 09.30.07 at 8:38 am
An all-time great and one of my favourites (sung at both my wedding and my ordination - and I will order it for my funeral, when people will have at least one thing to be thankful for!).
The story goes that brother Martin (1586-1649), a Lutheran pastor in the Saxon village of of Eisleben, wrote the hymn (based on Ecclesiasticus 50:22-23) during the darkest days of the Thirty Years War. Swedish forces were occupying and pillaging the town, and severe famine and plague were sweeping the land. Some of Rinkhart’s own family were killed. And how does the pastor respond? He writes a hymn of joyful thanksgiving for the bounteous providence of God! Amazing!
Thanks, Richard. What a great start to the Sabbath.