November 24, 2005

Have faith in God –
His guiding light hold high;
Have faith in God –
His Word is ever nigh;
Have faith in God –
His truth will never die.
Have faith, dear friend, in God.

Now Thank We All Our God

Martin Rinkart, 1586-1649
English Translation by Catherine Winkworth, 1827-1878

    What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39.

    From some of the severest human sufferings imaginable during the 30 Years' War of 1618-1648 -- a war that has been described as the most devastating in all history -- this great hymn of the church was born.
    Martin Rinkart was called at the age of 31 to pastor the state Lutheran church in his native city of Eilenberg, Germany. He arrived there just as the dreadful bloodshed of the 30 Years' War began, and there Rinkart spent the remaining 32 years of his life faithfully ministering to these needy people.
    Germany, the battleground of this conflict between warring Catholic and Protestant forces from various countries throughout Europe, was reduced to a state of misery that baffles description. The German population dwindled from 16 million to 6 million. Because Eilenberg was a walled city, it became a frightfully over-crowded refuge for political and military fugitives from far and near. Throughout these war years several waves of deadly diseases and famines swept the city, as the various armies marched through the town, leaving death and destruction in their wake. The plague of 1637 was particularly severe. At its height--or should we say "depth"--Rinkart was the only minister remaining to care for the sick and dying.
    Martin Rinkart's triumphant, personal expressions of gratitude and confidence in God confirm for each of us this truth taught in Scripture, that as God's children, we too can be "more than conquerors through Him Who loved us."
    The words to this hymn, circa 1636 (Nun danket alle Gott); first appeared in Praxis Pietatis Melica (Devotional Tunes, Sweet as Honey) by Johann Crüger (Berlin, Germany: 1647); translated from German to English by Catherine Winkworth in 1856.

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 blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep still in 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.

Have Faith in God by H.M.S. Richards, Used by Permission