Some Favorites

The Thanksgiving Season always gets me thinking about good hymns. 1. Nun danket alle Gott Mit Herzen, Mund und Händen, Der große Dinge tut An uns und allen Enden, Der uns von Mutterleib Und Kindesbeinen an Unzählig viel zu gut Bis hier her hat getan.  2. Der ewig reiche Gott Woll uns bei unsrem Leben Ein immer fröhlich Herz Und edlen Frieden geben, Und uns in seiner Gnad, Erhalten fort und fort Und uns aus aller Not Erlösen hier und dort.

3. Lob, Ehr und Preis sei Gott, Dem Vater und dem Sohne Und dem, der beiden gleich Im höchsten Himmelsthrone, Dem einig höchsten Gott, Als er anfänglich war Und ist und bleiben wird Jetzt und immerdar. 1. Now thank we all our God With heart and hands and voices, Who wondrous things hath done, In whom his world rejoices; Who from our mother's arms Hath 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 in his 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 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. M. Rinkart, 1586-1649 - trans. C. Winkworth, 1827-1878 Here’s a good one for the Thanksgiving season. Martin Rinkart was a Lutheran pastor from Saxony.  During the  Thirty Years’ War, his village suffered the depredations of both  the Imperial and  Swedish armies—and this in the days when armies  lived by pillaging.  Worse, the plague visited the town, and carried  off more than half the population,  including Rinkart’s wife and several of his numerous children.  Prior to these disasters, Rinkart had a   reputation for helping the poor and sick in  his community. Johann Sebastian Bach played around with the original tune—as he did with so many other tunes used by the Lutheran churches in the  German lands (there was no Germany then; only a welter of statelets called the Holy Roman Empire). Catherine Winkworth was a 19th century English translator of the older German hymnody. This hymn has always left a deep impression on me, due to the fact that even when I live a blessed life, I tend to be a complainer.  Yet then I think of poor Brother Rinkart having a rough life during an exceptionally rough  time in history, yet somehow he managed to make beautiful music unto the Lord. Here’s another Thanksgiving favorite that might have been sung by the  Plymouth colonists themselves.  It’s the 100th Psalm in metrical version.  The Puritans, after all, and most Reformed churches,originally  limited their hymnody to metrical versions of the Psalms and other Scriptural material  (such as the Lord's Prayer, Song of Zachariah, and Magnificat). Some of  you may know the tune as a Doxology. 1. All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice; Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell, Come ye before him, and rejoice. 2. The Lord, ye know, is God indeed, Without our aid he did us make; We are his folk, he doth us feed, And for his sheep he doth us take. 3. O enter then his gates with praise, Approach with joy his courts unto; Praise, laud, and bless his name always, For it is seemly so to do. 4. For why? the Lord our God is good: His mercy is for ever sure; His truth at all times firmly stood, And shall from age to age endure.