Scripture Verse

There was evening, and there was morning—the first day. Genesis 1:5

Introduction

portrait
Paul Gerhardt (1607–1676)

Words: Paul Ger­hardt, in the third set of Jo­hann Eb­el­ing’s Pau­li Ger­hardi Geist­liche An­dach­ten, 1666 (Die güldne Sonne voll Freud und Wonne). The orig­in­al Ger­man had 12 vers­es.

The trans­la­tion below, by Ri­chard Mas­sie (1800–1887), ap­peared in the 1857 edi­tion of Will­iam Mer­cer’s The Church Psal­ter and Hymn Book. It starts with verse 4 of Ger­hard’s text, Ab­end und Mor­gen.

Music: Die güld­ne Son­ne Jo­hann G. Eb­el­ing (1637–1676) (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Mass­ie or Eb­el­ing (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

Evening and morn­ing, sun­set and dawn­ing,
Wealth, peace and glad­ness, com­fort in sad­ness,
These are Thy works; all the glo­ry be Thine!
Times with­out num­ber, awake or in slum­ber,
Thine eye ob­serves us, from dan­ger pre­serves us,
Causing Thy mer­cy up­on us to shine.

Father, O hear me, par­don and spare me;
Calm all my ter­rors, blot out my er­rors,
That by Thine eyes they may no more be scanned.
Order my go­ings, di­rect all my do­ings;
As it may please Thee, re­tain or re­lease me;
All I com­mit to Thy fa­ther­ly hand.