Scripture Verse

The Lord Himself will come down from Heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17

Introduction

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William B. Collyer
1782–1854

Words: Pos­si­bly by Bar­tho­lo­mäus Ring­waldt, cir­ca 1556. Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by Will­iam B. Coll­yer, 1812, alt., Tho­mas Cot­ter­ill, 1819. It was at this time that the ti­tle Lu­ther’s Hymn be­came as­so­ci­at­ed with the words.

Music: Nun freut euch Mar­tin Lu­ther, in Geist­liche Lied­er, by Jo­seph Klug (Wit­ten­berg, Ger­ma­ny: 1535) (🔊 pdf nwc).

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Martin Luther (1483–1546)

Lyrics

Great God, what do I see and hear?
The end of things cre­at­ed!
The Judge of man­kind doth ap­pear,
On clouds of glo­ry seat­ed.
The trum­pet sounds, the graves re­store,
The dead which they con­tained be­fore!
Prepare, my soul, to meet Him.

The dead in Christ shall first arise
At the last trum­pet’s sound­ing.
Caught up to meet Him in the skies,
With joy their Lord sur­round­ing.
No gloomy fears their souls dis­may,
His pre­sence sheds eter­nal day
On those pre­pared to meet Him.

But sin­ners, filled with guil­ty fears,
Behold His wrath pre­vail­ing.
In woe they rise, but all their tears
And sighs are un­avail­ing.
The day of grace is past and gone;
Trembling they stand be­fore His throne,
All un­pre­pared to meet Him.

Great God, to Thee my spi­rit clings,
Thy bound­less love de­clar­ing.
One won­drous sight my com­fort brings,
The Judge my na­ture wear­ing.
Beneath His cross I view the day
When Heav’n and earth shall pass away,
And thus pre­pare to meet Him.