Scripture Verse

The Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11

Introduction

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Paul Gerhardt (1607–1676)

Words: Paul Ger­hardt, in D. M. Lu­ther’s und an­der­er vor­neh­men geist­reich­en ge­lehr­ten Män­ner Geist­liche Lied­er und Psalm­en, ed­it­ed by Chris­toph Runge (Ber­lin: Chris­toph Runge, 1653), num­ber 106 (Nun lasst uns gehn und tre­ten). Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by John Kel­ly, Paul Ger­hardt’s Spi­ri­tu­al Songs (Lon­don: Al­ex­an­der Stra­han, 1867), pag­es 45–48.

Music: Nun lasst uns Gott dem Her­ren Ni­ko­laus Sel­neck­er, Christ­liche Psalm­en (Leip­zig, Ger­ma­ny: 1587) (🔊 pdf nwc).

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Nikolaus Selnecker (1532–1592)

Lyrics

In pray­er your voic­es raise ye
To God, and Him now praise ye,
Who to our life from Hea­ven
All need­ed strength hath giv­en.

The stream of years is flow­ing,
And we are on­ward go­ing,
From old to new surviv­ing,
And by His mer­cy thriv­ing.

In woe we oft­en lang­uish,
And pass through times of ang­uish,
When fear­ful war abound­eth,
That earth it­self sur­round­eth.

As faith­ful mo­ther keep­eth
Guard while her in­fant sleep­eth,
And all its grief as­suag­eth
When an­gry tem­pest rag­eth;

So God His child­ren shield­eth,
Them full pro­tect­ion yield­eth;
When need and woe dis­tress them,
His lov­ing arms ca­ress them.

In vain is all our do­ing,
The la­bor we’re pur­su­ing
In our hands pros­pers ne­ver,
Unless God watch­eth ev­er.

Our song to Thee as­cend­eth,
Who ev­ery day de­fend­eth
Us, and whose arm av­ert­eth
The pain our hearts that hurt­eth.

O God of mer­cy! hear us;
Our Fa­ther! be Thou near us;
’Mid cross­es and in sad­ness
Be Thou our spring of glad­ness.

To me and all be giv­en,
Who from the heart have striv­en
To gain Thy be­ne­dict­ion,
Hearts pa­tient in af­flict­ion.

Oh! close the gates of sor­row,
And by a glo­rious mor­row
Of peace, may places sad­dened
By blood­shed dire be glad­dened.

With rich­est bless­ings crown us,
In all our ways, Lord! own us;
Give grace, who grace be­stow­est
To all, e’en to the low­est.

Of all for­lorn be Fa­ther,
All err­ing ones in­ga­ther,
And of the poor and nee­dy
Be Thou the suc­cor spee­dy.

Grace show to all af­flict­ed,
And to all souls de­ject­ed,
By mel­an­cho­ly haunt­ed,
May happy thoughts be grant­ed.

All earth­ly gifts excel­ling,
The Holy Ghost in­dwel­ling,
Give us to make us glo­ri­ous,
And lead to Thee vic­to­ri­ous.

All this Thy hand be­stow­eth,
Thou Life! whence our life flow­eth,
Thus Thou Thy peo­ple meet­est
With New Year’s bless­ing greet­est.