Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me

A great hymn of comfort by Paul Gerhardt, 1607-76, for times like this.

1.

Why should cross and trial grieve me?

    Christ is near

    With His cheer;

Never will He leave me.

Who can rob me of the heaven

    That God’s Son

    For me won

When His life was given?

2. 

When life’s troubles rise to meet me,

    Though their weight

    May be great,

They will not defeat me.

God, my loving Savior, sends them;

    He who knows

    All my woes

Knows how best to end them.

3. 

God gives me my days of gladness,

    And I will

    Trust Him still

When He sends me sadness.

God is good; His love attends me

    Day by day,

    Come what may,

Guides me and defends me.

4. 

From God's joy can nothing sever,

    For I am 

    His dear lamb,

He, my Shepherd ever;

I am His because He gave me

    His own blood 

    For my good,

By His death to save me.

5. 

Now in Christ, death cannot slay me,

    Though it might, 

    Day and night,

Trouble and dismay me;

Christ has made my death a portal

    From the strife 

    Of this life

To His joy immortal!