Thursday, July 10, 2008

Entrust Your Days and Burdens

In Lutheran Service Book, this hymn by Paul Gerhardt is #754.  In LSB the text is set to a new tune by LCMS composer, Stephen R. Johnson, a tune called SUFFICIENTIA.  In previous hymnals this text was set to a more somber tune.  SUFFICIENTIA is a tune that better reflects the confident trust which believers have in a God who sees and knows and meets their every need, a God who will sustain them through each and every trial that they experience in this fallen world.  It is one of my favorite hymns by Paul Gerhardt...yet how does a person choose one from the many gems that he wrote?

1.  Entrust your days and burdens
        To God's most loving hand;
            He cares for you while ruling
        The sky, the sea, the land.
     For He who guides the tempests
        Along their thund'rous ways
            Will find for you a pathway
        And guide you all your days.

2.  Rely on God your Savior
        And find your life secure.
            Make His work your foundation
        That your work may endure.
     No anxious thought, no worry,
        No self-tormenting care
            Can win your Father's favor;
        His heart is moved by prayer.

3.  Take heart, have hope, my spirit,
        And do not be dismayed;
            God helps in ev'ry trial
        And makes you unafraid.
     Await His time with patience
        Through darkest hours of night
            Until the sun you hoped for
        Delights your eager sight.

4.  Leave all to His direction;
        His wisdom rules for you
            In ways to rouse your wonder
        At all His love can do.
     Soon He, His promise keeping,
        With wonder-working pow'rs
            Will banish from your spirit
        What gave you troubled hours.

5.  O bless-ed heir of heaven,
        You'll hear the song resound
            Of endless jubilation
        When you with life are crowned.
     In your right hand your maker
        Will place the victor's palm,
            And you will thank Him gladly
        With heaven's joyful psalm.

6.  Our hands and feel, Lord, strengthen
        With joy our spirits bless
            Until we see the ending
        Of all our life's distress.
     And so throughout our lifetime
        Keep us within Your care
            And at our end then bring us
        To heav'n to praise You there.
     
     

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pastor Lange brought Holy Communion to my husband Thursday. This is the hymn he chose to sing to us. He alternated singing a verse and then reading the next verse.After he had finished , he added that the man who had written the words was a man that had a great deal of difficulty in his life during the death of his children. I'm very interested now in the LCMS Family Ministry I've been reading about http://www.lcms.org/pages/default.asp?NavID=1687 and have been trying to stimulate some interest in the organization of a Family Life Action Group at St. John's here in Topeka.

There was the Thirty Years’ War when Paul Gerhardt lost his parental home. There was the loss of his wife and four of his five children to disease. A life much like that Job had, According to this article -http://concordia.typepad.com/vocation/2007/02/lutheranisms_sw.html

Now that my husband is in a wheel chair, he feels like Job also. Yet he has only lost his good health and dignity not his home, not his
wife, children or friends. Yet he still battles with the devil daily these last 20 months. I'm so thankful God is with us, it isn't easy being his full time care provider, I'm thankful I'm not alone.

I'm on the second chapter of The Hammer of God written by Bo Zertz and thinking back on my own experiances these past 57 years, having been on both sides of the fence now.

Last Sunday Pastor Langes sermon included " Sing to the Lord a New Song, "Entrusting Your Days and Burdens" was a new song for my husband and I. It was the first time we had ever heard it.

As I look back I can surely see that so far, God is doing a wonderful job of directing my life and organizing the events along the way that have been helping me grow. My parents divorced when I was two years old so God was really the only Father I had to talk to.

And what about you ? How does this hymn effect you ? I haven't been at Wittenburg Trail in awhile, with the coming of spring I've been outside in the yard.

Unknown said...

this hymn definitely , makes me more grateful for gods goodness n more aware of the reality of The lord not going away , " even when we can't see it hes working " as the more recent hymn goes .is fascinating in a morbid way Paul gerhardts sorrows , painful circumstances can yield the most beautiful fruits . Hope by gods grace and perseverance things are better for your husband in 2011 . willkeepyou in prayer .