8 Hymns to Sing in Response to Tragedy

4. Now Thank We All Our God
Martin Rinkart, c. 1636, trans. Catherine Winkworth, 1858

The year this hymn was written, Martin Rinkart was the only surviving minister in Eilenburg, Saxony, which had been hit by a severe plague. During a span in which he performed up to 50 funerals a day, Rinkart found the resolve to write these words.

O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us;
and keep us in his grace,
and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ills
in this world and the next.