Hymns of Hope and Comfort: Now Thank We All Our God

During this time of fear and uncertainty in the COVID-19 wilderness, I’ve decided to do something a little different. I’m going to be daily using my blog to share texts and videos of hymns that pass along hope and comfort. I hope you find them to be encouraging and edifying during this time.

Take care, everyone. Wash your hands. And keep the faith.

Today’s hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God,” is sung and played by St. John’s Episcopal Church in Detroit, Michigan. I highly suggest following them on Facebook and subscribing to their YouTube channel, as they have many great videos of hymns and anthems. They self-identify as Anglo-Catholic, use the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, The Hymnal 1940. St. John’s Rector is The Rev. Fr. Steven J. Kelly, SSB.

The poet, Martin Rinkart, was the only surviving pastor in Eilenburg, Saxony, and was thus tasked with performing up to 50 funerals a day. In the darkest of times, our prayer remains, “And keep us in his grace / and guide us when perplexed / and free us from all ills / in this world and the next.”

Now thank we all our God
with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom his world rejoices;
who from our mothers’ arms
has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.

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

All praise and thanks to God
the Father now be given,
the Son and Spirit blest,
who reign in highest heaven
the one eternal God,
whom heaven and earth adore;
for thus it was, is now,
and shall be evermore.

-Stanzas 1-2, Martin Rinkart, 1636; trans. Catherine Winkworth

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