HYMN FOR PENTECOST 6 If thou but suffer God to Guide Thee
- Gracia Grindal
- Jul 14
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 17
Text: Georg Neumark (1621-1681) Tune: Georg Neumark (1621-1681)
1. If thou but suffer God to guide thee,
And hope in him through all your ways,
He'll give thee strength, whate'er betide thee,
And bear thee through the evil days:
Who trusts in God's unchanging love
Builds on the Rock that naught can move.
2. What can these anxious cares avail thee,
These never ceasing moans and sighs?
What can it help, if thou bewail thee
O'er each dark moment as it flies?
Our cross and trials do but press
The heavier for our bitterness.
3. Only be still, and wait his leisure
In cheerful hope, with heart content
To take whate'er thy Father's pleasure
And all-discerning love hath sent;
Nor doubt our inmost wants are known
To him who chose us for his own.
4. All are alike before the Highest;
'Tis easy to our God, we know,
To raise thee up, though low thou liest,
To make the rich man poor and low;
True wonders still by him are wrought,
Who setteth up and brings to naught.
5. Sing, pray, and keep his ways unswerving,
So do thine own part faithfully,
And trust his Word--though undeserving,
Thou yet shalt find it true for thee;
God never yet forsook at need
The soul that trusted him indeed.
Tr. Catherine Winkworth
REFLECTION
The story of Mary and Martha is one of those fascinating glimpses into the private life of Jesus and the turbulence of kin. We all know sibling rivalry to some degree or another. When I would feebly ask my sister if I could help in the kitchen rather than entertain the guests in the living room she would reply, "No thank you. I’m working on my Martha award." My mother forbade my father to preach on it because Mary always got praise and Martha critiques. “You like your coffee as much as pious conversation,” she would remark. Only at the end did she relent. One of the last sermons I heard my father preach was on this text. I whispered, how did you let this happen. She looked at me, her eyes sparkling, “We worked it out,” she said. Later she explained that they had come to realize that Martha in John was the first to call Jesus the "the Christ, the Son of God." So kudos for her as well.
That is how Scripture works. A life long conversation over a difficult passage which keeps deepening as our faith grows in understanding. As I read it now, I hear Jesus realizing he is in the middle of a sisterly spat, and as a male, knows he has to be careful as he speaks the truth, but tenderly. He doesn’t say Martha is wrong, only that Mary has chosen the better portion. Martha still gets something. And she will use it to see the truth more clearly. The picture of her running to Jesus to upbraid him about not coming sooner and thus saving her brother Lazarus is entirely consistent with her upbraiding him about her sister. But this time she has the better part as Mary hangs back in sorrow, thinking the same thing as Martha, but too emotional to go forth and say it. This is how Jesus lives with us—the relationship grows deeper as we grow wiser. And like a many faceted gems, we keep seeing new truths sparkle in it.
The hymn for today is one of the great ones and perfect for this text. “What can these anxious cares avail me?” There is a lot about patience, something Martha lacks, in both stories and this hymn says it about as well as any. When one is in the middle of anxiety and strife, no matter how great or trivial, the main thing is “Only be still and wait his leisure.” And “trust his word, unswerving.”
HYMN INFO
Neumark, born just after the Thirty Years War began to ravage Europe, especially the many German territories, was traveling to matriculate at the university in Königsberg in Prussia, now known as Kalingrad, Russia. He was just eighteen.On his way there, to assure his safety in those dangerous times, he traveled with some merchants on their way to a fair. They were attacked by robbers. Neumark lost almost all his possessions, escaping with only the clothes on his back, a prayer book, and a small purse sewn into his clothes. He was destitute. For the next two years he lived in grinding poverty, trying to find a job. Given the uncertainty of the times, he could not find one. After two years, in 1641, he found a position tutoring a family in Kiel, on the eastern shores of the Jutland peninsula of Holstein. Neumark wrote, “This good fortune, which came so suddenly and, as it were, from heaven, so rejoiced my heart that I wrote my hymn, ‘If thou but trust in God,’ to the glory of my God on that first day.”
Neumark went on to become a well regarded musician and poet. His duke, Wilhelm IV of Saxe -Weimar, awarded him a position in the Fruchtbringende Geselleschaft, a society for accomplished artists in Thuringia where he also received the nickname Der Sprossende (the sprouting).
For a wonderful evening entertainment, watch the movie Babette’s Feast. After the feast the group retires to the living room to hear this tune played on the piano. A liminal moment.
LINKS
Dresden Choir
National Lutheran Choir
This great chorale became the basis for Cantata 93 by J. S. Bach. Here is one performance directed by Nicolas Harnoncourt. The text of the cantata follows closely each stanza of the original. I have not included stanzas 4 and 5 of the original, but you can figure that out. It is a comfort to hear and read the texts which elaborate on the theme of the hymn so beautifully.
for a translation of the Bach cantata go here
My latest book will be available soon
Comments