Suggested tune: ES WOLLT UNS GOT GENÄDIG SEIN
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Es wollt' uns Gott genädig sein. M. Luther. [Ps. Ixvii.] First printed at the end of Luther's Ein weise christlich Mess zuhaltȇ, Wittenberg, 1524, and then in Eyn Enchiridion, Erfurt, 1524. Thence in Wackernagel, iii. p. 8, in 3 stanzas of 9 lines, in Schircks's edition of Luther's Geistliche Lieder, 1854, p. 45, and as No. 222 in the Unverfälschter Liedersegen, 1851.
It is the ancient Psalm rewritten as a New Testament missionary hymn. It was thus appropriately used at the opening service conducted by C. F. Schwartz, July 11, 1792, of the Mission Church at Trichinopoli in Southern India (Koch, viii. 114). It was sung by Gustavus Adolphus and his host just before the battle of Lützen (see Altenburg, No. ii.).
Translations in common use:—
1. Lord to us be merciful, a free translation of 6 stanzas of 4 lines in J. Anderson's Hymns from German of Dr. Martin Luther., 1846, p. 45 (1847, p. 64). Stanzas i.-iv. were taken slightly altered, and a stanza v. added, by G. Rawson for the Leeds Hymn Book, 1853, No 82.
2. May God unto us gracious be, a good and full translation by A. T. Russell as No. 147 in his Psalms & Hymns, 1851; repeated in Dr. Bacon, 1884, p. 35.
Other translations are—- (1) “God be mercyfull unto us, And sende," by Bp. Coverdale, 1539 (Remains , 1846, p. 580), almost identical with (2) "0 God, be mercyfull to us," in the Gude and Godly Ballates (ed. 1568, folio 69), ed. 1868, p. 119. (3) "God be mercyfull unto us, And grant," by R. Wisdome (probably based on Coverdale) in the 1560 Psalmes of David, but not repeated in the English Psalter, 1562, or the Scottish Psalter, 1564. Reprinted by Dr. Livingstone at p. 26 of his Dissertations to The Scottish Metrical Psalter, 1864. (4) “May God be gracious to us here," a translation of stanza 1 as No. 205 in the Appendix of 1743 to the Moravian Hymn Book 1742 (1754, pt. i., No. 123). (5) " May God His grace to us dispense," a translation of stanza i. as No. 1116 in the Supplement of 1808 to the Moravian Hymn Book, 1801. In later editions altered to, "Thy mercy, Lord, to us dispense" (1886, No. 902). (6) “Now may our God His mercy” by Miss Fry, 1845, p. 119. (7) "Father, let us Thy mercy see," by Dr. J. Hunt, 1853, p. 77. (8) “May God bestow on us His grace," by R. Massie, 1854, p. 45, repeated as No. 756 in Reid's Praise Book, 1872. (9) “To us, O God, impart Thy grace," by Dr. H. Mills, 1856, p. 201. (10) “God unto us right gracious be," by Dr. G. Macdonald in the Sunday Magazine, 1867, p. 570. In his Exotics, 1876, p. 77, altered to "Would that the Lord would grant us grace." (11) "May God reveal to us His grace," by N. L. Frothingham, 1870, p. 215. (12) "Ah God, in mercy send Thy grace," in the Monthly Packet, vol. xiv., 1872, p. 206. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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