"Now Thank We All Our God" by Martin Rinkart; Translated by Catherine Winkworth

It's appropriate to think about this hymn as we transition from summer into the fall when many of us return to school and/or work. We thank God for the blessings he has bestowed upon us this summer, and as we move into our regular routines and activities we ask that God would be continually with us and bless us.

Martin Rinkart was a minister in the city of Eilenburg during the Thirty Years War. Apart from battles, lives were lost in great number during this time due to illnesses and disease spreading quickly throughout impoverished cities. In the Epidemic of 1637, Rinkart officiated at over four thousand funerals, sometimes fifty per day. In the midst of these horrors, it’s difficult to imagine maintaining faith and praising God in this sort of situation, and yet, that’s exactly what Rinkart did. Sometime in the next twenty years, he wrote the hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God,” originally meant to be a prayer said before meals. Rinkart recognized that our God is faithful, and even when the world looks bleak, He is “bounteous” and is full of blessings, if only we look for them. Blessings as seemingly small as a dinner meal, or as large as the end of a brutal war and unnecessary bloodshed are all reasons to lift up our thanks to God, with our hearts, our hands, and our voices.

View this Featured Hymn at Hymnary.org.