Why, my soul, thus trembling ever

Top Text Translator Author Text Info Tune Timeline Arrangements Page Scans Instances

Why, my soul, thus trembling ever

Translator: Angelo A. Benson; Author: Paul Gerhardt
Tune: WARUM SOLLT ICH
Published in 5 hymnals

Piano/Organ
	I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Representative Text

1 Why, my soul, thus trembling ever?
Have no fear;
Christ is near;
Naught from thee can sever.
Heaven is thine, and Christ shall own thee:
Faithful be
Until He
Shall with triumph crown thee.

2 Painful cross if He should send me,
Shall I faint
With complaint,
Lest the grief should end me?
He hath borne the cross before me:
Soon no pain
Shall remain,
Only peace be o'er me.

3 Hopeful, cheerful, and undaunted,
Everywhere
They appear
Who in Christ are planted:
Death itself cannot appall them:
They rejoice
When the voice
Of their Lord doth call them.

4 Death cannot destroy forever:
From our fears,
Cares and tears,
Soon shall it deliver.
Doors of grief and gloom it closes,
While the soul,
Free and whole,
With the saints reposes.

5 Lord, my Shepherd, take me to Thee!
I am Thine.
Thou art mine,
Even ere I knew Thee.
I am Thine, for Thou hast bought me:
Lost I stood,
But Thy blood
Free salvation brought me.

6 Thou art mine, and, for my guiding,
Be Thy bright
Shining light
In my heart abiding!
Savior dear! let me, attaining
To Thy side,
There abide,
With Thee ever reigning!

Source: The Lutheran Hymnary #342

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Translator: Angelo A. Benson

(no biographical information available about Angelo A. Benson.) Go to person page >

Author: Paul Gerhardt

Paul Gerhardt (b. Gräfenheinichen, Saxony, Germany, 1607; d. Lubben, Germany, 1676), famous author of Lutheran evangelical hymns, studied theology and hymnody at the University of Wittenberg and then was a tutor in Berlin, where he became friends with Johann Crüger. He served the Lutheran parish of Mittenwalde near Berlin (1651-1657) and the great St. Nicholas' Church in Berlin (1657-1666). Friederich William, the Calvinist elector, had issued an edict that forbade the various Protestant groups to fight each other. Although Gerhardt did not want strife between the churches, he refused to comply with the edict because he thought it opposed the Lutheran "Formula of Concord," which condemned some Calvinist doctrines. Consequently, he was r… Go to person page >

^ top