Now Thank We All Our God  

   Written during the Thirty Years' War, this is one of the most widely sung hymns in Germany. Martin Rinkart (1586-1649) was the only pastor in Eilenberg, a walled city where refugees fled, yet was overrun by Swedes and then Austrians. 

   Crowded conditions, hunger and plague were normal. Rinkart held funerals for 5,000 residents, including his wife. Yet thanksgiving and resolve arise. As translated:

Now thank we all our God

With heart and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things hath done,

In whom His world rejoices;

Who, from our mothers' arms,

Hath 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;

And keep us in His grace,

And guide us when perplexed,

And free us from all ills

In this world and the next. 

All praise and thanks to God

The Father now be given,

The Son and Him who reigns

With them in highest heaven,

The one eternal God,

Whom earth and heaven adore;

For thus it was, is now,

And shall be evermore. 
    Amen.