Lord’s Day, Vol. 5 No. 28
(1) Now Thank We All Our God
– A Table Grace in Time of War
When we sing the stately hymn of thanksgiving and praise “Now Thank We All Our God,” we might not realize its birth in one of history’s greatest periods of suffering.
Nothing brings more suffering and tragedy to our world as war. Even if one believers that war may be the necessary instrument for peace in some situations, it still leaves an aftermath of death and destruction.
One of history’s longest and most terrible wars, the last of the great religious wars of Europe, was the Thirty Years’ War of 1618-48. H.G. Wells described it as “one of the cruelest and destructive” of history. Germany, the main battleground between the warring Catholics and Protestants from various countries of Central Europe; suffered misery beyond description, with the German population decimated from sixteen million.
At the outset, Martin Rinkart was called to pastor a church in the walled city of Eilenberg where many fugitives took refuge. He faithfully ministered to the sick and the dying of that city for the full period of the war, enduring the famines, plagues, and marching armies that swept through the city. During the dreadful plague of 1637, he would often conduct as many as forty funerals a day and ultimately over 4,500, including that of his wife.
Yet in the midst of the horrors of that war, Rinkart wrote a “table grace” that was sung as a national Thanksgiving at the end of the Thirty Years’ War. It became a hymn of praise sung across the centuries throughout the world, aided in popularity by its English translation.
The experience out of which this song was born reminds us that in the worst of circumstances, we can still raise our Te Deum in the trial, our praise amid problems, and our doxology amid desolation.
Now thank we all our God
With hearts and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mother’s 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 Holy Ghost,
Supreme in highest heaven;
The one eternal God,
Whom earth and heaven adore
For thus it was, is now,
And shall be evermore.
[Extracted and edited from Songs in the Night by Henry Gariepy]
(2) Going Through Trials with God
Deuteronomy 8:16 Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end.
There are three categories of people reading this: those who are in trouble; those who are getting out of trouble; and those who are going into trouble. Job 14:1 says, “Man that is born out of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” The Spanish have a proverb: “There’s no home without its hush.”
Sooner or later, we will all know sorrow, heartache, and trouble. What we need to know is that all troubles are not a sign that things have gone wrong or things have gotten out of hand. We must believe in the providence, plan and purpose of Almighty God.
When the Israelites were delivered from Pharaoh’s army through the Red Sea, they went into the wilderness. Had God lost control? No. God led them there by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. In the unfailing providence of God, we are often led into a place of trouble. The wilderness is God’s proving ground for your faith? How are you doing?
Are you in the middle of a trial? Where is your focus – on God, on the situation, or on yourself? When you get your focus right, you will find wisdom, strength, hope, and peace.
[Extracted from Daybreak – Practicing the Presence of God (6th July) by Adrian Rogers]
Yours lovingly,
Pastor Lek Aik Wee