This hymn, written by Georg Neumark in 1640, was translated to English by Catherine Winkworth, and is often sung to NEUMARK.
If thou but suffer God to guide thee
And hope in Him through all thy ways,
He’ll give thee strength, whate’er betide thee,
And bear thee through the evil days.
Who trust in God’s unchanging love
Builds on the rock that naught can move.
What can these anxious cares avail thee
These never ceasing moans and sighs?
What can it help if thou bewail thee
O’er each dark moment as it flies?
Our cross and trials do but press
The heavier for our bitterness.
Be patient and await His leisure
In cheerful hope, with heart content
To take whatever thy Father’s pleasure
And His discerning love hath sent,
Nor doubt our inmost want are known
To Him who chose us for His own.
God knows full well when time of gladness
Shall be the needful thing for thee.
When He has tried thy soul with sadness
And from all guile has found thee free,
He comes to thee all unaware
And makes thee own His loving care.
Nor think amid the fiery trial
That God hath cast thee off unheard,
That he whose hopes meet no denial
Must surely be of God preferred.
Time passes and much change doth bring
And set a bound to everything.
All are alike before the Highest:
’Tis easy for our God, We know,
To raise thee up, though low thou liest,
To make the rich man poor and low.
True wonders still by Him are wrought
Who setteth up and brings to naught.
Sing, pray, and keep His ways unswerving,
Perform thy duties faithfully,
And trust His Word: though undeserving,
Thou yet shalt find it true for thee.
God never yet forsook in need
The soul that trusted Him indeed.
ARe there any alternate tunes that you know of?
No, but you could probably find one pretty easily. The meter is 9.8.9.8.8.8. The Lutheran Book of Worship has a couple additional tunes available.
I must say, though (if I may), that this is one of my all-time favorite hymn tunes. Even Fetke’s Hymnal for Worship and Celebration uses NEUMARK, though altering the text a bit. Perhaps the MIDI from cyberhymnal is not doing it justice.
I will look it up in the hymnal. The cyberhymanl midis are hard to listen to, IMO. The tune didn’t grab me. It seemed hard to follow, but it was my first experience with it. I will give it time to grow on me.
A little better midi here:
http://www.opc.org/books/TH/MIDI/Th1_567.mid
There’s a bunch of good chorale midis at: http://www.jsbchorales.net/title.html
This might have been Bach’s favorite chorale; he sure used it enough. On the site above you can listen to all eleven of Bach’s harmonizations on NEUMARK, but you have to know its German name to find it: “Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten.” Thanks, Ryan, for digging out an old favorite.
Thanks for the link, Kevin. I knew Bach used this tune often, but it is nice having them all laid out like that with BWV numbers. The first six of these are the chorales for some of his canatas. Here are the amazon links for the audio for these:
Here is the audio for BWV 84, from this CD.
Here is the audio for BWV 88, from this CD.
Here is the audio for BWV 93, from this CD.
Here is the audio for BWV 166, from this CD.
Here is the audio for BWV 179, from this CD.
Believe it or not, I cannot find an audio link for the BWV 197 chorale on Amazon.
The last two, BWVs 690 and 691, look like organ chorales. BWV 690 is sublime. Here are a couple audio selections from this CD: one and two.
BWV 642 is a organ chorale as well. This is a good one. Here is some audio from this CD.
One more note on Bach and this chorale (thanks, Kevin, for the inspiration on this). Cantata BWV 93 is the cantata based on this text and tune. You can find more information about this catnata here, including the streaming music for the entire cantata. If you want to see Bach creativity with a given chorale like this one, this would be an excellent place to go.
[...] The following excerpt from the preface to the Trinity Hymnal–Baptist edition highlights several important facets of hymnody. First, the theology taught by hymns have a great impact on the church's theology. For example, how do you know that Jesus is your friend? Because the hymnal tells me so! ("What a Friend we have in Jesus"). We should never underestimate the ability of hymn texts to teach. The congregation that learns of Christian joy from "Joy in Serving Jesus" is a different congregation from the one that chants "If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee." The preface also highlights the trend towards informal worship and has some poignant observations concerning its cause and effect. "It is well known that the character of its song, almost equal with the character of its preaching, controls the theology of the church. In more than one communion where the preaching has departed from biblical truth the remnant of sound theology contained in favorite hymns has prevented the spiritual life of the church from becoming entirely blighted. However, as the older hymnals have become unavailable, newer editions have introduced ideas foreign to the Word of God. And, as the more formal hymnals often fail to provide hymns for informal occasions, many evangelical congregations have turned to smaller hymnals and song books. These, at best, have presented a truncated view of the place of song in divine worship, and, at worst, they have turned worship into something unworthy of a holy God and his people. There is a need for the resurgence of reverent worship of the Lord in song." [...]
There is a great movie in German that has this song in it done in three parts that is wonderful. Give it a try