571. He who would be in God confiding
Georg Neumark, 1621-81
Tr. J. J. Voth
1.
Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten
Und hoffet auf ihn allezeit,
Den wird er wunderlich erhalten
In allem Kreuz und Traurigkeit.
Wer Gott, dem Allerhöchsten, traut,
Der hat auf keinen Sand gebaut.
2.
Was helfen uns die schweren Sorgen?
Was hilft uns unser Weh und Ach?
Was hilft es, dass wir alle Morgen
Beseufzen unser Ungemach?
Wir machen unser Kreuz und Leid
Nur grösser durch die Traurigkeit.
3.
Man halte nur ein wenig stille
Und sei nur in sich selbst vergnügt,
Wie unsers Gottes Gnadenwille,
Wie sein’ Allwissenheit es fügt.
Gott, der uns sich hat auserwählt,
Der weiss auch gar wohl, was uns fehlt.
4.
Er kennt die rechten Freudenstunden,
Er weiss wohl, wann es nützlich sei.
Wenn er uns nur hat treu erfunden
Und merket keine Heuchelei,
So kommt Gott, eh’ wir’s uns versehn,
Und lässet uns viel Gut’s geschehn.
5.
Denk nicht in deiner Drangsalshitze,
Dass du von Gott verlassen sei’st,
Und dass der Gott im Schosse sitze,
Der sich mit stetem Glücke speist.
Die Folgezeit verändert viel
Und setzet jeglichem sein Ziel.
6.
Es sind ja Gott sehr leichte Sachen
Und ist dem Höchsten alles gleich,
Den Reichen arm und klein zu machen,
Den Armen aber gross und reich.
Gott ist der rechte Wundermann,
Der bald erhöhn, bald stürzen kann.
7.
Sing, bet und geh auf Gottes Wege
Verricht das Deine nur getreu
Und trau des Himmels reichem Segen,
So wird er bei dir werden neu;
Denn welcher seine Zuversicht
Auf Gott setzt, den verlässt er nicht.
One of the most popular of the German hymns. The heading given it by the author was:
A Song of Comfort. God will care for and help every one in His own time. Cast thy burden on the Lord and He shall sustain thee. Psalm 55:22.
The hymn arose out of the author’s personal need and suffering. On his way to Königsberg, to attend the University at that place, Neumark was robbed of his money and stripped of all his possessions except his prayer book and a small amount of cash which, he had sewn into his clothing. He was therefore destitute and in despair, with no prospect of going to school or making a living. After many privations, he at last received an appointment as private tutor in the family of a judge at Kiel, “which good fortune, coming suddenly and as if fallen from heaven,” he wrote, “greatly rejoiced me, and on that very day I composed to the honour of my beloved Lord the hymn, well known here and there, ‘Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten,’ and had certainly cause enough to thank the Divine compassion for such unlooked-for grace shown to me.”
Neumark was now able to enter the University and became a student of law and poetry. After years of hardship, he finally had the good fortune of being appointed court poet, librarian, and registrar to Duke Wilhelm II of Saxe-Weimar, and custodian of the ducal archives. Shortly before his death in 1681 he became blind. The hymns he wrote during his prosperous years were markedly inferior to those written during his earlier years of hardship and privation.
The translation was made by Rev. J. J. Voth, North Newton, Kansas, then a member of the Bethel College staff, and pastor of the Gnadenberg Mennonite Church near Whitewater, Kansas. There is also a fine translation of this hymn, by Catherine Winkworth.
MUSIC. WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT is wrongly attributed in the Hymnary to the author of the words. Neumark wrote an extraordinarily fine tune, in the minor mode, for these words, used in many collections, including the Canadian Mennonite Gesangbuch, 1942. The present tune is simpler and more popular than Neumark’s. The composer is not known.