The author, Johann Jakob Schütz, born at Frankfurt-am-Main, was a lawyer by profession. He was a man of deep religious convictions and a close friend of P. J. Spener and Joachim Neander, early leaders of the Pietist movement in Germany. Schütz left the Lutheran church and became a separatist. He died at Frankfurt-am-Main.
The translation is by Frances Cox, 1812-97, an English woman of culture and learning who is second only to Catherine Winkworth as a translator of German hymns.
MUSIC. MIT FREUDEN ZART, one of our finest hymn tunes, was used by the Bohemian Brethren, and is probably much older than their Gesangbuch of 1566 in which it first appeared. The tune is a joyous one, as the name indicates, and should not be sung too slowly. All the voices are to sing the melody, the accompanying instrument bringing out the harmonization.
513. Praise thou the Lord, O my soul
Johann D. Herrnschmidt, 1675-1723
Tr. Lester Hostetler
1.
Lobe den Herren, o meine Seele!
Ich will ihn loben bis zum Tod;
Weil ich noch Stunden auf Erden zähle,