An aller unsrer Not,
Stärk unsre Füss’ und Hände
Und lass bis in den Tod
Uns allzeit deiner Pflege
Und Treu’ empfohlen sein,
So gehen unsre Wege
Gewiss zum Himmel ein.
This “Hymn of Trust” is Gerhardt’s finest lyric. It is based on Psalm 37:5: “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” The initial words of each stanza form an acrostic of the German version: “Befiehl dem Herrn deine Wege, und hoff auf ihn; er wird es wohlmachen.” The hymn first appeared in Crüger’s Praxis, 1646. It expresses the simple trust in God that supported Gerhardt through the troubles that arose out of the Thirty Years’ War, as well as his own personal sorrows.
For comments on Gerhardt see [Hymn 134].
Of the many translations of this hymn, this one by John Wesley remains the most popular. It was published in 16 four-line stanzas in his Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1739, with the title, “Trust in Providence.” Since the hymn was written in Short Meter, the editors of the Hymnary had to abridge the third line of each stanza to fit this tune with its 7.6.7.6. meter, a practice which Wesley himself would have heartily condemned. Wesley’s unaltered version of his eight stanzas used here are as follows: