Hymn Corner

Contributed by Amy Maclean

(Extracted from The One Year Book of Hymns compiled and edited by R. Brown and M. Norton, 1995.)

Be Still, My Soul

Be still, my soul! The Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul! Thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul! Thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul! The waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

Be still, my soul! The hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul! When change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Katharina Amalia von Schlegel (1697-?)
Translated by Jane Laurie Borthwick (1813-1897)

Whatever your circumstances, if you believe in the first line of this great hymn, you will be at rest. In the midst of the psalmist’s trouble, the Lord said, “Be still, and know that I am God.” It was these same words that spoke to Katharina von Schlegel in the turbulent times of post-Reformation Germany.

A century after Luther’s reforms, central Europe was racked by the Thirty Years’ War, which pitted Catholics against Protestants. The Lutheran church lapsed into formalism and dead orthodoxy. In the darkness of that time, God raised up the Pietist movement which stressed personal holiness, charity missions and music.

The songs of the Pietists were largely unknown outside of Germany until three British women — Jane and Sarah Borthwick and Catherine Winkworth — began to translate them into English a hundred years later. Today’s hymn, penned by the leading women of the Pietist movement, a canoness of a women’s seminary, was among these forgotten songs.

Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has wrought desolations in the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear, he burns the chariots with fire! “Be still, and know that I am God. I am exalted among the nations; I am exalted in the earth!” The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Psalm 46:8-11 RSV

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