A favorite hymn. . .

Maybe it is the passing of time and the fact I am nearer my life's end than its beginning or maybe it has only to do with the hymns themselves but I find myself drawn to the songs of the night penned for us to sing by some of the most profound poets.  Chief among them is, of course, Paul Gerhardt.  

Paul Gerhardt (b. Gräfenheinichen, Saxony, Germany, 1607; d. Lubben, Germany, 1676), is by right the most famous author of Lutheran hymns -- having written more than 130 that were published!  He is no stranger to theology having studied at the University of Wittenberg.  He was friends with another Lutheran great, Johann Crüger.  Gerhardt was a pastor, serving the Lutheran parish of Mittenwalde near Berlin (1651-1657) and later the great St. Nicholas' Church in Berlin (1657-1666). He was too Lutheran for many.  Friederich William, the Calvinist elector, had sought to quiet doctrinal wars but he could not but oppose Calvinist doctrine trumping the Formula of Concord.  So he lost his job in Berlin in 1666, later serving as archdeacon at Lubben in 1669 until his death. 

Gerhardt's pen was written in the ink of suffering -- living in the era of the Thirty Years' War, burying four of his five children and then his wife died after a prolonged illness.  Gerhardt was a master of connecting the confessional doctrine of his church to a devotional and personal perspective. Like other German hymns of the time, Gerhardt's were long and elaborately developed. Oddly enough, we can thank both John Wesley and Catherine Winkworth for making Gerhardt's hymns known to the English world or he might have been forgotten.  Anyway...

The hymn that becomes dearer to me over time is variously translated but in our hymnal "Now Rest Beneath Night's Shadow."  The stanzas in italic are not in LSB.  The hymns of the night offer an especially rich treasure for prayer.  None, in my book, quite so lovely as Gerhardt's words:

1 Now rest beneath night's shadow
The woodland, field, and meadow;
The world in slumber lies.
But you, my heart, awaking
And prayer and music making,
Let praise to your Creator rise.

2 The radiant sun has vanished,
Its golden rays are banished
From dark'ning skies of night;
But Christ, the Sun of gladness,
Dispelling all our sadness,
Shines down on us in warmest light.

1. The day is now declining,
   The golden stars are shining
   In bluest heav’nly hall;
   Thus, thus shall be my splendor,
   When my God calls me yonder
   From this world’s sad and mournful vale.

2. To rest my body hasteth,
   Aside its garments casteth,
   Types of mortality;
   These I put off and ponder
   How Christ will give me yonder
   A robe of glorious majesty.

3. Head, hands, and feet reposing
   Are glad the day is closing,
   That work came to an end;
   Cheer up, my heart, with gladness!
   For God from all earth’s sadness
   And from sin’s toil relief will send.

4. Ye weary limbs! now rest you,
   For toil hath sore oppressed you,
   And quiet sleep ye crave!
   A sleep shall once o’ertake you
   From which no man can wake you,
   In your last narrow bed—the grave.

3 Now all the heav'nly splendor
Breaks forth in starlight tender
From myriad worlds unknown;
And we, this marvel seeing,
Forget our selfish being
For joy of beauty not our own.

4 Lord Jesus, since You love me,
Now spread Your wings above me
And shield me from alarm.
Though Satan would devour me,
Let angel guards sing o'er me:
This child of God shall meet no harm.

5 My loved ones, rest securely,
For God this night will surely
From peril guard your heads.
Sweet slumbers may He send you
And bid His hosts attend you
And through the night watch o'er your beds.