Now Thank We All Our God

Lyrics

Now thank we all our God,
with hearts and hands and voices,
who wondrous things hath done,
in whom his world rejoices;
who from our mothers' arms
hath blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessèd peace to cheer us;
and keep us in his grace,
and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ills
in this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God
the Father now be given,
the Son, and him who reigns
with them in highest heaven,
the one eternal God,
whom earth and heaven adore,
for thus it was, is now,
and shall be evermore.

History

This is Catherine Winkworth's English version of Martin Rinkart's 'Nun danket alle Gott', which Hymnary.org dates to 1636. The oldest text now accessible is in Johann Crüger's Praxis Pietatis Melica of 1648, and the 1663 edition of Rinkart's own Jesu Hertz-Büchlein gives it under the title 'Tisch-Gebetlein', a short prayer at table. Its first two stanzas paraphrase Ecclesiasticus 50:22–24, and the third is a version of the Gloria Patri. A popular story claims it was written for the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, but Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology calls that account legendary, adding that the hymn 'may be called the German Te Deum'. Winkworth's translation appeared in the second series of her Lyra Germanica (1858) and again in The Chorale Book for England (1863).

Rinkart was born at Eilenburg in Saxony in 1586 and studied theology at Leipzig. He returned to Eilenburg as archdeacon in 1617 and served there through the Thirty Years' War. During the great pestilence of 1637 he was for a time the only clergyman in the town, reading the burial service over about 4,480 people, among them his first wife. He died at Eilenburg in 1649. Catherine Winkworth was born in London, lived near Manchester and later at Clifton, near Bristol, and championed higher education for women; she died at Monnetier in Savoy in 1878.

Performance

This recording by St Martin's Voices runs to a little under three minutes: a short organ introduction leads into three verses, closing with a brief organ postlude.

Sources: hymnary.org · St Martin's Voices recording and Words book (Now_thank_we_all_our_God_corrected.docx): no printed credit