Christ My Song - 1692
Commit whatever grieves thee
(Paul Gerhardt/John Kelly/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
Commit whatever grieves thee.
1. Commit whatever grieves thee
at heart, and all thy ways,
to him who never leaves thee,
on whom creation stays.
Who freest courses maketh
for clouds, and air, and wind,
and care who ever taketh
a path for thee to find. PDF - Midi
2. The Lord thou must repose on
if thou wouldst prosper sure,
his work must ever gaze on
if thine is to endure.
By anxious care and grieving,
by self-consuming pain,
God is not moved to giving;
by prayer must thou obtain.
3. Thy grace that ever floweth,
O Father! what is good,
or evil, ever knoweth,
to mortal flesh and blood.
What to thine eye all-seeing,
and to thy counsel wise
seems good, doth into being,
O mighty Prince, arise!
4. For means it fails thee never,
thou always find'st a way,
thy doing's blessing ever,
thy path like brightest day.
Thy work can no one hinder,
thy labour cannot rest,
if thou design'st thy tender,
dear children should be blessed.
5. Though all the powers of evil
should rise up to resist,
without a doubt or cavil
God never will desist;
his undertakings ever
at length he carries through;
what he designs he never
can fail at all to do.
6. Hope on, thou heart, grief-riven,
hope, and courageous be,
where anguish thee hath driven,
thou shalt deliv'rance see.
God, from thy pit of sadness
shall raise thee graciously;
wait, and the sun of gladness
thine eyes shall early see.
7. Up! up! to pain and anguish
a long good night now say;
drive all that makes thee languish
in grief and woe away.
Thine 'tis not to endeavour
the ruler's part to play,
God sits as ruler ever,
guides all things well each day.
8. Let him alone – and tarry
he is a Prince all wise,
he shall himself so carry,
'twill strange seem in thine eyes,
when he as him beseemeth,
in wonderful decree,
shall as himself good deemeth,
o'errule what grieveth thee.
9. He may awhile still staying
his comforts keep from thee,
and on his part delaying,
seem to have utterly
forgotten and forsaken
and put thee out of mind,
though thou'rt by grief o'ertaken,
no time for thee to find.
10. But if thou never shrinkest,
and true dost still remain,
he'll come when least thou thinkest,
and set thee free again,
thee from the load deliver,
that burdeneth thy heart,
that thou hast carried never
for any evil part.
11. Hail! child of faith, who gainest
the victory alway,
who honour's crown obtainest,
that never fades away.
God in thy hand will give thee,
one day, the glorious palm;
who ne'er in grief did leave thee,
to him thou'lt sing thy psalm.
12. O Lord no longer lengthen
our time of misery,
our hands and feet now strengthen,
and until death may we
by thee be watched and cared for,
in faithfulness and love,
so come we where prepared for
us is our home above.
John Kelly, Paul Gerhardt's Spiritual Songs, 1867, 225-230.
Adapted: 4,8 orig. without "dear" (too short);
12,8 orig. (not rhyming): "us is our blessed abode."
Translation of Paul Gerhardt's German hymn Befiehl du deine Wege.