Christ My Song - 128
Praise, all praise, to thee be given - Heavenly guidance
(Carl Johann Philipp Spitta/Richard Massie/
Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
Heavenly guidance.
1. Praise, all praise, to thee be given,
God the Father and the Son!
On the earth and in the heaven
all has prospered thou hast done.
I confess with grateful feelings:
Wise and good have been thy dealings;
they proclaim aloud, that he
is most blessed who trusts in thee. PDF - Midi
2. Blessed Lord, if thou hadst left me
as I foolishly desired,
all the good I shunned forbid me,
given all that I required;
hadst thou punished me by granting
all that I believed was wanting,
words would not, O God, express
what had been my wretchedness.
3. How can they, whose eyes are blinded
'mid the din and dust of earth,
find the pearl the heavenly-minded
deem of such transcendent worth?
Evil ways perversely choosing,
and the right and true refusing,
farther every day they stray
from the true and living way.
4. He who wishes no conductor
but the hand of his dear Lord,
he who wishes no instructor
but his Spirit and his word,
he shall walk secure from dangers
in a land of foes and strangers,
till at last the same wise hand
brings him to his Fatherland.
5. Therefore with my God hereafter
I will patiently abide,
and in spite of sneers and laughter
make him my support and guide.
Since in God I have confided,
I have been securely guided;
what I have experienced, is
my blessed pledge for future bliss.
6. God hath said it, God hath said it,
God hath said, and I obey;
God hath said it, God hath said it,
and with joy I go my way;
God so willeth, God so willeth,
every murmur sweetly stilleth,
God so wills it, e'en hath power
to make sweet the last dread hour.
Richard Massie, Lyra Domestica I, 1863, 64-65.
Translated from the German Lob sei dir, mein Gott, gesungen - Lob göttlicher Führung
of Carl Johann Philipp Spitta.