21 November 2009

Speaking of Praising God!

My soul, now praise Your Maker!
Let all within me bless His name
Who makes you full partaker
Of blessings more than you dare claim.
Forget Him not whose meekness
Still bears with all your sin,
Who heals your ev'ry weakness,
Renews your life within;
Whose grace and care are endless
And saved you through the past;
Who leaves no suff'rer friendless
But rights the wrong at last.

He offers all His treasure
Of justice, truth, and righteousness,
His love beyond all measure,
His yearning pity o'er distress;
Nor treats us as we merit
But sets His anger by
The poor and contrite spirit
Finds His compassion nigh;
And high as heav'n above us,
As dawn from close of day,
So far, since He has loved us,
He puts our sins away.

For as a tender father
Has pity on His children here,
God in His arms will gather
All who are His in childlike fear.
He knows how frail our powers,
Who but from dust are made.
We flourish like the flowers,
And even so we fade;
The wind but through them passes,
And all their bloom is o'er.
We wither like the grasses;
Our place knows us no more.

His grace remains forever,
And children's children yet shall prove
That God forsakes them never
Who in true fear shall seek His love.
In heav'n is fixed His dwelling,
His rule is over all;
O hosts with might excelling,
With praise before Him fall.
Praise Him forever reigning,
All you who hear His Word -
Our life and all sustaining.
My soul, O praise the Lord!
LSB 820

Or, auf Deutsch - and doesn't it just slay you to watch them SIT to sing this magnificent text?:



Or, just the organ meditation upon the same by Buxtehude:

3 comments:

Elephantschild said...

Organ in the first video:
http://www.gedaechtniskirche-berlin.de/KWG/dateien/musik/orgeldisposition.php

A REAL Krautbox. :)

Good singing!

Rev. Luke T. Zimmerman said...

The hymn is wonderful. Many great settings of the music by Lutheran organists. Perhaps not up to the level of Wachet auf or Wie schoen leuchtet, but probably a Top 10 Lutheran chorale.

As for the comment about sitting: It looks as if the posture of sitting is due to the activity around the altar. (In the background, you can see about a dozen people standing at the altar rail and two ministers/servers going up and down from the rail to the altar.)

Either there is (a) the preparation/conclusion of distribution of the Sacrament of the Altar or (b) preparation/conclusion of the gathering of offerings. In either case, a sitting congregation might be expected.

LTZ

William Weedon said...

I didn't notice that, Pr. Z. I think you're quite right!

A MONSTER Krautbox, EC!