Martin Schalling (1532–1608) paid for his convictions more than once. Sent to Regensburg in 1554 after his years at Wittenberg, this peaceable pastor had to choose between opposing the Flacian heresy and keeping his living; he chose the confession and was made to leave the city, the first of several such losses. Given refuge by Count Richard of the Palatinate, he preached the Easter Vespers sermon in the count’s residence in 1569, on Exodus 12 and the Passover lamb, and the manuscript survives with this hymn copied out in his own hand directly after the sermon, headed simply “Gebett,” a prayer. The sermon ends by saying we must be ready when God comes, and then the hymn begins. It reached print in Nürnberg in 1571, and Catherine Winkworth gave us the English of stanzas 2 and 3 in 1863. Bach made the third stanza the closing chorus of the St. John Passion. That same stanza is appointed for the Commendation of the Dying, which suits this day: it asks the physician of the soul for the one cure no other physician has. --- *From the The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity primer:* Martin Schalling (1532–1608) wrote this text as a peaceable pastor who kept being made to pay for his convictions. Sent to Regensburg in 1554 after studying at Wittenberg, he had to choose between his livelihood and his opposition to the Flacian heresy, and he was made to leave the city, the first of several such losses. The hymn opens with Psalm 18:1, "I love You, O LORD, my strength," draws on Psalm 73:25–26, and gathers the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and Luther's morning and evening blessings into a single prayer, which is why it is often called a "prayed catechism." The earliest copy is Schalling's own manuscript of 1569, attached to a sermon on the Easter Lamb and marked in his hand as written on the Feast of the Visitation, July 2; the recipient noted that he received it that same day. Martin Gastritz was long credited with the tune simply because he set the text first, but his melody was forgotten and supplanted by the anonymous sixteenth-century tune we sing. Bach made the third stanza the closing chorus of the St. John Passion (1724), and our translation traces to Catherine Winkworth's Chorale Book for England (1863). --- *From the The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity primer:* Martin Schalling (1532–1608) wrote this text as a pastor who had already paid for his convictions. Posted to Regensburg in 1554, he was forced to choose between his livelihood and his confession when he opposed the Flacian heresy, and he was expelled from the city, the first of several exiles. The hymn carries that weight. It opens with Psalm 18:1, “I love You, O LORD, my strength,” weaves in Psalms 31 and 73, praises Christ’s precious blood, and looks toward waking from the dead to meet the returning Lord. Scholars call it a “prayed catechism,” since its stanzas touch the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and Luther’s morning and evening blessings. Today it is the congregation’s answer to the Collect: having confessed that we cannot please God without Him, we sing back the love the Gospel commands and the Spirit supplies. An autograph found in the Nürnberg church archives is dated in Schalling’s own hand to July 2, 1569, the Feast of the Visitation, with a note from the recipient saying he received it that very day. Bach set the third stanza, “Lord, let at last Thine angels come,” as the closing chorale of the St. John Passion (1724).
Sung at Our Saviour
2025