Paul Gerhardt (1607-76) published "Ich singe dir mit Herz und Mund" ("I sing to Thee with heart and mouth") in Berlin in 1653, in Johann Crüger's Praxis Pietatis Melica, among the hymns of praise and thanksgiving. The original ran eighteen stanzas. Richard Resch writes in the LSB companion that some find it hard to believe a pastor would ask them to rejoice in trials for seven stanzas; they would have found it harder in 1653, when Gerhardt asked them to rejoice for eighteen. LSB draws its seven stanzas from the end of the hymn, where faith holds on under the cross. Resch calls Gerhardt "the master teacher of the theology of the cross," one who teaches "joy through tears, a heart to be glad when it is breaking," and who knew such trials himself. His counsel is to sing that Christ is our treasure, shield, counselor and light in the very midst of suffering, as Habakkuk sang when the fig tree did not blossom (Habakkuk 3:17-19). Most of the English comes from Frances Elizabeth Cox (1841, revised 1864), with one stanza from John Kelly (1867). The tune, by an unknown composer, was first printed in Johann Balthasar König's chorale book (Frankfurt, 1738).
Sung at Our Saviour
2026