In 1675, Samuel Rodigast, then an instructor of philosophy in Jena, visited an old school friend, the cantor Severus Gastorius, who lay seriously ill and asked for something to bring him comfort. Rodigast wrote this text in reply, modeling its famous opening line on an earlier hymn by Michael Altenburg. Gastorius was so moved that he composed the tune from his own sickbed and gave strict orders that it be sung at his funeral, only to recover and live for several more years. The hymn became a favorite of musical giants: Bach loved it enough to write three full cantatas on it (BWV 98–100) and to weave it into four others, while Pachelbel wrote an organ partita on the tune. Though its confession that God ordains all things might sound at first like Calvinist fatalism, the hymn is thoroughly Lutheran: its comfort rests not merely in a sovereign God who is in control, but in a merciful God bound to His promises, echoing Lamentations 3:22–23, "His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning." Sung as the Church’s confident answer to Christ’s command not to be anxious, it declares that whatever the Father ordains is, indeed, always good.
Sung at Our Saviour
2026