If God is for me, step

If God is for me, then step everything against me at once , first edition 1653

If God is for me, everything against me is an evangelical hymn . Paul Gerhardt wrote the text in 1653. The song is contained in all church hymn books of German-speaking Protestantism, in the Evangelical hymn book under no. 351 ( main song on Reformation Day ), in the Mennonite hymn book under no. 437.

shape

Paul Gerhardt's poetry comprises 15 stanzas - the original stanzas 11 and 12 are omitted in the EC - each with eight iambic three-part lines with the rhyme scheme [ababcdcd]Wherein female and male rhyme alternate. This regular construction of stanzas occurs frequently in Gerhardt and in all of Baroque poetry.

content

The starting point of the poetry are the summit statements with which Paul summarizes his exposition of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Romans ( Rom 8 : 26-39 LUT ): All evil powers are disempowered because God, through the vicarious love of his son, sins , the origin of evil , has disempowered. United with Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit , believers overcome all obstacles on the path to glory .

What Paul formulates in “we” statements, with Paul Gerhardt becomes a never-ending, at the same time reflected and emotionally strong “I” confession and, in verses 13 and 14, a prayer . Biographical backgrounds, such as the catastrophe of the Thirty Years War , can be assumed. At the time the song was written, however, Gerhardt still had his worst personal and professional ailments ahead of him.

melody

In the first print of the song, the 1653 edition of Johann Crüger's Praxis Pietatis Melica , the text is accompanied by the melodic indication Herzlich does me ask , known today as O head full of blood and wounds . The same information can be found in the hymn books well into the 18th century. Today inseparably and exclusively with If God is for me, kick connected melody ^?^/ⁱ was originally a secular tune that originated in Elizabethan England around 1590 and first encountered a German sacred text in an Augsburg hymn book from 1609. Despite its minor character, which is only partially cleared, it has become, as it were, the tailor-made garment of the text with its courageous leaps in intervals and its forward-pushing rhythm.

translation

Catherine Winkworth translated the song into English in 1855 under the title If God be on my side .

literature

Elke Axmacher, Martin Rößler : 351 - If God is for me, then step . In: Wolfgang Herbst , Ilsabe Seibt (Hrsg.): Liederkunde zum Evangelischen Gesangbuch . No. 14 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-525-50338-6 , p. 77–85 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Web links

Commons : If God is for me, step everything against me at once - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ It was not included in Catholic hymn books; a ö -version does not exist.
↑ or Now rejoice, dear Christians g'mein ( liturgical calendar on the ground floor)
↑ The beginning of the song paraphrases Rom 8,31b LUT , but in the following stanzas reference is made to the entire section.
↑ z. B. Praxis Pietatis Melica from 1736 , p. 973, there with the alternative information you command your way
↑ EG
↑ Due to the late connection between the text and this melody, there are no musical arrangements from the Baroque period.

[1] It was not included in Catholic hymn books; a ö -version does not exist.

[2] r Now rejoice, dear Christians g'mein ( liturgical calendar on the ground floor)

[3] The beginning of the song paraphrases Rom 8,31b LUT , but in the following stanzas reference is made to the entire section.

[4] z. B. Praxis Pietatis Melica from 1736 , p. 973, there with the alternative information you command your way

[5] EG

[6] Due to the late connection between the text and this melody, there are no musical arrangements from the Baroque period.