Praise the Lord all who honor him

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Praise the gentlemen in Praxis Pietatis Melica , 1660

Praise all the gentlemen who honor him is a spiritual morning song and one of the most famous German Lutheran hymns. The ten-verse text with the original opening line Praise the Gentlemen Who Fear Him is by Paul Gerhardt , the melody composed for it by Johann Crüger . He first published it in 1653 in the 5th edition of his hymn book Praxis Pietatis Melica . Today it can be found in most German-language church hymns , including the Evangelical Hymnal (No. 447) and the Catholic Praise for God (No. 81; without stanzas 4, 5 and 9).

text

shape

The poem comprises ten stanzas with three eleven-syllable and one five-syllable line based on the example of the Sapphic stanza, which is often imitated in German humanism and baroque .

The rhyme scheme chosen by Gerhardt is unusual [aabbx], which divides the first line in half and leaves the verse-like final line “Praise the Lord” without rhyme. It is striking that Gerhardt deviates from this scheme in the first stanza, in which the words “gentlemen” and “fear” remain without rhyme. All newer hymnbooks put “honor” at the end of the first line and thereby establish the formal analogy, but at the price of a tautology of “praise” and “honor”.

content

The regularly recurring line “Praise the Lord” corresponds to the biblical call Hallelujah , which is at the same time an invitation to praise God and its fulfillment. Gerhardt turns this call into morning prayer and motivates him in stanzas 2–5 with thanks for being protected from various real dangers of the night; This may also be based on experiences from the Thirty Years' War . Verses 6–9 are a prayer for further protection and for keeping on the path of the divine commandments in anticipation of the coming ("your future") and judgment of Christ. This eschatological horizon is expressly the content of the confessional closing stanza.

text

Original version (1660) Common text today (EG 447)

Praise the Lord / All / who fear him /
Let us sing his name with joy /
And bring praise and thanks to his altar.
Praise the Lord. Who

would have given us our lives / That
night so fatherly covered /
And, out of sleep, cheerfully awaken us.
Praise the Lord.

That we can still use our
senses / And hands and feet / tongue and lips rain /
We have to thank his blessing for that.
Praise the Lord.

That fire flames Vns not eaten unintentionally together
with our houses /
That does it / that we sat in his lap.
Praise the Lord.

That thief and robber did
not touch our good and dear / and cruelly injured /
Dawider his angel set himself.
Praise the Lord.

O faithful guardian / Well of all goods /
Oh, let
your hat and goodness float over our life Bey day and night.
Praise the Lord.

Grant / that today / LORD / by your company we may walk unhindered
on our behalf /
and stand in your grace everywhere.
Praise the Lord.

Drive our will to fulfill your word /
Teach us to do sacred business /
And where we are weak / there you give us strength.
Praise the Lord.

Right to our hearts / That we do not joke
with your tight ones / but to become pious
Before your future make an effort on earth.
Praise the Lord.

Lord / you will come / and all your pious ones /
who are converted / bring graciously there /
since all angels sing for ever and ever.
Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, all who honor him;
let us sing his name with joy
and bring praise and thanks to his altar.
Praise the Lord! Who

covers our life, which he has given us,
so fatherly this night
and cheerfully awakens us from sleep:
Praise the Lord!

That we can still use our senses
and stir hands and feet, tongue and lips
, we have to thank his blessing.
Praise the Lord!

That flames of fire did not inadvertently devour us all together
with our houses
, that is why we sat in his lap.
Praise the Lord! His angel opposed the

fact that thieves and robbers
do not touch and cruelly injure our property and bodies
.
Praise the Lord!

O faithful keeper, well of all goods,
oh, let
your grace and goodness float over our life day and night.
Praise the Lord!

Grant that today, Lord, through your company, we may
walk unhindered on our ways
and stand in your grace everywhere.
Praise the Lord!

Do our will to keep your word;
help us work your works obediently;
and where we are weak, you give us strength.
Praise the Lord!

Judge our hearts, so that we don't joke
about your punishments, but
try to become pious before your future on earth.
Praise the Lord!

Lord, you will come and
graciously bring all your pious who are converted there,
where all angels will sing forever, forever:
"Praise the Lord!"

melody

Johann Crüger's melody ? / i in C major corresponds to the positive and trusting mood of the text. Alternating between quarters and halves, it balances the floating rhythm of the sapphic stanza to the even time signature. Audio file / audio sample

In Crüger's own editions of the Pietatis Melica practice, a figured bass is added to the melody . There she herself has an additional baroque expressiveness through the leading tones F sharp in the first line and C sharp in the second line; these have been deleted in the current version. The syncope to the A minor final cadence of the third line has also been erased - through the introduction of a melisma .

literature

Web links

Commons : Praise the Lords  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. the hymns of the Dearest Heart of Jesus, what have you committed by Johann Heermann and Praise the Lord and thank him for his gifts by Bartholomäus Ringwaldt