Now let's go and kick

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First published in the Pietatis Melica practice in 1653.

Now let's go and step is a church New Year's song that Paul Gerhardt composed before 1653.

shape

The song, which is composed in female rhymes, uses numerous twin formulas ("walk and step, do and do, big and small" ...). It consists of two parts, a summarizing praise of God and confession of trust (stanzas 1–7) and a request for blessing (stanzas 8–15), the single requests of which, introduced by monosyllabic imperatives (stanzas 8–13), intensify the respective concern. Up to stanza 8 the congregation speaks in the 1st person plural ("us, we"), from verse 9 onwards the individual also interweaves in the 1st person singular ("me").

content

As can be seen from verses 2 and 15, the song is composed for the turn of the year . At the beginning it invites you to approach God singing and praying (verse 1). Verse 2 takes up “walking” and transforms it into wandering through the change of time, which in verses 3 and 10 is marked as a time of suffering through drastic formulations (“fear, terror, bloodshed”). This refers to the experiences of the author in the time of the Thirty Years War , to which the stanzas 4 and 5 the image of the preserving mother ("I want to comfort you like one is comforted by his mother" Isa 66,13  LUT ) and the protective father (probably allusion on the bosom of God 1 Jn 1,18  LUT ) oppose. Verse 6 reflects the recognition of the futility of human endeavors without this preservation (allusion to "If the Lord does not build the house, those who build it work in vain. If the Lord does not protect the city, the watchman watches for nothing" Ps 127 : 1  LUT ). This experience is followed by praise at a central point in the song (verse 7), which takes up the knowledge: “It is the goodness of the Lord that we are not over; His mercy has no end, but it is new every morning, and great is thy faithfulness "( Lam 3,22f  LUT ).

The intercessory part is formulated based on the general church prayer, which traditionally includes the holy general church, all congregations of the world, the local congregation and their clerics, widows and orphans, emperors and empire, peace in the world, fertility of the earth, good weather, Included enemies and persecutors, the needy and the needy .

melody

The song is sung to the tune Now let's God the Lord ? / i (by Nikolaus Selnecker 1587, today's form by Johann Crüger , whose four-part set is in the Evangelical Hymnbook (EG 320) and in the Swiss Reformed Hymnal (RG 548)). The alternation of basic and syncopated bars is characteristic within the three-half rhythm . In the 18th century, as with Johann Sebastian Bach , the melody was balanced to three-quarter time, but the German Evangelical Church Hymnbook (1854) notated it again in the Crüger version. Audio file / audio sample

text

The text can be found for the first time in the 1653 edition of Praxis Pietatis Melica , Col. 215–217, column Vom neue Jahre .

In the Evangelical Hymnal it reads:

1. Now let us go and step
with singing and praying
to the Lord, who has
given us strength up to this point.

2. We go there and wander
from one year to the next,
we live and prosper
from the old to the new

3. through so much fear and plagues,
through trembling and trepidation,
through war and great horrors that
cover all the world.

4. For just as the little children here on earth are diligently guarded by faithful mothers
in heavy thunderstorms , 5. So also and no less does God allow us, his children, to sit in his lap when need and misery flash . 6. Oh guardian of our life, verily, it is in vain in our doing and doing where your eyes are not watchful. 7. Praise be to your faithfulness, new every morning; Praise be to the strong hands that turn all heart problems.

8. Let thou prayers further,
O Father, and remain a well of our joys in the midst of
our cross and suffering
.

9. Give me, and all those who
long
for you and your love,
a heart that will be patient.

10. Shut the gates of mourning
and let the rivers of joy flow in every place after
so much bloodshed
.

11. Speak your mild blessing
on all our ways;
let
the sun of grace shine both great and small .

12. Be the abandoned father,
the erring counselor,
the gift of the unsupervised,
the poor and good.

13. Graciously help all the sick,
give happy thoughts to
the deeply afflicted souls who
torment themselves with melancholy.

14. And finally, what most,
fill us with your spirit,
which adorns us here wonderfully
and leads us to heaven there.

15. You want to give all this, oh the
life of my life, to
me and the crowd of Christians
for the blissful new year.

The song is in the Evangelical (EG 58), in the Swiss Reformed (RG 548), in the Mennonite (MG 273) and in the free church hymn book Fieren & Loben (FL 230).

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ Bunners, p. 42
  2. ↑ Prayer , Religion Past and Present, 2nd ed.
  3. ↑ First print of the melody
  4. ↑ Melody in Crüger 1653
  5. ↑ Bach version ? / iAudio file / audio sample
  6. ↑ Now let's go and step in 1854
  7. ^ Digitized version of the first print