Sun of righteousness

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Sun of Justice in the Evangelical Songbook A New Song , in which the song first appeared in 1932

The Sun of Justice is a German hymn with a complex history. Otto Riethmüller compiled the text around 1930 from older song stanzas and combined it with the melody from the 16th century, which has been used since then, expanded by the refrain “Mercy you, Lord”. Four of the seven stanzas were written in the 18th century, two by Johann Christian Nehring and two by Christian David . The remaining stanzas were written by Christian Gottlob Barth in the 19th century . An alternate seventh verse proposed in 1970 with an emphasis on ecumenism was also by David. The song makes a call to justice, renewal and unity in the Church, in society and around the world.

The melody was originally a secular song from the 15th century and was first used for a hymn by the Bohemian Brothers in the 16th century. Sun of Justice has been included in many songbooks and hymn books and has inspired musical arrangements. With its accent “in our time” it was often sung with political objectives, for example during the prayers for peace for the democratization of the GDR or the unity of Germany.

history

The image of a sun of righteousness was coined by the prophet Malachi ( Mal 3.20  LUT ). “But for you who fear my name, the sun of justice and salvation shall rise under your wings.” The theme is the desire for justice and unity, both in the community, between churches and among peoples. Otto Riethmüller, who later became a leading figure in the Confessing Church , compiled the text from older stanzas. He published it in 1932 in his songbook for the Protestant youth, Ein neue Lied , as a wake-up call to the church in Germany, which had to deal with the rise of the National Socialists.

Johann Christian Nehring

Riethmüller took the 3rd and 7th verses from Johann Christian Nehring , a Protestant pastor in Halle who was influenced by Pietism and who worked closely with August Hermann Francke . Nehring had added these stanzas to another song, “See how lovely and how fine” by Michael Müller, which was published by Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen in Halle in 1704 in the Geistreiches Gesang-Buch collection . Nehring's theme is unity among "divided" Christians, just as God is one in three persons.

Christian David

Riethmüller took the 2nd and 6th stanzas from Christian David (1692-1751), who was raised Catholic and worked as a carpenter and soldier. He was impressed by the Pietist movement and converted in 1714. He worked with Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf and went to Greenland as a missionary for the Moravian Brethren . His theme is a worldwide proclamation of Jesus whom he identifies with the sun of righteousness. His stanzas come from a song Seyd greeted at a thousand times , which appeared in 1728.

Christian Gottlob Barth

Riethmüller found the other stanzas with Christian Gottlob Barth , who worked as a pastor in Stuttgart and founded the Calwer Verlag in 1836. When he retired in 1838, he became a freelance writer, especially for young people. His topic is mission, based on his experiences in the Basel mission , the district mission and the child rescue center in Calw . His stanzas come from Jesus, we come pleading , which appeared in 1827/1837.

Otto Riethmüller

Riethmüller formally combined the individual texts by adding a fifth line to the four lines of each stanza, "Have mercy, Lord". He was thus in the tradition of the medieval quiet . The song first appeared in 1932 in Ein neue Lied , a songbook for young people, in the Church section .

Ecumenical version, hymn books

At an ecumenical meeting in Schlüchtern in 1970 an alternative 7th stanza was proposed by David, which expresses the idea of ​​unity more strongly. The song was included in many hymn books, beginning with the Evangelical Church Hymns (EKG) in 1950. It appeared in the Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada in 1971 , and in the Dutch Liedboek voor de kerken in 1973. The ecumenical version became part of the Swiss Common Hymns in 1973 and appeared in the Catholic Gotteslob 1975 and in the Czech Evangelicky Zpevnik 1979. The song is in the Evangelical Hymnbook both as EG 262 (ecumenical) and EG 263 (Riethmüller's version) and in the Gotteslob as GL 481 in the ecumenical version. It is included in many other song books.

commitment

With its emphasis on justice “in our time”, the song was suitable for political purposes. In the 1980s it was often sung in the peace prayers advocating the reunification of Germany. It was sung at church conventions and made headlines. 130,000 visitors to the 2013 Kirchentag sang it together. It was used as a political protest song and to express the desire for ecumenical unity and a renewal of the church.

Melody and arrangements

The tune is an abbreviated version of the secular song The Rich Man Was Ridden Out . This was known in Bohemia since the 15th century and probably even older. It was published in five-part movement by Jobst vom Brandt in the 5th part of Georg Forster's collection of beautiful, cheerful new and old German little songs in Nuremberg in 1556. This melody, or even its short version, was first used for a sacred song in 1561 in a song book by the Bohemian Brothers. In 1566 the version in use today was published with a German text by the brothers, "Man, raise your heart to God". Otto Riethmüller probably found it in Gottlieb von Tucher’s Treasure of Protestant Church Hymns from 1848, where the melodies are arranged according to meters , and chose them for his text composition Sun of Justice .

The melody begins with an ascent to the octave in just two steps. Your recitation tempo is half the note in the first half and the quarter note in the second, only to return to half note in the refrain.

The Swiss Reformed Hymnal uses a melody by Michael Weisse , which also goes back to a Bohemian model from the 14th century. The range is again an octave, but there is an ascending minor scale in between. The tempo of the recitation changes twice from half to quarter notes

Ernst Pepping composed two movements for three voices in his Spandau choir book. / Two- to six-part choral movements for the church year published by Schott in 1936 and 1941. He wrote a chorale prelude in his volume Kleines Orgelbuch . Paul Horn wrote a choral cantata for mixed choir, wind instruments and organ, which was published by Carus-Verlag in 1962.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Michael Kißkalt: "Sun of Justice" / Sermon meditation on an ecumenical mission song . Elstal Theological Seminar. 2007. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  2. ^ A b Eugen Eckert : "Sun of Justice" / Sermon meditation on an ecumenical mission song . The evangelical broadcasting officer at WDR. 2007. Retrieved November 5, 2011.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Andrea Ackermann, Helmut Lauterwasser: 262/263 - Sun of Justice . In: Martin Evang, Ilsabe Seibt (Hrsg.): Liederkunde zum Evangelischen Gesangbuch . No. 21 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-525-50344-7 , pp. 51–59 , doi : 10.13109 / 9783666503443.51 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Friederike Nüssel: Sermon Prof. Dr. Friederike Nüssel on EG 262 . Heidelberg University . June 22, 2008. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  5. ↑ Alexander Neubacher: Sun of Justice / Top politicians of the Greens dominate the Evangelical Church Congress. With the pious they are a people's party. , The mirror . June 6, 2015. Accessed October 21, 2017. 
  6. ↑ a b Karoline Rittberger-Klas: SWR2 song for Sunday / "Sun of Justice" . SWR . July 7, 2008. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  7. ↑ Online (No. VIII)
  8. ↑ Man, raise your heart to God with Gottlieb von Tucher
  9. ↑ Spandau choir book. / Two to six-part choral movements for the church year . Pepping Society. 1936. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  10. ↑ Small organ book. / Lighter chorale preludes and organ chorals . Pepping Society. 1941. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  11. ↑ Sun of Justice . Carus . 1962. Retrieved October 24, 2017.