The moving hymn “Now Thank We All Our God” is appropriate this week and every week of our lives.
It has an interesting story behind it. The best hymns do. It was written by Pastor Martin Rinckart during the ghastly Thirty Years’ War. In the Saxon town of Eilenburg, the site of battles and pillage and plagues, he was the only clergyman who survived to minister to the ravaged populace. At one point he performed 50 funerals a day, and in 1637, the year he wrote this hymn, he performed more than 4000 funerals.
Nevertheless, in the midst of it all, he wrote “Now Thank We All Our God” for his family. Was there any way to summon peace and praise in such circumstances, except by the Holy Spirit? “Nun Danke alle Gott” was used as a theme several times by Johann Sebastian Bach, and has been – and should be – a vital component of Christian worship ever since.