With this December, the 400th anniversary of Paul Gerhardt’s birth comes to a close. During his lifetime he was well-known to Lutherans in Germany. In America, he is largely forgotten. But not his hymns! He was the finest Lutheran hymnwriter a century after Luther’s death.

Gerhardt’s hymns

Christian Worship includes 18 of his more than 120 hymns, which cover most seasons of the church year. They include expressions of daily Christian life, such as faith, cross and comfort, and evening prayer. Interested readers can find the roster of Gerhardt’s hymns on page 938 of our hymnal.

Most of Gerhardt’s hymns in Christian Worship are well-known and much loved. High on the list is “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.” Its final stanza often serves at the bed of a dying believer. “Once Again My Heart Rejoices” and “Awake, My Heart, with Gladness” reflect the central messages of the Christmas and Easter festivals. They proclaim law and gospel with clarity and purity. “O Lord, How Shall I Meet You” remains a beloved Advent hymn. “A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth” is the most consummate, or all-embracing, of our hymns for the season of Lent. Because of its unusual length in past hymnals, its last stanza was seldom reached in congregational singing. Lest its superb message be lost, the problem was resolved by making it a separate hymn (Christian Worship 219) with a new melody. Among the finest hymns at close of day is Gerhardt’s “Now Rest Beneath Night’s Shadow.” Many among us have committed its third stanza to memory as a child’s bedtime prayer.

The word “joy” dominates Gerhardt’s poetry, occurring about 300 times. Yet the entire course of his life was a litany of bereavement, affliction, privation, and the distressing outcome of his faithfulness to Lutheran teaching.  His hymn, “Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me,” emerges as all the more astonishing.

Gerhardt’s difficult life

Gerhardt was born March 12, 1607, in a village near Wittenberg. When he was 12, his father died and, two years later, his mother. Just before his father’s death, the Thirty Years’ War, ostensibly between Protestants and Catholics, began to run its horrendous course of conflict, looting, arson, famine, and plague. It was Germany’s worst distress in history. In a population of more than 20 million, about seven million died. During this time Gerhardt completed his education for the Lutheran ministry. His years at the University of Wittenberg stretched out to more than a dozen, chiefly because of war’s ravages. At the close of the war’s worst years, one-third of Wittenberg lay in ruins. Student enrollments suffered similarly.