Scripture Verse

Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. Matthew 16:24

Introduction

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945)

Words: Diet­rich Bon­hoef­fer, De­cem­ber 19, 1944 (Von gut­en Mächt­en), writ­ten as a po­em for his fi­an­cée, Ma­ria von We­de­mey­er. At the time, the Ge­sta­po was hold­ing Bon­hoef­fer in the base­ment pri­son at the Reichs­si­cher­heits­haupt­amt (Reich Se­cu­ri­ty Main Of­fice) in Ber­lin due to his op­po­si­tion to the Na­zi re­gime (Wi­ki­pe­dia).

Trans­lated from Ger­man to Eng­lish by Eck­hard and Sa­bine Beck­er, Feb­ru­ary 9, 2024 (pdf).

BY GENTLE POWERS
English Lyrics © 2024 Eck­hard & Sa­bine Beck­er
cc-license

Music: Von gut­en Mächt­en © Kurt Grahl, 1976 (🔊 pdf) cc-license

Alternate Tunes:

The first mu­sic for the Ger­man ly­rics was com­posed in 1959 by Ot­to Ab­el (still un­der co­py­right).

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Eckhard & Sabine Becker

Dietrich Bon­hoef­fer wrote this po­em just a few months be­fore he was exe­cut­ed by the Na­zis af­ter two years in pri­son. In my opin­ion, to ful­ly trans­port the deep emo­tions of this po­em, a new trans­la­tion was ne­ces­sa­ry.

Bon­hoef­fer’s pow­er­ful tes­ti­mony about con­fi­dence in dark un­cer­tain times is a jour­ney with se­ver­al im­port­ant stops and dif­fer­ent to­pics. This im­press­ive teach­ing close to death is an ev­er­last­ing tes­ti­mo­ny of strong faith ev­en in the dark­est night.

Bonhoeffer’s le­ga­cy is a bless­ing to so ma­ny people round the world with its time­less mes­sage of hope and con­fi­dence.

Eckhard Becker, 2024

Lyrics

By gen­tle Pow­ers faith­ful­ly sur­round­ed,
Protected won­drous­ly, con­soled by grace,
That’s how I long to live these days to­ge­ther,
Close by your side, to start the com­ing year;

Our hearts are tor­tured ev­en now by ev­il days,
The bur­dens of the past are hard to bear,
Oh Lord, grant our scared souls the sal­va­tion,
Therefore You have cre­at­ed us and saved.

And if You pass the hea­vy cup of suf­fer­ing,
The bit­ter cha­lice, filled to the high­est brim,
Then we will take it, grate­ful with­out trem­bling
Out of Your good and so be­loved hand.

But if You will grant us once more the joy to see
This world, the splen­dor of its beam­ing sun,
Then we will sure­ly all the past re­mem­ber
And our whole lives will be Yours alone.

Let warm and bright the can­dles’ flames light up to­day,
Which You have brought in our gloomy times,
Lead us to­ge­ther back again if that can be!
We know for sure, Your light shines through the night.

When now the si­lence spreads around, help us to hear
And list­en to the full em­brac­ing sound
Of this world, which un­seen around is wid­en­ing
To all Your child­ren’s high­est hymns of praise.

By gen­tle Pow­ers won­der­ful­ly shel­tered,
Awaiting fear­less­ly what there will be.
God, He is near at dusk and in the morn­ing
And with us cer­tain­ly on each new day.