Scripture Verse

I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears. Psalm 34:4

Introduction

portrait
John Wesley (1703–1791)

Words: Paul Ger­hardt, Prax­is Pi­eta­tis Me­li­ca 1656 (Be­fiehl du deine Wege). Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by John Wes­ley in his 1737 Col­lect­ion.

Music: Fes­tal Song Will­iam H. Wal­ter, in the Epis­co­pal Hym­nal with Tunes Old and New, by John I. Tuck­er, 1872 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Wal­ter (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Paul Gerhardt (1607–1676)

Anecdote

On Feb­ru­ary 9, 1796, Zach­a­ry Mac­au­lay sent some books to Miss Mills, whom he af­ter­wards marr­ied. He says, ‘The small hymn-book was my com­pan­ion in hun­ger and nak­ed­ness and dis­tress. We must no doubt make ma­ny al­low­anc­es for the pe­cul­i­ar­i­ties of Me­thod­ism; but on the whole, as the frequent marks of app­ro­ba­tion will show you, it pleas­es me much. One of them, be­gin­ning, Give to the winds thy fears, has oft­en cheered my mind as I viewed the de­so­la­tion caused by the French vis­it.’ This re­fers to the in­va­sion at Sier­ra Leo­ne, of which he was then gov­er­nor.

Telford, p. 295

Lyrics

Give to the winds thy fears,
Hope and be un­dis­mayed.
God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears,
God shall lift up thy head.

Through waves and clouds and storms,
He gent­ly clears thy way;
Wait thou His time; so shall this night
Soon end in joy­ous day.

Still hea­vy is thy heart?
Still sinks thy spi­rit down?
Cast off the world, let fear de­part
Bid ev­ery care be­gone.

What though Thou rul­est not;
Yet heaven, and earth, and hell
Proclaim, God sit­teth on the throne,
And rul­eth all things well.

And what­so­e’er Thou will’st,
Thou dost, O King of kings;
What Thine un­err­ing wis­dom chose,
Thy pow­er to be­ing brings.

Leave to His so­ve­reign sway
To choose and to com­mand;
So shalt thou, won­der­ing, own that way,
How wise, how strong this hand.

Far, far above thy thought,
His coun­sel shall ap­pear,
When ful­ly He the work hath wrought,
That caused thy need­less fear.

Thou seest our weak­ness, Lord;
Our hearts are known to Thee;
O lift Thou up the sink­ing hand,
Confirm the fee­ble knee!

Let us in life, in death,
Thy stead­fast truth de­clare,
And pub­lish with our lat­est breath
Thy love and guard­ian care.