Scripture Verse

Death is swallowed up in victory. 1 Corinthians 15:54

Introduction

portrait
Paul Gerhardt (1607–1676)

Words: Paul Ger­hardt, 1653 (Du meine Seele singe). Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by Le­on­ard A. Parr (1880–?).

Paul Ger­hardt wrote the hymn as a pa­ra­phrase of Psalm 146, in 1653, five years after the end of the Thir­ty Years War, when he was a min­is­ter in Mit­ten­walde. It was pub­lished in Ger­hardt’s 1667 col­lect­ion Geist­liche-An­dacht­en (Spir­it­ual De­vo­tions). (Wikipedia) Parr’s trans­la­tion bears lit­tle re­sem­blance to Ger­hardt’s orig­in­al.

Music: Du meine Seele, singe Jo­hann G. Ebe­ling, 1666 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Parr or Eb­el­ing (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

Lift up your hearts, ye peo­ple,
In songs of glad ac­cord,
And in your ado­ra­tion
Praise Christ, your ris­en Lord.
For He hath won the vic­to­ry,
O’er sin and death’s dark night,
And filled the gloom and dark­ness
With re­sur­rect­ion light.

Now let the earth be joy­ful
In spring­time’s bright ar­ray,
Let hearts down­cast and lone­ly
Rejoice this East­er day;
The grave hast lost its tri­umph,
And death has lost its sting,
O, sing in ex­ul­ta­tion
To Christ, your ris­en king!