Scripture Verse

I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart. Psalm 40:8

Introduction

Words: Kas­par Bie­ne­mann, 1574 (Herr, wie du willst, so schick’s mit mir). Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Engl­ish by Ema­nu­el Cron­en­wett in the Ohio Lu­ther­an Hymn­al, 1880, alt.

Music: Herr, wie du willst Mat­thä­us Grei­ter, 1524 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

portrait
Emanuel Cronenwett
(1841–1931)

Written in 1574, while [Bie­ne­mann] was tu­tor to the child­ren of Duke Jo­hann Wil­helm of Sach­sen Wei­mar, in ex­pec­ta­tion of a com­ing pes­ti­lence. He taught it as a pray­er to his pu­pil the Prin­cess Ma­ria, then three years old, the ini­tial let­ters of the three stan­zas (H. Z. S.) form­ing an acros­tic on her ti­tle, Herz­og­in zu Sach­sen. The Prin­cess af­ter­ward adopt­ed as her mot­to the words Herr wie du wilt, and this mot­to forms the re­frain of Je­sus, Je­sus, nichts als Je­sus, the best known hymn of the Count­ess Lu­dä­mil­ia Eli­za­beth of Schwarz­burg-Ru­dol­stadt.

Julian, p. 142

Lyrics

Lord, as Thou wilt, deal Thou with me;
No oth­er wish I cher­ish;
In life and death I cling to Thee;
Oh, do not let me per­ish!
Let not Thy grace from me de­part
And grant an ev­er pa­tient heart
To bear what Thou dost send me.

Grant hon­or, truth, and pu­ri­ty,
And love Thy Word to pon­der;
From all false doc­trine keep me free,
Bestow, both here and yon­der,
What serves my ev­er­last­ing bliss;
Preserve me from un­right­eous­ness
Throughout my earth­ly jour­ney.

When, at Thy sum­mons, I must leave
This vale of sin and sad­ness,
Give me Thy grace, Lord, not to grieve,
But to de­part with glad­ness.
To Thee my spir­it I com­mend;
O Lord, grant me a bless­èd end
Through Je­sus Christ, my Sav­ior.