Befiehl du deine Wege

translated as
Commit thy way, confiding
Thy way and all thy sorrows
Commit whatever grieves thee

with
LOBET GOTT UNSERN HERREN
HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN
COMMIT THY WAY

I. German Origins

The career of pastor and hymn writer Paul Gerhardt (1607–1676) blossomed relatively late, owing largely to the prolonged devastation of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). While working as a tutor in Berlin from 1642 until 1651, he met musician and hymnal compiler Johann Crüger (1598–1662), who brought Gerhardt’s talent as a poet to a wider audience by including his hymns in multiple editions of the influential Praxis Pietatis Melica, starting in 1647. In 1651, Gerhardt was finally rewarded for his studies by being offered the head pastorate of the parish of Mittenwalde. Here he wrote some of his best-known hymns, including this one, “Befiehl du deine Wege,” which was first published in the fifth Berlin edition of Praxis Pietatis Melica (1653 | Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Praxis Pietatis Melica, 5th ed. (Berlin: Christoff Runge, 1653).

The original text spanned twelve stanzas of eight lines. Some of the divisional lines in this edition were misplaced. The appointed melody was LOBET GOTT UNSERN HERREN, which appeared in this collection at number 240 (included in Fig. 1). The melody is by Bartholomäus Gesius (1562–1613), first printed in Enchiridivm Etlicher Deutschen und Lateinischen Gesengen mit 4 Stimmen (Frankfort, 1603 | Fig. 2). Gerhardt’s text is still printed with this tune, both in German and in English, and the tune is sometimes designated as BEFIEHL DU DEINE WEGE.

Fig. 2. Enchiridivm Etlicher Deutschen und Lateinischen Gesengen mit 4 Stimmen (Frankfort, 1603). Melody in the discantus part.

II. German Textual Analysis

German scholar Richard Lauxmann called this hymn “The most comforting of all the hymns that have resounded on Paul Gerhardt’s golden lyre, sweeter to many souls than honey and the honeycomb,”[1] and he gave several examples of its importance and influence. Lutheran scholar W.G. Polack described the overall message as follows: (1) The Invitation (“Commit thy way unto the Lord”), sts. 1–5; (2) The Exhortation (“Trust also in Him”), sts. 6–8; (3) The Assurance (“He will bring it to pass”), sts. 9–11; and (4) The Prayer for Endurance, st. 12.[2] Gerhardt’s sense of comfort and trust came from personal experience, having lived through the entirety of the Thirty Years’ War. His trauma was significant, as was the trauma of many other people at the time (see especially Martin Rinkart). As one commentator described it:

By the time he was fourteen, both his parents had died. When he was thirty, his hometown of Gräfenhainichen was destroyed by the Swedish army during the Thirty Years’ War, a case of a Lutheran army destroying a Lutheran city; and in the fall of the same year, his older brother Christian died there of the plague. After writing this hymn, Gerhardt would experience the death of his wife and four of his five children.[3]

The hymn is a testament to both Gerhardt’s faith and his skill as a poet; as such, it has resonated with the faith of many others. Theodore Hewitt wrote, “The perfection of the hymn is strikingly evinced by the fact that it soon spread through Germany, finding its way into all hymn books and ranking as one of the finest hymns of its class.”[4]

The hymn is built as an acrostic on Martin Luther’s translation of Psalm 37:5, with each stanza built on one or more words from the verse, like this: “Befiehl / dem Herren / deine / Wege / und / hoffe / auf / ihn, / er / wirds / wohl / machen.” Additionally, Gerhardt might have known this poem from Luther’s Tischreden (Table Talks), no. 5375, from 1540:

Lutheran pastor Jacob Sutton has noted other possible literary influences with which Gerhardt was likely familiar, including Johann Arndt, Von wahrem Christenthumb (1606), Leonhard Hutter, Compendium Locorum Theologicorum (1609), and Johann Gerhard, Loci Theologici (1610–1625).[7]

German scholar Jörg Erb described one particular element of Gerhardt’s craft:

The hymn united all good qualities in Gerhardt’s art of poetry. Numerous are the matching words which are easily remembered, because they are so similar. These he uses right away in a beautiful way in the first verse. These words are: “Treu” (trust) and “Gnade” (grace), “Stand” (status) and “Wesen” (being/essence), “Zweck” (purpose) and “Ziel” (goal), “Schmerzen” (pain) and “Sorgen” (sorrow), “Angst” (fear) and “Not” (distress).[8]

For a Scripture analysis of Gerhardt’s hymn, covering stanzas 1, 2, 6, 8, 11, 12, see Sutton (2019).

III. Additional German Tunes

1. HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN (PASSION CHORALE)

Gerhardt’s text, including some English translations, has become closely associated with the venerable tune by Hans Leo Hassler (1564–1612), first published in Lustgarten Neuer Teutscher Gesäng (1601) with a secular text, “Mein Gmüth ist mir verwirret.” The tune was later published with the sacred text “Herzlich thut mit verlangen” in Harmoniae Sacrae (1613), and thus receives its German name from that source. It is most widely recognized as a musical setting for Paul Gerhardt’s hymn “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,” first paired together in Praxis Pietatis Melica (Frankfurt, 1656).

The tune’s connection to “Befiehl du deine Wege” is also old, most notably set together a few times by J.S. Bach (1685–1750), including the chorale harmonizations BWV 270–271, Cantata BWV 153, Mvt. 5, and in Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244 (1727). Bach’s Matthäus-Passion was first performed on Good Friday, 11 April 1727, but not published until 1830 (Fig. 3). Here the chorale is No. 53; later editions assign a different numbering scheme, putting it at No. 44.

2. COMMIT THY WAY

One tune of unclear origins made its way into American collections in the late 1800s and early 1900s, possibly from a Swiss-German Mennonite composer. This setting for “Befiehl du deine Wege” made its first known appearance in the Mennonite collection Gesangbuch mit Noten (Berne, IN: Christliche Central-Buchhandlung, 1890 | Fig. 4). From there, it was adopted into some other Lutheran and Mennonite English-language collections and named COMMIT THY WAY, as early as the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal (1908). Mennonite hymn scholar Lester Hostetler, writing in 1949, only offered, “It is probably of American origin.” It is written in the traditional German bar form (AAB). Unlike other tunes associated with this text, it is written in a triple meter.

There have been many attempts to translate Gerhardt’s hymn into English. For a fuller list, see Mearns (1892) or Hewitt (1918). The first three listed below by Mills, Russell, and Kelly are full translations in the original meter, and they have each had some currency in English hymnals. They are singable to the original German tunes, whereas John Wesley’s is a partial translation and was reconceived in a different meter. None of these translations carries over the acrostic device into English.

IV. English Translation: Henry Mills

The full translation by Henry Mills (1786–1867), “Commit thy way, confiding,” first appeared in the July 1850 issue of The Evangelical Review (not July 1849, as is often reported), a Lutheran publication (Fig. 5). It was headed “God’s way the best.” This was repeated in his Horae Germanicae, 2nd ed. (1856 | Fig. 6), with the same heading, but with several small textual changes. Both are given here for comparison. Mills was Professor of Biblical Criticism and Oriental Languages at Auburn Theological Seminary, New York City, from 1821 to 1854.

Fig. 6. Horae Germanicae, 2nd ed. (NY: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1856).

Mills’ text was fostered mostly in Evangelical Lutheran hymnals through the nineteenth century and the first part of the twentieth, but it has since fallen out of use.

V. English Translation: Arthur Tozer Russell

Another full translation with some currency was crafted by Arthur Tozer Russell (1806–1874) for his Psalms & Hymns (1851 | Fig. 7), when he was vicar of the small, rural parish of Caxton, Cambridgeshire, England. Russell’s translation, “Thy way and all thy sorrows,” was divided into three sections.

Theodore Hewitt described Russell’s text as being “somewhat ultra-faithful to the original metres,” and made the following useful observations:

In the very passage where others have made their poorest offering Russell has been unusually successful, namely in the last quatrain of stanza 2 (“Mit Sorgen und mit Grämen,” etc.). He has obtained literality in a marked degree in the fourth stanza as a close examination will show. The success is plainly due to the fortunate choice of Anglo-Saxon equivalents and the coincidence of verse accent and important words. … One final observation is interesting that in his last strophe Russell offers a compromise between Wesley’s interpretation and that of Miss [Frances] Cox. This prayer for protection is closer to Gerhardt’s lines and therefore better than Wesley’s bold paraphrase, but it falls far short of the simple and forceful conclusion of Miss Cox:

To Thee our way commending,
Whose wisdom orders best,
We tread the pathway tending
To heaven’s eternal rest.[9]

Russell’s translation has remained in print longer than Mills,’ with a presence throughout the entire twentieth century, including the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (1996).

VI. English Translation: John Kelly

Scottish clergyman John Kelly (1833–1890) produced an entire collection of translations from Gerhardt, Paul Gerhardt’s Spiritual Songs (London: Alexander Strahan, 1867 | Fig. 8), containing 75 pieces in all. Regarding the collection as a whole, hymnologist James Mearns called it “A large selection, translated with scrupulous faithfulness but not retaining much of the lyric grace of the originals.”[10] In his preface, Kelly described his method by saying, “The Translator has, however, striven to maintain fidelity to the sense of the original, and has occasionally somewhat sacrificed euphony to fidelity” (viii). His translation of this hymn begins “Commit whatever grieves thee.”

Theodore Hewitt, like other scholars, felt Kelly sacrificed gracefulness for accuracy:

Dr. John Kelly’s version adheres more closely than any other to the metre and language, but it would be impossible by this means to popularize for the English reader Gerhardt’s poetry. The translator’s efforts are altogether too labored, as is apparent in stanza 2 where the only virtue is the very doubtful one of the retention of the feminine rhyme. Throughout the poem occurs the same defect, a forcing of the rhyme. In the last quatrain, Kelly fails, as do the other translators, to bring out Gerhardt’s strong repetition of the dominating theme, ending the very inferior couplet, “So come we where prepar’d for / Us is our bless’d abode.”[11]

In spite of its shortcomings, Kelly’s version was adopted into several hymnals, especially among Evangelical Lutherans, but only into the first couple of decades of the twentieth century.

A fine composite translation in The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) uses Kelly’s first line and a few other lines but otherwise has little in common with Kelly’s original. This version also borrows several lines from Russell.

VII. English Translation: John Wesley

The well-known translation by John Wesley, “Commit thou all thy griefs” (commonly abridged as “Give to the winds thy fears”) was first published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739). Since Wesley’s translation was not complete, and it was rendered in a different meter than the German, requiring different choices of tunes, Wesley’s version appears in a separate article. See “Commit thou all thy griefs.”

by CHRIS FENNER
with JOE HERL
for Hymnology Archive
23 June 2020
rev. 1 April 2021

Footnotes:

1. “Das tröstlichste aller Lieder, welche auf Paulus Gerhardts goldener Leier erklungen sind, vielen Seelen süßer, denn Honig und Honigseim,” in Richard Lauxmann, “Befiehl du deine Wege,” Geschichte des Kirchenlieds und Kirchengesangs der christlichen, vol. 8 (Stuttgart: Belser, 1876), p. 392: HathiTrust; translated by James Mearns in “Befiehl du deine Wege,” A Dictionary of Hymnology, ed. John Julian (London: J. Murray, 1892), p. 125: HathiTrust

2. W.G. Polack, “Commit whatever grieves thee,” The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal (St. Louis: Concordia, 1942), p. 365.

3. Jacob Sutton, “Entrust your days and burdens,” Lutheran Service Book Companion, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019), p. 1091.

4. Theodore Brown Hewitt, Paul Gerhardt as a Hymn Writer and His Influence on English Hymnody, 2nd ed. (New Haven: Yale, 1976), p.115.

5. D. Martin Luthers Werke: Tischreden, Bd. 5 (Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1919), pp. 107-108: HathiTrust

6. Translated by Jacob Sutton, “Entrust your days and burdens,” Lutheran Service Book Companion, vol. 1 (2019), p. 1091.

7. Jacob Sutton, “Entrust your days and burdens,” Lutheran Service Book Companion, vol. 1 (2019), pp. 1091-1092, citing Elke Axmacher (1999), pp. 208, 224-226.

8. “Das Lied vereinigt alle Vorzüge der Gerhardtschen Dichtkunst. Zahlreich sind die Wortpaare, die Gleiches oder Ähnliches einprägsam aussprechen: Treu und Gnade, Stand und Wesen, Zweck und Ziel, Schmerzen und Sorgen, Angst und Not,” in Jörg Erb, Paul Gerhardt und seine Lieder (Lahr: Johannis, 1974), p. 137; composite translation, partly by Nelda Roth, In the Shadow of His Wings (Monument, CO: Roth, 2001), pp. 126-127.

9. Theodore Brown Hewitt, “Befiehl du deine Wege,” Paul Gerhardt as a Hymn Writer (New Haven: Yale, 1918), pp. 122-123: Archive.org; citing Frances Cox, “To God thy way commending,” Hymns from the German, 2nd ed. (London: Rivingtons, 1864), p. 167: Archive.org

10. James Mearns, “Paulus Gerhardt,” A Dictionary of Hymnology, ed. John Julian (London: J. Murray, 1892), p. 410: HathiTrust

11. Theodore Brown Hewitt, “Befiehl du deine Wege,” Paul Gerhardt as a Hymn Writer (New Haven: Yale, 1918), pp. 121-122: Archive.org

Related Resources:

Richard Lauxmann, “Befiehl du deine Wege,” Geschichte des Kirchenlieds und Kirchengesangs der christlichen, vol. 8 (Stuttgart: Belser, 1876), pp. 392-405: HathiTrust

Johannes Zahn, Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder, vol. 3 (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1890), nos. 5385, 5393: Archive.org

James Mearns, “Befiehl du deine Wege,” A Dictionary of Hymnology, ed. John Julian (London: J. Murray, 1892), pp. 125-126: HathiTrust

Theodore Brown Hewitt, “Befiehl du deine Wege,” Paul Gerhardt as a Hymn Writer and His Influence on English Hymnody (New Haven: Yale, 1918; 2nd ed., 1976), pp. 114-126: Archive.org

W.G. Polack, “Commit whatever grieves thee,” The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal (St. Louis: Concordia, 1942), pp. 362-365.

Lester Hostetler, “Commit thou all thy griefs,” Handbook to the Mennonite Hymnary (Newton, KS: General Conference, 1949), pp. 352-355.

Carl Schalk, “Commit thou all that grieves thee,” The Hymnal 1982 Companion, vol. 3B (NY: Church Hymnal Corp., 1994), pp. 1231-1234.

Jörg Erb, Paul Gerhardt und seine Lieder (Lahr: Johannis, 1974); translated by Nelda Roth, In the Shadow of His Wings (Monument, CO: Roth, 2001).

Elke Axmacher, “Paul Gerhardt: Befiehl du deine Wege: theologische und literarische Interpretation des Textes,” Jahrbuch für Liturgik und Hymnologie, vol. 38 (1999), pp. 191-226.

Jacob Sutton & Joseph Herl, “Entrust your days and burdens,” Lutheran Service Book Companion, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019), pp. 1091-1094.

“Matthäuspassion, BWV 244 (Bach, Johann Sebastian),” IMSLP Petrucci Music Library:
https://imslp.org/wiki/Matth%C3%A4uspassion%2C_BWV_244_(Bach%2C_Johann_Sebastian)