Commit thou all thy griefs

including
Give to the winds thy fears
Put thou thy trust in God

translated from
Befiehl du deine Wege

with
JERICHO (HANDEL’S MARCH)
VON GOTT WILL ICH NICHT LASSEN
BETHLEHEM (DONCASTER)
ICH HALTE TREULICH STILL

For a fuller history of the German text and other English translations of it, see “Befiehl du deine Wege.”

I. Text: Background

John Wesley’s affection for German hymns was initiated on board the ship Simmonds, on route to his missionary endeavors in Georgia. John and Charles boarded the ship 14 October 1735, and three days later (17 Oct.) John recorded his interest in learning more about the Moravians on board (United Brethren, Unitas Fratrum), who were also interested in missions in the American colonies:

I began to learn German, in order to converse a little with the Moravians, twenty-six of whom we had on board, men who have left all for their Master, and who have indeed learned of him, being meek and lowly, dead to the world, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost.[1]

On 19 Oct. he noted in his diary, “Sang with Germans,” and on 20 Oct., he noted how the Moravians reciprocated his interest:

In the afternoon, Mr. [David] Nitschmann, pastor of the Moravians, Mr. [Martin] Van Hermsdorf, and Andrew Dober began to learn English. May God give us all not only to be of one tongue, but of one mind and one heart![2]

Wesleyan scholar Geordan Hammond described this ongoing relationship during the voyage:

These three activities—personal and mutual language learning and attendance at the Moravians’ evening worship—continued for the duration of the voyage to Georgia. Wesley’s diary records approximately 110 hours of studying the German language, forty-four hours of mutual language study, and attendance at the Germans’ worship service on about 123 occasions. Wesley’s presence at Moravian worship was the most consistent of these three activities, which was rarely omitted from his daily routine.[3]

All of this exposure to the language and worship practices of the Moravians led to John’s eventual desire to translate some of their materials into English. Thus on 5 May 1736, he recorded in his diary “Translated German Psalms,” and on 7 May, “translated hymns from German.”[4] After briefly returning to England, John opted to visit the Moravian leader Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700–1760), who at the time (July of 1738) was staying at a large rented home in Marienborn. Here he took in Zinzendorf’s preaching and teaching, but he admitted his German was rusty:

I lodged with one of the brethren at Eckershausen, an English mile from Marienborn, where I usually spent the day, chiefly in conversing with those who could speak either Latin or English; not being able (for want of more practice) to speak German readily. And here I continually met with what I sought for, viz., living proofs of the power of faith; persons “saved from inward as well as outward sin” [Matt. 1:21] by “the love of God shed abroad in their hearts” [Rom. 5:5] and from all doubt and fear by the abiding “witness of the Holy Ghost given unto them” [Rom. 5:5].[5]

From there, Wesley headed eastward toward the Moravian settlement at Herrnhut, and upon arriving on 1 August 1738 worshiped with the Moravians there, noting:

About eight we went to the public service, at which they frequently use other instruments with their organ. They began (as usual) with singing. Then followed the expounding, closed by a second hymn. Prayer followed this; and then a few verses of a third hymn, which concluded the service.[6]

Wesley stayed in Herrnhut until 14 August, at which point he returned to England. This prolonged fellowship with the German Moravians and their worship practices in Georgia and in Germany laid the foundation for his translation of hymns from German to English.

II. Text: Publication

In his encounters with the Moravians, Wesley most likely would have come across one of their most important hymnals, Das Gesang-Buch der Gemeine in Herrn-Huth (1735), where Paul Gerhardt’s hymn “Befiehl du deine Wege” appeared as number 34 in its full form of twelve stanzas (Fig. 1). In this collection, the text was uncredited, and the recommended tune setting was VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN.

Wesley had translated several German hymns for his American tome, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (Charlestown: Lewis Timothy, 1737), but this was not one of them. It seems more likely he translated “Befiehl du deine Wege” between 1737 and 1739, quite possibly while he was in Germany or shortly thereafter. His translation, “Commit thou all thy griefs,” first appeared in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739 | Fig. 2) in sixteen stanzas of four lines, without music, headed “Trust in Providence. From the German.”

Fig. 2. Hymns and Sacred Poems (London: William Strahan, 1739).

Wesley’s hymn also appeared the following year in George Whitefield’s Continuation of the Rev. Mr. Whitefield’s Journal, after his Arrival in Georgia to a Few Days after his Second Return thither from Philadelphia (Philadelphia: William Strahan, 1740), pp. 95–96, where Whitefield introduced it by saying, “But I commit myself to God in a hymn, composed by the great Luther, and translated by my friend Mr. Wesley.”

In 1742, Wesley published the first sixteen lines of the hymn in A Collection of Tunes Set to Music As They Are Commonly Sung at the Foundery (London: A. Pearson, 1742), paired with a tune named JERICHO TUNE (more on this below).

Wesley included the hymn in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1753 | Fig. 3), this time reformatted as eight stanzas of eight lines and divided into two parts, but otherwise unchanged textually. This introduced the common division of the hymn into a separate text beginning “Give to the winds thy fears.”

Fig. 3. Hymns and Spiritual Songs (London: William Strahan, 1753).

The hymn then appeared in full in A Pocket Hymn Book (1785), divided into two parts as before, but returned to sixteen stanzas of four lines. The recommended tune given there was OULNEY. In the revised version of that hymnal (1787), the hymn was again formatted in eight stanzas of eight lines in two parts.

The hymn did not appear in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists (1st ed., 1780) until it was included in a supplement in the edition printed by John Mason in 1831. In that edition, it was given in fifteen stanzas of four lines, in two parts, inexplicably omitting stanza 6 (“And whatsoe’er Thou will’st”).

III. Text: Analysis

In comparison to the original German, Wesley approached the hymn loosely, especially in respect to the structure. Whereas the original text was written in 7.6.7.6.D, Wesley’s version was reconceived in Short Meter, 6.6.8.6. Wesley did not translate Gerhardt’s stanzas 5, 9, 10, and 11. Nonetheless, in spite of its liberties, this version has come to be very highly regarded and has been more frequently printed than any other English translation. James Mearns said of it, “Though free, it has in far greater measure than any other caught the ring and spirit of Gerhardt.”[7]

Theodore Hewitt offered a more substantive evaluation of the translation in 1918:

A number of changes have been made by the translator, but in general the main features are quite faithfully reflected. Firstly, he has divided the 8-line strophes into quatrains, has disregarded the feminine rhymes of lines 1 and 3 and changed to iambic tetrameter the original iambic trimeter ending in a feminine rhyme. These variations enable him often to introduce an additional thought, e.g. in line 3, “To his sure truth and tender care,” where in Gerhardt there is only the idea of “faithful care.” Again he profits by being able better to express in English the more pithy German; for example, in stanza 14: “When fully he the work hath wrought” reproduces very acceptably the idea contained in the compound “hinausgeführt.”

Omitting stanza V, Wesley gives a free but spirited version of the stanza beginning “Hoff, O du arme Seele” as “Give to the winds thy fears…”. Omitting also stanzas IX–XI inclusive, in which the original emphasizes or repeats in sameness of strain the thoughts of the earlier part of the poem, Wesley offers in his final strophe a strong conclusion, though he departs from the idea of Gerhardt’s theme of distress for which termination is besought, and dwells upon the weakness to which man is prone. While Gerhardt asks to be guided to Heaven, to be entrusted (“empfohlen”) to God’s care, which one would expect for the appropriate conclusion of a poem beginning “Befiehl du deine Wege,” Wesley prays only that God’s children may remember His care.[8]

Albert Edward Bailey framed the hymn in contrast to a belief in natural law:

There are few today who hold the philosophy underlying the hymn: “Trust in God and everything will come out all right.” Science indicates that “clouds, winds, seas” are subject to natural law which does not change its action to suit special human situations. Similarly, our conception of the freedom of man’s will, even to do wrong, cannot be squared with “Leave to his sovereign sway to choose and to command.” How then can we be assured, “So safe shalt thou go on”?

In spite of our boasted science we are still very ignorant about both nature and human nature. There is ample evidence that the spiritual attitudes recommended in [this hymn] have worked miracles—not in breaking nature’s laws, but in releasing unsuspected inner powers which have saved men when otherwise they surely would have perished.[9]

For a stanza-by-stanza list of Scripture references in Wesley’s hymn, except for two omitted stanzas, see J.R. Watson (1988), or for references in “Give to the winds thy fears,” covering stanzas 9, 10, 13, and 16, see Carl Daw (2016). Speaking more generally about the Bible and assurances of comfort, pastor Robert Cottrill offered this viewpoint:

God is the ultimate source of true comfort. “[He is] the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (II Cor. 1:3–4). The Spirit of God comforts the people of God (Acts 9:31), often through the healing message of God’s Word (Rom. 15:4). As indicated, He also works through other people to do that (II Cor. 7:6). Paul reminds the Thessalonian believers, “We exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children” (I Thess. 2:11), in turn urging them to “comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all” (I Thess. 5:14).

Not only can we do this directly, but through our earnest prayers for those in distress. The apostle did that. He prayed, “Our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation [comfort] and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work” (II Thess. 2:16-17).[10]

IV. Text: Alteration

The most significant altered version of Wesley’s text in common use, especially in the British Isles, is “Put thou thy trust in God.” This alteration, using portions of stanzas 1, 3, and 5, first appeared in William J. Hall’s Psalms and Hymns Adapted to the Services of the Church of England (London: Henry Wix, 1836; nicknamed the Mitre Hymn Book) in four stanzas of four lines.

This was adopted, for example, into Hymns Ancient & Modern starting with the New Edition of 1904. More recently, hymnal compilers have updated the first line to read “Put all your trust in God,” starting around 1999.

V. Tunes

Wesley’s change of meter to 6.6.8.6 has required hymnal compilers to use tunes different from those normally associated with the German text and its more faithful English renderings. Tune settings have varied considerably, some of which are very poor, especially those with martial or energetic qualities, such as FESTAL SONG (by William H. Walter) or DIADEMATA (by George Elvey). Methodist scholar Carlton Young lamented the use of FESTAL SONG in the United Methodist Hymnal (1989), writing, “The matching of this slick and predictable tune to this solid hymn is unfortunate and continues the futile efforts to find a suitable and singable setting.”[11] The first musical pairing, made by the Wesleys, also happens to be one of the most problematic.

1. JERICHO (HANDEL’S MARCH)

The first attempt to provide music for John’s text was made in A Collection of Tunes Set to Music As They Are Commonly Sung at the Foundery (London: A. Pearson, 1742 | Fig. 5), made for the Wesleys’ own purposes. Here, the first sixteen lines of the hymn were given with JERICHO TUNE, which is a melody borrowed from a march in Act III of the opera Riccardo Primo (1727) by George Frideric Handel. The Wesleys were great admirers of English opera composers, some of whom operated in their circle of influence, and they sometimes conscripted opera tunes for their tune books.[12]

In this image, the note “Vol. 1. Page 141” refers to Hymns and Sacred Poems, as in Figure 2 above. British Methodist scholar Martin V. Clarke explained why this setting was so problematic, not specifically for this text but as a congregational hymn tune in general:

The length of “Jericho Tune,” which is structured in double verses of Double Short Metre, suggests that it would be difficult to teach to a musically untrained congregation, even making use of the lining-out technique. The absurd pitch [vocal range] may be discounted as bad editorial practice and could be easily rectified in performance, but the complexity of the melody still places severe musical demands on the singers. The time signature indicates a minim pulse, which, combined with the original context of the tune as a march, suggests a lively tempo. In light of this, the rhythmic figurations of the third system, the large leaps of the second half of the melody, the tonal complexity of modulations to the dominant and supertonic minor, and the frequent prolongation of syllables over several notes all contribute to the unlikelihood of this tune being successfully sung by congregations.[13]

As it turned out, the Wesley’s continued to use this tune—it appeared in their 1761 and 1780 tunebooks—but they renamed it HANDEL’S MARCH and paired it much more appropriately with Charles’ hymn “Soldiers of Christ, arise.”

2. VON GOTT WILL ICH NICHT LASSEN (OULNEY)

In their collection A Pocket Hymn Book (1785), which did not contain music but contained recommendations for tune settings, John’s text bore a recommendation for OULNEY. The tune is a variant of the German hymn tune VON GOTT WILL ICH NICHT LASSEN, dating to a 1563 broadsheet (now lost), based in turn on a widely popular folk song, “Ich ging einmal spazieren.”[14] The Wesleys used this tune in their 1742 Foundery collection, where it was called RESIGNATION and set to “And wilt thou yet be found?” They used another version of the tune in Select Hymns with Tunes Annext (1761), paired with “Who in the Lord confide,” and repeated that pairing in Sacred Harmony (1780 | Fig. 6).

In spite of the recommended pairing of “Commit thou all thy griefs” with OULNEY, it seems those two elements never appeared in print together. The tune is still printed in hymnals, especially Lutheran collections, under its German name.

3. BETHLEHEM (DONCASTER)

One of the most common and enduring tune settings for John Wesley’s text was produced by Charles Wesley’s son Samuel Wesley (1766–1837). This was originally printed in Psalms and Hymns for the Service of the Church . . . Compiled for the Use of St. Margaret’s, Westminster (London: H.H. Milman, 1837 | Fig. 7), in which the texts were compiled by Henry Hart Milman (1791–1868), rector of St. Margaret’s, and the music was edited by John Bernard Sale (1779–1856), who was the organist. In this collection, Wesley’s tune was used for a paraphrase of Psalm 31, “Defend me, Lord, from shame,” by Tate & Brady from the New Version of the Psalms (1696/98).

Kenneth Trickett reported, “The name DONCASTER goes back at least to the United Presbyterian Hymnal (1877).”[15] Wesley’s tune, being a versatile Short Meter tune, has been used with many other texts. The history of the connection between John Wesley’s text and his nephew’s tune is unclear.

4. ICH HALTE TREULICH STILL

Concerning this tune, Methodist scholar James T. Lightwood aptly summarized its source and its authorship:

ICH HALTE TREULICH STILL is found in Musicalisches Gesang-Buch, a collection of 954 [songs] (“Geistriche Lieder und Arien”) published at Leipzig. This was formed in 1736 by Georg Christian Schemelli, who had been a pupil at the Thomas-schule at Leipzig. Only one of the songs bears the name of J.S. Bach [no. 627, p. 430], and it is a matter of much curious and indeed fruitless speculation as to the other probable composers. ICH HALTE may be by J.S. Bach, and then again it may not, and that is all that can be said.[16]

Little is known about the author of the text, credited here to J.H. Till. In spite of being assigned an official number, BWV 466, by Wolfgang Schmieder’s catalog of works, the attribution to Bach is still considered questionable.[17] The tune’s adoption into English is not well documented, apparently being some time after 1820, and its earliest connection to Wesley’s text is likewise not certain, but dating at least as early as the Pilgrim Hymnal (1958).

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
25 June 2020

Footnotes:

1. Richard P. Heitzenrater, ed., Journal and Diaries I (1735–1738), The Works of John Wesley, vol. 18 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1988), p. 312.

2. Richard P. Heitzenrater, ed., Journal and Diaries I (Nashville: Abingdon, 1988), p. 313.

3. Geordan Hammond, John Wesley in America: Restoring Primitive Christianity (Oxford: University Press, 2014), p. 82.

4. Richard P. Heitzenrater, ed., Journal and Diaries I (Nashville: Abingdon, 1988), pp. 382–383.

5. W. Reginald Ward, ed., Journal and Diaries I (1735–1738), The Works of John Wesley, vol. 18 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1988), p. 260.

6. W. Reginald Ward, ed., Journal and Diaries I (Nashville: Abingdon, 1988), p. 267.

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

8. Theodore Hewitt, Paul Gerhardt as a Hymn Writer and His Influence on English Hymnody (New Haven, CT: Yale, 1918), pp. 118–119: Archive.org

9. Albert Edward Bailey, “Befiehl du deine Wege,” The Gospel in Hymns (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950), pp. 327–328.

10. Robert Cottrill, “Commit thou all thy griefs,” Wordwise Hymns (20 Sept. 2017): https://wordwisehymns.com/2017/09/20/commit-thou-all-thy-griefs/

11. Carlton R. Young, “Give to the winds thy fears,” Companion to the United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville: Abingdon, 1993), p. 353.

12. See the detailed study on this subject by Margaret Garrett, “Operatic influences on the hymn tunes used by John and Charles Wesley,” Amazing Love! How Can it Be: Studies on Hymns by Charles Wesley (Eugene, OR: Resource, 2020), pp. 111–129.

13. Martin V. Clarke, “Spirituality and practicality: John Wesley’s visit to America and Moravian influences on Methodist music and worship,” Lumen, vol. 27 (2008), pp. 21-23: https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/lumen/2008-v27-lumen0254/1012047ar.pdf

14. For a more detailed analysis of the history and publication of the tune, see Joseph Herl, “From God can nothing move me,” Lutheran Service Book Companion, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019), pp. 987–988. See also Johannes Zahn, vol. 3 (1890), no. 5264.

15. Kenneth Trickett, “DONCASTER,” Companion to Hymns & Psalms (Peterborough: Methodist Publishing, 1988), p. 202.

16. James T. Lightwood, “ICH HALTE TREULICH STILL,” The Music of the Methodist Hymn-Book (London: Epworth Press, 1935), p. 250.

17. See, for example, Edo Škulj, “Bachovi korali v Schemellijevi pesmarici” [“Bach’s chorales in Schemelli’s songbook”], Cerkveni glasbenik: Revija za cerkveno glasbo, vol. 94(4–6) (2001), pp. 46–47; he credits BWV 452, 478, and 505 as being definitely by Bach. Also W.G. Polack, “Thy way, not mine, O Lord,” Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal (St. Louis: Concordia, 1942), p. 375.

Related Resources:

Johannes Zahn, Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder, vol. 3 (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1890), no. 5264: Archive.org

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

James T. Lightwood, “ICH HALTE TREULICH STILL,” The Music of the Methodist Hymn-Book (London: Epworth Press, 1935), p. 250.

Albert Edward Bailey, “Befiehl du deine Wege,” The Gospel in Hymns (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950), pp. 327–328.

Kenneth Trickett, “DONCASTER,” Companion to Hymns & Psalms (Peterborough: Methodist Publishing, 1988), p. 202.

J.R. Watson, “Commit thou all thy griefs,” Companion to Hymns & Psalms (Peterborough: Methodist Publishing, 1988), pp. 381–382.

Martin V. Clarke, “Spirituality and practicality: John Wesley’s visit to America and Moravian influences on Methodist music and worship,” Lumen, vol. 27 (2008), pp. 13-26: https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/lumen/2008-v27-lumen0254/1012047ar.pdf

Kai Dose, “A note on John Wesley’s visit to Herrnhut in 1738,” Wesley and Methodist Studies, vol. 7, no. 1 (2015), pp. 117–120: JSTOR

Carl P. Daw, “Give to the winds thy fears,” Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), pp. 772–773.

Robert Cottrill, “Commit thou all thy griefs,” Wordwise Hymns (20 Sept. 2017):
https://wordwisehymns.com/2017/09/20/commit-thou-all-thy-griefs/

Robert Cottrill, “Give to the winds thy fears,” Wordwise Hymns (28 March 2019):
https://wordwisehymns.com/2019/03/28/give-to-the-winds-thy-fears-2/

Paul Heiser & Joseph Herl, “From God can nothing move me,” Lutheran Service Book Companion, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019), pp. 985–988.

“Commit thou all thy griefs,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/commit_thou_all_thy_griefs

“Give to the winds thy fears,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/give_to_the_winds_thy_fears

“Put thou thy trust in God,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/put_thou_thy_trust_in_god

Hymn Tune Index: https://hymntune.library.uiuc.edu/default.asp