Photo © Malc McDonald (cc-by-sa/2.0)
Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is ‘By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered’ by Fred Pratt Green. In the book it’s set to the tune Finlandia, but John wrote his own, perhaps more appropriate with its melancholic melody for the darkness that is in the lyrics.
The words are based on the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who notably wrote his late theology from a prison camp. That is important background as we read or sing some of the words of the hymn: ‘hearts by their old foe tormented’, ‘evil days bring burdens hard to bear’, ‘bitter suffering, hard to understand’.
Fortunately we who sing this hymn now are not persecuted by fascists or tortured for our faith. But such things are still going on in the world, and increasingly so. As the crises now facing the world come together – climate change, overpopulation, increasing division between rich and poor, and increasing hatred between different racial or religious groups – who is to say that we might not end up there within the lifetime of those now living? In the meantime, we each have or own foes, burdens and suffering, however small in comparison, and we can have them in mind as we sing.
What makes Bonhoeffer’s words remarkable is the hope and faith that shine through the darkness. ‘Confidently waiting, come what may’ from the pen of a man knowing he would face execution is remarkable. ‘God … never fails to meet us each new day’ is a statement of faith in a life that survives death. If that seems unachievable, ‘trusting though with trembling’ is perhaps a more realistic aim. And the last verse asks ‘If once again, in this mixed world, you give us the joy we had … we shall … dedicate our lives to you alone’. We ask here not for a life free of suffering, but one in which Christian joy can be found amid its troubles.
Before the War, Bonheoffer had been the pastor of a German-speaking congregation in South London. The church illustrated above is the building that replaced his church that was destroyed in wartime bombing in 1944, even as he himself was imprisoned back home in Germany for his part in plotting the overthrow of the Nazi regime.