"Surrey" (TLH #368)

"Lord of Our Life"

Last week, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 4 September.  The reading was from Ephesians 6, and I noticed verse 16 in particular:  "In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one."  This seems to be the source of the imagery in the line "And with great spite their fiery darts are hurling" in the second verse of "Lord of Our Life."

(Here's a link to my post from last year about the Biblical sources for the hymn.)

LSB #747 "No Saint on Earth Lives Life to Self Alone"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Romans 8:38-39, Romans 6:5-11

Romans 8:38-39:  " 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Romans 6:5-11:  "5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.  8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.  11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."

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Both cited passages could be included in "we with Christ are one" in the first verse, and the passage from Romans 6 has some general similarities with the hymn text as a whole, but really, the basis for the hymn is Romans 14:7-9:  "7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.  8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.  So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.  9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living."  The hymn's first verse paraphrases verses 7-8, and the second verse paraphrases verse 9.  "Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's" from verse 8 appears at the end of both verses in the hymn.

The line "That to new life He might arise again" near the beginning of the second verse may also be based on Romans 6:4:  "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."

"O Durchbrecher" (TLH #367)

LSB #746 "Through Jesus' Blood and Merit"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Romans 8:35-39, Ephesians 1:4-6

Romans 8:35-39:  "35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  36 As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.'  37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Ephesians 1:4-6:  "4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.  In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved."

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The text is public domain:

1 Through Jesus' blood and merit

I am at peace with God.

What, then, can daunt my spirit,

However dark my road?

My courage shall not fail me,

For God is on my side;

Though hell itself assail me,

Its rage I may deride.

2 There's nothing that can sever

From this great love of God;

No want, no pain whatever,

No famine, peril, flood.

Though thousand foes surround me,

For slaughter mark His sheep,

They never shall confound me,

The vict'ry I shall reap.

3 For neither life's temptation

Nor death's most trying hour

Nor angels of high station

Nor any other pow'r

Nor things that now are present

Nor things that are to come

Nor height, however pleasant,

Nor darkest depths of gloom

4 Nor any creature ever

Shall from the love of God

This ransomed sinner sever;

For in my Savior's blood

This love has its foundation;

God hears my faithful prayer

And long before creation

Named me His child and heir.

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The passage from Romans 8 is the main source for the hymn; verses 35-37 are paraphrased in the hymn's second verse, and verses 38-39 are paraphrased in the third verse and the first few lines of the fourth.

The passage from Ephesians 1 appears at the end of the fourth verse.

The line "Though thousand foes surround me" in the second verse may come from Psalm 3:6:  "I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around."

"Eins ist not" (TLH #366)

Part way through, this tune changes meter (from 4/4 to 6/4).  I had to put my guitar in drop D tuning to accommodate a couple notes in the tenor part.