Unless stated otherwise, my source for hymn texts and tunes is The Lutheran Service Book.

Friday, January 7, 2022

"By All Your Saints in Warfare"

A couple months ago, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 21 September, the Feast Day of St. Matthew.  The hymn was "By All Your Saints in Warfare" with the verse for St. Matthew inserted.  In looking over the text, I found a couple Biblical sources I'd missed in my original post.

The third verse ends with the lines "Ascribing pow'r and glory / And praise to God alone."  This echoes the first two verses of Psalm 29:  "1 Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.  2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness."

In the verse for St. Matthew, the lines "From all unrighteous mammon, / O raise our eyes anew / That we in our vocation / May rise and follow You" (particularly the last line) come from Matthew 9:9:  "As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, 'Follow me.'  And he rose and followed him."