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

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

LSB #641 "You Satisfy the Hungry Heart"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Psalm 81:16, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, John 10:2-4, 1 John 4:7-21

Psalm 81:16:  "But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you."

1 Corinthians 10:16-17:  "16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?  The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?  17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread."

John 10:2-4:  "2 'But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.  3 To him the gatekeeper opens.  The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.'"

1 John 4:7-21:  "7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

"13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.  14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.  15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.  16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.  God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgement, because as he is so also are we in this world.  18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.  For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.  19 We love because he first loved us.  20 If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.  21 And this commandment we have from him:  whoever loves God must also love his brother."

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Psalm 81:16 forms part of the refrain.  The phrase "bread of life" in the last line comes from John 6:35.

John 10:2-4 appears in the first verse, and 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 is paraphrased in the third, but 1 John 4:7-21 isn't as clear.  The last line of the fourth verse says that the Lord "Comes in our hearts to dwell," which may come from the verses describing God's abiding in us (1 John 4:12-13, 15-16).  The fifth verse says, "Then selfless let us be, / To serve each other in Your name / In truth and charity," and this is a way of "lov[ing] one another" (1 John 4:7, 11, 21).