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

Friday, February 7, 2025

"Rise! To Arms! With Prayer Employ You"

I wrote about the Biblical sources for "Rise! To Arms! With Prayer Employ You" a couple years ago, but when it was in the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service for 24 January, I found an-other one.  The last lines of the second verse are "The race well run, / Your long war won, / Your crown shines splendid as the sun."  As I noted before, the general situation here comes from 1 Corinthians 9:24-25, but the last line specifically ("Your crown shines splendid as the sun") alludes to Psalm 132:18, where the LORD says, "His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine."