LSB #754 "Entrust Your Days and Burdens"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Psalm 37:5; 125:1; Philippians 4:6-7; 1 Peter 5:6-7

Psalm 37:5:  "Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act."

Psalm 125:1:  "Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever."

Philippians 4:6-7:  "6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

1 Peter 5:6-7:  "6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you."

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The two verses from the Psalms and the verses from 1 Peter 5 all appear in the first few lines of the hymn:  "Entrust your days and burdens / To God's most loving hand; / He cares for you while ruling / The sky, the sea, the land."  The rest of the hymn expands upon this.

The text from Philippians 4 is referred to in the second verse:  "No anxious thought, no worry, / No self-tormenting care / Can win your Father's favor; / His heart is moved by prayer."

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The lines "For He who guides the tempests... Will find for you a pathway / And guide you all your days" at the end of the first verse may be drawn from Proverbs 3:5-6:  "5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."

The lines "Take heart, have hope, my spirit, / And do not be dismayed; / God helps in ev'ry trial / And makes you unafraid" at the beginning of the third verse bear some resemblance to Isaiah 41:10:  "fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

The line "When you with life are crowned" in the fifth verse could refer to either James 1:12 or Revelation 2:10.

"Entrust Your Days and Burdens"

Last month, I wrote a post on the Biblical sources for "Entrust Your Days and Burdens" (to be published later this year).  While doing so, I noticed a few musical features.  The hymn is sung to the tune "Sufficientia."  Here's the third musical phrase:

In the third verse, the text here is "God helps in ev'ry trial."  The phrase "ev'ry trial" is sung to notes of almost all different pitches, and "trial" is sung with a melisma (F E D C).  Both of these features provide a sense of the entirety of "ev'ry."

The fourth musical phrase:

In the fourth verse, the text here is "At all His love can do" (continuing the sense from the previous lines "His wisdom rules for you / In ways to rouse your wonder"), and in the sixth verse, the text is "Of all our life's distress" (again continuing the sense from the previous lines "With joy our spirits bless / Until we see the ending").  In both of these, "all" is sung with a melisma (A G), musically giving a sense of entirety.

"Entrust Your Days and Burdens"

Way back in September, I wrote a post about "Entrust Your Days and Burdens," after which I lookt at the same hymn in Lutheran Worship and noticed something different.  In The Lutheran Service Book, "Entrust Your Days and Burdens" is sung to the tune "Sufficientia," but in Lutheran Worship, it's sung to the tune "Herzlich tut mich verlangen."

There are two musical phrases that reflect the text in the third verse, specifically the lines "From any low depression, / Where agonies are made, / God's grace will lift you upward."

"From any low depression" is sung to a phrase that generally descends:

And "God's grace will lift you upward" is sung to a phrase that ascends at the end:

Musically, these phrases reflect the "low depression" and then the "lift[ing]... upward."

"Entrust Your Days and Burdens"

Because I publish only one of these types of posts a week, there's a difference of a few months between when I notice something and when I actually write about it, and because of that, I can't quite remember the circumstances under which I lookt at "Entrust Your Days and Burdens" back in May (I think was a hymn I'd sung in church that week).

In any case, I noticed something about the line "Make His work your foundation" in the second verse.  The hymn is sung to the tune "Sufficientia," and that particular line is sung to this phrase (with the notes to which "foundation" is sung in brackets):

The tune is in C major, and the first and last syllables of "foundation" are sung to C notes.  C is the note that the key is based on, so there's a musical representation of that "foundation."