"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 #659 "Lord of Our Life"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Psalm 79:9, Revelation 12:10, Psalm 84:11, Matthew 16:18

Psalm 79:9:  "Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name's sake!"

Revelation 12:10:  "And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, 'Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.'"

Psalm 84:11:  "For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor.  No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly."

Matthew 16:18:  "'And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.'"

+++

The text is public domain:

Lord of our life and God of our salvation,

Star of our night and hope of ev'ry nation:

Hear and receive Your Church's supplication,

Lord God Almighty.

See round Your ark the hungry billows curling;

See how Your foes their banners are unfurling

And with great spite their fiery darts are hurling,

O Lord, preserve us.

Lord, be our light when worldly darkness veils us;

Lord, be our shield when earthly armor fails us;

And in the day when hell itself assails us,

Grant us Your peace, Lord:

Peace in our hearts, where sinful thoughts are raging,

Peace in your Church, our troubled souls assuaging,

Peace when the world its endless war is waging,

Peace in Your heaven.

+++

Psalm 79:9 appears in the first line of the hymn ("Lord of our life and God of our salvation").  Revelation 12:10 seems to be incorporated here too.

In the third verse, the line "Lord, be our shield when earthly armor fails us" comes from Psalm 84:11, and the line "And in the day when hell itself assails us" seems to be drawn from Matthew 16:18.

+++

The line "Lord, be our light when worldly darkness veils us" in the third verse seems to come from John 8:12:  "Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'"

The last verse may be drawn from John 14:27:  "'Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.'"

"Lord of Our Life"

I wrote a post about "Lord of Our Life" a couple years ago, but while looking at the hymn again recently, I found an-other small point to note.  The hymn is sung to the tune "Iste confessor."  Here's the second musical phrase:

In the first verse, the text here is "Star of our night and hope of ev'ry nation."  "Nation" is sung with a melisma (C B A), and because there's an extra syllable and because each syllable is sung to a different pitch, there's a sense of that "ev'ry."

"Lord of Our Life"

A little over a year ago, I found a few things in "Lord of Our Life," sung to the tune "Iste confessor."  In the second verse, there are the lines "See how Your foes their banners are unfurling / And with great spite their fiery darts are hurling."  The second of those lines is sung to this musical phrase:

"Spite" is sung with a melisma (C Bb), musically giving a sense of degree (for "great").  I wouldn't argue too much for this, but "hurling" is also sung with a melisma (A G F), giving something of a sense of movement.