Almighty God, the apostle Paul taught us to praise You in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. We thank You this day for those who have given to Your Church great hymns, especially Your servants Philipp Nicolai, Johann Heermann, and Paul Gerhardt. May Your Church never lack hymnwriters who through their words and music give You praise. Fill us with the desire to praise and thank You for Your great goodness; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Bio: Philipp Nicolai (1556–1608) was a pastor in Germany during the Great Plague, which took the lives of 1,300 of his parishioners during a sixth-month period. In addition to his heroic pastoral ministry during that time of stress and sorrow, he wrote the texts for “Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying” and “O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright,” known, respectively, as the king and queen 
of the Lutheran chorales. Johann Heermann (1585–1647), also a German pastor, suffered from poor health as well as from the ravages of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). His hymn texts are noted for their tenderness and depth of feeling. Paul Gerhardt (1607–1676) was another Lutheran pastor who endured the horrors of the Thirty Years’ War. By 1668 he lost his pastoral position in Berlin (for refusing to compromise his Lutheran convictions), and endured the death of four of his five children and his wife. He nevertheless managed to write 133 hymns, all of which reflect his firm faith. Along with Martin Luther he is regarded as one of Lutheranism’s finest hymn writers.
(From The Treasury of Daily Prayer, Concordia Publishing House)
Reflection: The last fad in music for a congregation was “Christian music”. My response was, Yes, I love Christian music, like Bach! And on this day we sing to the Lord in the words and music by the 3 great Lutheran hymn writers commemorated today and it is all thoroughgoing Christian and Biblical music.
Now the latest buzz phrase has been: “praise songs”. A colleague reminded me yesterday of his response which is also my wife the organist’s: ‘We sing praise music every Sunday!” Listen to the hymns below! As friend and colleague once would say: “Lutheran hymnody is my glossasalia.” Just think: these hymn writers and pastors were probably not paid a cent for their hymns, fought false doctrine and disease and the devil, and in the midst of all that, in the Lord they had joy to sing and pray.
The other criticism is that Lutheran hymnody is not personal enough and expressive of ‘my’ feelings. Can anyone, if you will, top, the sheer intimacy, poetry and passion of Paul Gerhardt in O Sacred Head, Now Wounded?
What language shall I borrow
To thank Thee, dearest Friend,
For this, Thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
Oh, make me thine forever!
And should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never,
Outlive my love for Thee.
We give thanks to the Lord, the Conductor of the “choir immortal” (from “Wake, Awake”), also for all church organists (underpaid and being squeezed out by contemporary worship), church musicians, choirs and the Lord’s people who sing their praise of their Lord through hymns replete with the Scripture, that is, the Word of God and so the Holy Spirit. Pray for your organist, choir director, choir members and church musicians in petition and praise to the Lord and tell them all this Sunday: thanks!
Philip Nicolai:
Johann Heerman:
Paul Gerhardt:
Concordia and Koinonia 