All My Hope

1) All my hope on God is founded;
He doth still my trust renew,
Me through change and chance He guideth,
Only good and only true,
God unknown, He alone
Calls my heart to be His own.

2) Mortal pride and earthly glory, 
Sword and crown betray our trust;
Though with care and toil we build them,
Tower and temple fall to dust.
But God's power, hour by hour,
Is my temple and my tower.

3) God's great goodness e'er endureth
Deep His wisdom passing thought:
Splendor, light, and life attend Him,
Beauty springeth out of naught.
Evermore from His store
Newborn worlds rise and adore.

4) Daily doth the almighty Giver
Bounteous gifts on us bestow;
His desire our soul delighteth,
Pleasure leads us where we go.
Love dothe stand at His Hand;
Joy doth wait on His command.

5) Still from earth to God eternal
Sacrifice of praise be done,
High above all praises praising
For the gift of Christ, His Son.
Christ doth call one and all:
Ye who follow shall not fall.

This hymn was written by Joachim Neander (1650-1680).  Neander was not a believer until he was twenty, but once he believed, he caught fire.  For the latter ten years of his life, this high school teacher wrote hymns deep with meaning, bringing a high level of worship to the Church.  This hymn wasn't translated to English until the 1800's when Great Britain's poet laureate decided he didn't enjoy the hymns sung at church.  Robert Bridges found them insulting to his intelligence so he looked to the German hymn writers and translated their words into English.

I think a lot can be learned from these two men.  Both were moved by their faith to bring good things to the Church.  I know I can take a consumerist heart with me to church and am angered when I don't receive what I am looking for.  I often heard complaints of a similar nature while working with RUF. Usually some variation of "Church isn't feeding me."  But looking at these two guys, we see what approach we should take should we find something wrong with our worship.  First, we have Neander.  Now, there is no indication he was unsatisfied with his place of worship.  There is every indication that he wanted to contribute to worship however.  The teacher sat down and wrote hymns.  Not just hymns, but hymns pregnant with meaning and rich in their proclamations of the Lord.  This hymn isn't just a repetition of saying we have hope in the Lord; instead, Neander tells why we place our hope in God.  This is a good thing.  It makes for solid, rational worship.  The story is slightly different with Bridges, who did not like what he was singing.  In essence, he found it dull and void of substance. To fix that, he began working with weighty hymns and bringing them into the English language.  By doing so, he served the Church in a way that was needed. This should be our first instinct instead of grousing.  We make a much more lasting change by pursuing this avenue.