Now Thank We All Our God

Martin Rinkart wrote this hymn during the Thirty Years' War, reportedly after burying over 4,000 people in his parish including his own wife, drawing from Sirach 50:22-24 and echoing the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6:24-26. Despite - or because of - its origins in catastrophic suffering, the hymn became the German Protestant equivalent of the American 'Thanksgiving' tradition and was sung by German troops at the Battle of Leuthen in 1757. Johann Sebastian Bach famously harmonized Johann Crüger's tune in his cantatas.