Commit Thou All Thy Griefs

Paul Gerhardt wrote 'Befiehl du deine Wege' as an eighteen-stanza meditation on Psalm 37:5 ('Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act') and 1 Peter 5:7 ('Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you'). Johann Sebastian Bach used Gerhardt's hymn tune seven times in the St. Matthew Passion, more than any other chorale, testifying to its centrality in Lutheran piety. John Wesley's English translation helped bring this theology of trustful surrender into Methodism.