"Now Thank We All Our God" ("Nun danket alle Gott") occupies a singular place in the history of Christian music as a hymn of gratitude composed under conditions of almost unimaginable suffering. The very fact that Martin Rinkart could write it when and where he did gives its words a weight that would be harder to achieve in more comfortable circumstances.
The Composition
Rinkart wrote the hymn around 1636 in Eilenburg, Saxony, during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), the most destructive conflict Europe had seen since the Black Death. Eilenburg was a walled town and therefore a refuge - which meant it was dangerously overcrowded with refugees, disease spread rapidly, and Rinkart, as the sole surviving pastor within the walls, conducted the funerals of his plague-dead parishioners in staggering numbers. In 1637 alone he officiated at approximately 4,480 funerals - sometimes forty or fifty in a single day - including that of his own wife. The hymn was originally written as a table grace for family use, based on a Jewish liturgical prayer from the deuterocanonical Sirach. That Rinkart could produce an uncomplicated hymn of thanksgiving during these years is not a sign of denial; it is a sign of a faith that had been tested and held.
Biblical Text
The hymn's text is a close paraphrase of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 50:22-24, a deuterocanonical prayer: "And now bless ye the God of all, which only doeth wondrous things every where, which exalteth our days from the womb, and dealeth with us according to his mercy. He grant us joyfulness of heart, and that peace may be in our days in Israel for ever... that he would confirm his mercy with us, and deliver us at his time!" Protestant hymnals that exclude the Apocrypha sometimes provide alternative biblical references: Psalm 107:1 (KJV) - "O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever" - and 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (KJV) - "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." The closing doxological stanza is a Trinitarian blessing in the form of the Gloria Patri.
The Creator
Martin Rinkart (1586-1649) was born in Eilenburg, the son of a coppersmith. He was educated at Leipzig and entered the Lutheran ministry, serving various parishes before returning to serve his hometown in 1617 - just one year before the Thirty Years' War began. He remained in Eilenburg throughout the war and reportedly negotiated with the Swedish army that surrounded the town to reduce an enormous tribute that would have destroyed the community. He was also a playwright, musician, and poet of considerable ability, though only "Nun danket alle Gott" survived his work to achieve wide circulation. He died in 1649, the year after the Peace of Westphalia ended the war that had defined his ministry.
Musical Analysis
The tune was composed by Johann Crüger (1598-1662), cantor at St. Nikolai Church in Berlin and the foremost Lutheran church musician of his generation. Crüger's tune has the quality of a stately march - dignified, corporate, unhurried. It was harmonized by Johann Sebastian Bach in multiple settings, most famously in the "Nun danket alle Gott" cantata (BWV 192) and in his magnificent harmonization that became the standard choral version. Felix Mendelssohn used the tune in his "Reformation Symphony" (Symphony No. 5), and it has appeared in countless choral and orchestral works. The tune's character - confident without being triumphalist, joyful without being light - perfectly matches the hymn's theology.
Theological Content
The hymn's theology is that of grateful creation: God is thanked not for specific interventions but for the fundamental givenness of existence and the mercies woven into it from birth. The opening stanza thanks God "with hearts and hands and voices" for wonders done and wonders now being done - present tense gratitude that does not wait for circumstances to improve. The second stanza prays for continuing peace and grace through life's journey, while the third is a full Trinitarian doxology. The hymn is notable for what it does not do: it does not mention the suffering that surrounded its composition. It is an act of praise made from the far side of grief, not a denial of grief but a refusal to be defined by it.
Performance History
The hymn became the standard German Protestant hymn of thanksgiving and has been used at national celebrations, harvest festivals, and civic ceremonies for nearly four centuries. It was sung after the battles of Ligny and Waterloo in 1815 by Prussian troops. It was included in Bach's cantata cycle and harmonized by Bach so memorably that many congregations have sung his version without knowing whose it is. It is still used as the "German Te Deum" at major national occasions.
Cultural Impact and Legacy
The hymn's legacy is inseparable from the story of its composition. Knowing that Rinkart wrote it while burying thousands of plague victims - including his wife - transforms every performance into a meditation on faith under extremity. Gratitude as an act of theological defiance, rather than a response to comfortable circumstances, is the hymn's great gift to Christian spirituality. It demonstrates that doxology is not contingent on deliverance: it is possible, even necessary, in the midst of catastrophe.