IF YOU WILL ONLY LET GOD GUIDE YOU
"He will be our Guide even to the end." Psalms 48:1
Words: Georg Neumark, 1641. First published in Neumark's
Fortgepflantzer Musikalisch Poetischer Lustwald, 1657; Neumark
captioned it, "A Song of Comfort: God will care for and help everyone in
His own time." Catherine Winkworth translated the words from German to
English in 1855, and published them in Chorale Book for England, 1863.
Music: "Neumark," Georg Neumark.
If you will only let God guide you,
And hope in Him through all your ways,
Whatever comes, He'll stand beside you,
To bear you through the evil days;
Who trusts in God's unchanging love
Builds on the Rock that cannot move.
Only be still, and wait His leisure
In cheerful hope, with heart content
To take whatever the Father's pleasure
And all discerning love have sent;
Nor doubt our inmost wants are known
To Him Who chose us for His own.
Sing, pray, and swerve not from His ways,
But do your part in conscience true;
Trust His rich promises of grace,
So shall they be fulfilled in you;
God hears the call of those in need,
The souls that trust in Him indeed.
For the purist, here is Winkworth's original translation:
If thou but suffer God to guide thee, and hope in Him through all thy
ways,
He'll give thee strength, whate'er betide thee, and bear thee through
the evil days;
Who trusts in God's unchanging love builds on the rock that naught can
move.
Only be still and wait His leisure in cheerful hope with heart content
To take whate'er thy Father's pleasure and all-deserving love hath sent;
Nor doubt our inmost wants are known to Him who chose us for His own.
Sing, pray, and keep His ways unswerving; in all thy labor faithful be,
And trust His Word, though undeserving, thou yet shalt find it true for
thee;
God never will forsake in need the soul that trusts in Him indeed.