Anyway, I thought that since Thanksgiving is just a few days away, it might be fun to have a post on a Thanksgiving Day hymn. :-)
We Gather Together
We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.
Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!
We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our Defender will be.
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!
This is what wikipedia has to say about the hymn:
"We Gather Together is a Christian hymn of Netherlands origin written in 1597 by Adrianus Valerius (pka François Valéry) as Wilt Heden Nu Treden to celebrate the Dutch victory over Spanish forces in the Battle of Turnhout. It was originally set to a Dutch folk tune. In the United States, it is popularly associated with Thanksgiving Day and is often sung at family meals and at religious services on that day.
We gather together to ask our Lord's blessing...
At the time the hymn was written, the Dutch were engaged in a war of national liberation against the Catholic King Philip II of Spain. "Wilt heden nu treden," "We gather together" resonated because under the Spanish King, Dutch Protestants were forbidden to gather for worship. The hymn first appeared in print in a 1626 collection of Dutch patriotic songs, "Nederlandtsch Gedencklanck."
The hymn is customarily performed to a tune known as "Kremser", from Eduard Kremser's 1877 score arrangement and lyric translation of Wilt Heden Nu Treden into Latin and German. The modern English text was written by Theodore Baker in 1894.
According to the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, "We Gather Together's" first appeared in an American hymnal was in 1903. It had retained popularity among the Dutch, and when the when the Dutch Reformed Church in North America decided in 1937 to abandon the policy that they had brought with them to the New World in the 1600's of singing only psalms and add hymns to the church service, "We Gather Together" was chosen as the first hymn in the first hymnal.
The hymn steadily gained popularity, especially in services of Thanksgiving on such occasions as town and college centennial celebrations. According to Carl May, executive director of the Hymn Society, the "big break" came in 1935 when it was included in the national hymnal of the Methodist-Episcopal Church.
According to Michael Hawn, professor of sacred music at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology, "by World War I, we started to see ourselves in this hymn," and the popularity increased during World War II, when "the wicked oppressing" were understood to include Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
This hymn is generally sung at American churches the day before Thanksgiving."
(just as a reminder, wikipedia is not always the most reliable source of information, but I usually find what they say to be pretty interesting)
Another website I found that talked about the hymn is this one:
I liked this article, more than wikipedia, but it is copyrighted, so I thought I would just give you the link to it. :-)
My own thoughts on the hymn. First of all I like it. :-) I don't know about you, but I don't always take the time to read and think about hymns, I mean, I've known them all my life, so I sometimes have a tendency to not really think about the words. However, on occasions, (usually in the middle of singing or playing it) I start thinking about the words, and realize how true they can be! It's pretty cool to just take time to think and analyze hymn words, and try to figure out what they are really saying. Anyway, I was just curious if any of you had a favorite verse in the song, I think I like the first verse the best. But sometimes picking just one verse is hard to do, after all the whole song is supposed to be together! :-)
What do you think of the words in verse 3..."Let Thy congregation escape tribulation"? I wonder if that is a good theology/philosophy to have? After all, aren't we supposed to have trials/tribulations? Just some new thoughts of my own that I thought I'd share. :-)
I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on the hymn? Does it have any special memories for you? Favorite verse? Notice anything else in there that stands out to you, good or bad?
Hope you have a great week!
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