What God Ordains Is Always Good - #521

Wiki - "Johann Sebastian Bach used the song in several different cantatas. Three of his cantatas begin with the hymn. His 1724 chorale cantata Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, BWV 99, is based on the complete hymn, with paraphrases of the inner stanzas. In 1726, he composed the cantata Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, BWV 98, beginning with the first stanza. Between 1732 and 1735 he wrote the cantata Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, BWV 100, using all six stanzas unchanged. Bach used single stanzas of the hymn additionally in cantatas BWV 12, BWV 69a, BWV 75 and BWV 144."

 

"What God Ordains Is Always Good"
by Samuel Rodigast, 1649-1708

Tune - Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan - linked here

1. What God ordains is always good;
His will abideth holy.
As He directs my life for me,
I follow meek and lowly.
God indeed in every need
Doth well know how to shield me;
To Him, then, I will yield me.

2. What God ordains is always good.
He never will deceive me;
He leads me in His own right way,
And never will He leave me.
I take content What He hath sent;
His hand that sends me sadness
Will turn my tears to gladness.

3. What God ordains is always good.
His loving thought attends me;
No poison can be in the cup
That my Physician sends me.
My God is true; Each morn anew
I'll trust His grace unending,
My life to Him commending.

4. What God ordains is always good.
He is my Friend and Father;
He suffers naught to do me harm,
Though many storms may gather.
Now I may know Both joy and woe,
Some day I shall see clearly
That He hath loved me dearly.

5. What God ordains is always good.
Though I the cup am drinking
Which savors now of bitterness,
I take it without shrinking.
For after grief God grants relief,
My heart with comfort filling
And all my sorrow stilling.

6. What God ordains is always good.
This truth remains unshaken.
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
I shall not be forsaken.
I fear no harm, For with His arm
He shall embrace and shield me;
So to my God I yield me.

Hymn #521
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Deuteronomy 32:4
Author: Samuel Rodigast, 1675
Translated by: composite
Titled: "Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan"
Composer: Severus Gastorius, 1681
Tune: "Was Gott tut"