Reformation
If God Had Not Been on Our Side
- Words:
- Martin Luther, 1524. Translation composite.
- Music:
- 'Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit (1537)' from Walter's Hymnal, 1537.
- Setting:
- "Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book", 1931.
- Metre:
- 8 7 8 7 8 8 7
- 1If God had not been on our sideAnd had not come to aid us,The foes with all their pow'r and prideWould surely have dismayed us;For we, His flock, would have to fearThe threat of men both far and nearWho rise in might against us.
- 2Their furious wrath, did God permit,Would surely have consumed usAnd as a deep and yawning pitWith life and limb entombed us.Like men o'er whom dark waters rollTheir wrath would have engulfed our soulAnd, like a flood, o'erwhelmed us.
- 3Blest be the Lord, who foiled their threatThat they could not devour us;Our souls, like birds, escaped their net,They could not overpow'r us.The snare is broken we are free!Our help is ever, Lord, in Thee,Who madest earth and heaven.
Scripture
Topics
In the hymnals
- The words are in 6 hymnals indexed by Hymnary.org. Their history →
Words, music and setting are in the public domain. The score is from the Open Hymnal Project (Brian J. Dumont), which places its own work in the public domain. The piano is the FluidR3 General MIDI sound font (MIT licence). How many hymnals print a hymn, and when it was written, is from Hymnary.org.