08 November 2016

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

If God had not been on our side
And had not come to aid us,
The foes with all their pow'r and pride
Would surely have dismayed us.
For we, His flock, would have to fear
The threat of men both far and near
Who rise in might against us.

Their furious wrath, did God permit, 
Would surely have consumed us
And as a deep and yawning pit
With life and limb entombed us.
Like men o'er whom dark waters roll
Their wrath would have engulfed our soul
And, like a flood, o'erwhelmed us.

Blest be the Lord, who foiled their threat
That 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.
—Martin Luther, paraphrase of Psalm 124 (and another shameful miss in our current hymnal)

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