Lord Jesus Christ, with Us Abide | The Free Lutheran Chorale-Book

Download: For online viewing | For two-sided printing

Lord Jesus Christ, with us abide,
For round us falls the eventide;
Nor let Thy Word, that heav’nly light,
For us be ever veiled in night.
In these last days of sore distress
Grant us, dear Lord, true steadfastness
That pure we keep, till life is spent,
Thy holy Word and Sacrament.
Lord Jesus, help, Thy Church uphold,
For we are sluggish, thoughtless, cold.
Oh, prosper well Thy Word of grace
And spread its truth in ev’ry place!
Oh, keep us in Thy Word, we pray;
The guile and rage of Satan stay!
Oh, may Thy mercy never cease!
Give concord, patience, courage, peace.
O God, how sin’s dread works abound!
Throughout the earth no rest is found,
And falsehood’s spirit wide has spread,
And error boldly rears its head.
The haughty spirits, Lord, restrain
Who o’er Thy Church with might would reign
And always set forth something new,
Devised to change Thy doctrine true.
And since the cause and glory, Lord,
Are Thine, not ours, to us afford
Thy help and strength and constancy.
With all our heart we trust in Thee.
A trusty weapon is Thy Word,
Thy Church’s buckler, shield, and sword.
Oh, let us in its pow’r confide
That we may seek no other guide!
Oh, grant that in Thy holy Word
We here may live and die, dear Lord;
And when our journey endeth here,
Receive us into glory there.

Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ
Nürnberg Hymnal, 1611, drawn from Nikolaus Selnecker et al.
Tr. composite
Source: The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941, No. 292

German Text

Tune: Ach bleib bei uns

Ach, bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ,
Weil es nun Abend worden ist,
Dein göttlich Wort, das helle Licht,
Laß ja bei uns auslöschen nicht.
In dieser letztn betrübten Zeit
Verleih uns, Herr, Beständigkeit,
Daß wir dein Wort und Sacrament
Rein b’halten bis an unser End.
Herr Jesu, hilf, dein Kirch erhalt,
Wir sind gar sicher, faul und kalt;
Gib Glück und Heil zu deinem Wort,
Damit es schall an allem Ort.
Erhalt uns nur bei deinem Wort
Und wehr des Teufels Trug und Mord.
Gib deiner Kirchen Gnad und Huld,
Fried, Einigkeit, Mut und Geduld.
Ach Gott, es geht gar übel zu,
Auf dieser Erd ist keine Ruh,
Viel Sekten und viel Schwärmerei
Auf einen Haufen kommt herbei.
Den stolzen Geistern wehre doch,
Die sich mit G’walt erheben hoch
Und bringen stets was neues her,
Zu fälschen deine rechte Lehr.
Die Sach und Ehr, Herr Jesu Christ,
Nicht unser, sondern dein ja ist;
Darum, so steh du denen bei,
Die sich auf dich verlassen frei.
Dein Wort ist unsers Herzens Trutz
Und deiner Kirchen wahrer Schutz;
Dabei erhalt uns, lieber Herr,
Daß wir nichts anders suchen mehr.
Gib, daß wir lebn in deinem Wort
Und darauf ferner fahren fort
Von hinnen aus dem Jammertal
Zu dir in deinen Himmelssal.

Nürnberg Hymnal, 1611, drawn from Nikolaus Selnecker et al.
Source: C.F.W. Walther’s Kirchen-Gesangbuch, 1898 printing

Author: Nikolaus Selnecker

“Lord Jesus Christ, with Us Abide” (“Ach bleib bei uns Herr Jesu Christ“) was written mostly by Nikolaus Selnecker and was first published in its complete form in Geistliche Psalmen, Nürnberg, 1611 (after the author’s death). The parts of which it is composed have a varied history.

One of the first appearances of the opening stanza of “Lord Jesus Christ, with Us Abide,” in a booklet printed by Friedrich Gutknecht in Nürnberg.

Philipp Melanchthon’s Latin couplet, on which the opening stanza of “Lord Jesus Christ, with Us Abide” was based.

Stanza 1 first appears in two booklets dated c. 1570, Zwei/Vier Schöne Geistliche Lieder, an stadt des Gracias zu singen, nach dem Essen (“Two/Four Lovely Spiritual Songs, to Be Sung in Place of the Gracias after the Meal”), the two-hymn booklet printed by Friedrich Gutknecht in Nürnberg, the four-hymn booklet by Andreas Petri in Eisleben. There it is found as the eighth stanza of Nikolaus Herman’s post-meal hymn “Thank Ye the Lord Now and E’ermore” (“Danket dem Herrn heut und allzeit“). It is generally considered to be a translation of Philipp Melanchthon’s 1551 elegiac couplet, “Vespera iam venit, nobiscum Christe maneto / Extingui lucem nec patiare tuam” (“The evening now has come; remain with us, O Christ, nor suffer Thy light to be extinguished”), printed in his Epigrammatum libri sex, Wittenberg, 1563, based on Luke 24:29, in which the disciples on the way to Emmaus plead with Jesus, “Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” Given the context of the evening meal subsequently shared by the disciples with their risen Lord, the inclusion of this stanza in Herman’s meal hymn is fitting.

Stanza 2 first appears in Christliche Gebet und Psalmen, welche die Kinder in der Jungfrau Schulen zu Freybergk zu beten und zu singen pflegen (“Christian Prayers and Psalms, Which the Children in the Schools in Freiberg Are Wont to Pray and Sing”), Freiberg, 1602. Lines 3–4 are reminiscent of Nikolaus Selnecker’s metrical prayer following Psalm 29 in Der Psalter mit kurtzen Summarien / und Gebetlein für die Hausveter und ihre Kinder (“The Psalter with Brief Summaries, and Prayers for the Heads of Households and Their Children”), Leipzig, 1572.

Stanzas 3–4, 6–9 first appear in Selnecker’s Psalter. There they serve as a prayer for peace concluding Psalm 122.

Stanza 5 first appears in Selnecker’s Psalter as stantza 2 of the metrical prayer following Psalm 149.

When the stanzas were combined in their present form in 1611, the opening stanza took on new meaning and significance. Whereas it began as a reference to the evening meal, in its new context it refers to the evening of the world, the last days. “Lord Jesus Christ, with Us Abide” is thus a prayer for preservation in the midst of the great tribulation.

“Lord Jesus Christ, with Us Abide” appears in The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941, No. 292, and the Lutheran Service Book, 2006, No. 585. The version in LSB omits three stanzas, and the new translation by F. Samuel Janzow is copyright 1982 CPH. Fortunately the composite translation in TLH is in the public domain. It is the version in TLH that has been used for the Free Lutheran Chorale-Book.