The years following the death of Martin Luther in 1546 were tumultuous ones for those trying to hold to the true teachings of Scripture. There was a great deal of pressure on the faithful to give up some of their Biblical positions to establish greater unity among the Protestants. Martin Schalling felt this pressure and was tempted to yield to it. Yet the Lord used Schalling in the work of his kingdom. He also used him in the only known example of his hymn writing, “Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart,” which is our Hymn of the Day for this Sunday.
This hymn is a first-person prayer of the Christian who is enduring the sufferings of life but is looking forward to the angels carrying the Christian to Abraham’s bosom in Jesus’ heavenly home. This hymn was published around 1567 as a hymn “for the dying.”
Verse one: “Lord, thee I love with all my heart; I pray thee, ne’er from me depart, with tender mercy cheer me. Earth has no pleasure I would share; yea, heav’n itself were void and bare if thou, Lord, wert not near me. And should my heart for sorrow break, my trust in thee can nothing shake. Thou art the portion I have sought; thy precious blood my soul has bought. Lord Jesus Christ, my God and Lord, my God and Lord, forsake me not! I trust thy Word.”
The Christian prays for the presence of the Lord to be near through life. If Jesus is not here with us on earth, there are no pleasures to bring smiles to our faces. It’s all just stuff. Knick knacks. Baubles. Trinkets. It is the treasures of heaven that we’re waiting for. Likewise, if Jesus were not with us in heaven, heaven itself would be uninviting and dull. We seek the Lord for he sought and bought us with his blood.
Verse two: “Yea, Lord, ’twas thy rich bounty gave my body, soul, and all I have in this poor life of labor. Lord, grant that I in ev’ry place may glorify thy lavish grace and help and serve my neighbor. Let no false doctrine me beguile; let Satan not my soul defile. Give strength and patience unto me to bear my cross and follow thee. Lord Jesus Christ, my God and Lord, my God and Lord, in death thy comfort still afford.”
The Christian prays for the strength to glorify Christ and serve throughout one’s life. The motivation for laboring for the Lord with body and soul is because the Lord purchased our body and soul with his body and blood on the cross. We serve the Lord knowing that our lives do not get easier as we get older. And the longer we live, the more we need Jesus’ guiding hand. The longer we live, the more opportunities Satan has to defile our souls with false doctrines. So we ask for strength and patience to bear the crosses the Lord lays before his faithful disciples. We pray for peace. But the ultimate peace we are always praying for is death.
Verse three: “Lord, let at last thine angels come, to Abr’ham’s bosom bear me home that I may die unfearing; and in its narrow chamber keep my body safe in peaceful sleep until thy reappearing. And then from death awaken me that these mine eyes with joy may see, O Son of God, thy glorious face, my Savior and my fount of grace. Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend, my prayer attend, and I will praise thee without end.”
We are all going to die. We’re all going to die of something. It really doesn’t matter what we do, we cannot prevent death. We cannot hide from death. Death is going to claim every one of us. “The soul who sins is the one who will die” (Ezekiel 18:20). Hiding from death will never work. The only ones who need to fear death are unbelievers. If Christians fear death, then we are letting ourselves become slaves to the fear of death. The devil reigns when we are afraid of dying. That’s his real power over us.
When we live in fear, when we look at others in fear, where does that fear come from? The author of Hebrews rightly reminds us that fear is the greatest tool in the devil’s toolbox: “Therefore, since the children share flesh and blood, [Christ] also shared the same flesh and blood, so that through death he could destroy the one who had the power of death (that is, the Devil) and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15).
Overcoming fear comes from God. God said, “Now this is what the Lord says, ‘Do not be afraid, because I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine’” (Isaiah 43:1). We have no reason to fear because God is with us. “The Lord himself will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will not abandon you, and he will not forsake you. Do not be afraid and do not be overwhelmed” (Deuteronomy 31:8). Jesus replaces fear with peace. “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not let it be afraid” (John 14:27).
Christians can stop fearing death. Start living again. The devil wants us to live in fear of dying. Jesus wants us to live with the assurance that death has already been defeated. What’s the worst that will happen to us when we die? The angels will come to carry us home to Abraham’s bosom. That doesn’t sound scary at all. We fall asleep in death and awaken to see the Son of God’s glorious face.
This closing verse holds heaven in full view. The composer Johann Sebastian Bach thought so highly of this prayer that he used this verse to close his epic choral work “The Passion According to St. John.” How fitting a choice it was too, for as Christians contemplate the suffering and death of Christ for their sins, they can’t help but look ahead to their own deaths and the resurrections of their bodies.
“Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend, my prayer attend, and I will praise thee without end.” There’s nothing more to add except, “Amen!”