3 Hymns for Thanksgiving

These hymns are new settings of familiar hymns of thanks which are appropriate for the Thanksgiving holiday or for otherdays in the church year when the focus of the service, or of the sermon, is thanks to God. Each setting is given with a widely-known hymn title. In one case, the tune is almost universally associated with that title, but, in other cases, more than one text has been connected with the hymn tune. In this collection, the title judged to be best known appears.

1. “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” is based on the tune “St. George’s, Windsor” of 1858, by George Elvey. This tuneis also associated with the hymns, “Christ, by Heavenly Hosts Adored, “ “Songs of Thankfulness and Praise,” and several others.

2. “Songs of Thankfulness and Praise” as well as “Let the Whole Creation Cry” are sung to the the tune “Salzburg,” fromthe mid-eighteenth century and attributed to Jakob Hintze. The tune is also sung to the words “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing,” “Holy Spirit, Lord of Love,” and “Christ, by Heavenly Hosts Adored.”

3. Lutheran pastor Martin Rinkert wrote the hymn “Now Thank We All Our God” in the mid-1600’s, in celebration of the end of the Thirty Years’ War. The tune usually connected with this text, “Nun Danket Alle Gott,” is commonly attributedto Johann Crüger, but it has been suggested that Rinkert himself may have composed the tune. Some hymnals place the tunewith the hymn, “Lord God, We Worship Thee.”