Rejoice in our Lord always

Rejoice in our Lord always; again I say, rejoice!

In how you live with others, make gentleness your choice.

 

Let worry not consume you, nor be weighed down with care,

But bring your needs before God with thanksgiving and prayer.

 

Then God's own peace, surpassing all things that we can know,

Will guard your hears and minds sure as you with Jesus go.

 

Keep on with these things you have learned, seen, received, and heard,

And God's peace will go with you to keep you in God's Word.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, October 2023, after Philippians 4:5-7, 9.

MUSIC: Tune CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN, Melchior Vulpius, 1609.

 

 

 

Somehow this text, after the heart of the RCL epistle reading for next Sunday (10/15/23), got up in my face to be written down even though I have no plans to preach on it for next week. But it's an epistle, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The reading itself is longer, but these central verses and the final verse fit themselves together to this calm-but-resolute tune.