DIe vast'lyck op den Heer
The Foundation of Trust
The believer finds stability and ultimate victory by anchoring their life in the Lord and choosing good over evil.
Anyone who firmly trusts in the Lord will find their distress and pain turned into joy. Whoever builds thoroughly on the Lord is never overwhelmed—not even at the last extremity.1 Anyone who gladly does what is good and stands against what is evil will come out best in the end.✦
Lament in the Face of Persecution
The author expresses deep physical and spiritual anguish in response to the violent persecution of those who confess God's name.
My body shakes and throbs; my legs stand and tremble. They have no strength at all—it seems they want to collapse. My heart quakes with fear; I am so wrung that my distressed spirit sinks as if into my shoes.2 How they seize and bind people again, how they murder on every side those who call on and confess God's holy name! Everyone's heart is right to shudder and tremble at this; people have scarcely ever lived through such a time of mourning.
Read the original Latin
DIe vast'lyck op den Heer Stelt zijn vertrouwen neer, Syn druck en smert, In vreucht verandert wert. Tot 't uyterst' wert hy noyt benout Die op den Heere grondig bout. Die het goet,, Geerne doet,, En het quaet,, Tegen staet,, Sal't op 'tlest,, Hebben best. Mijn lichaem schud en dreunt, myn beenen staen en trillen, Sy hebben gantsch geen cracht, 'tschijnt datse vallen willen, Myn herte beeft van ancxt, ick worde so gekrinckt Dat myn benout gemoet als in mijn schoenen sinckt.
Hoe vangt en spant men weer, hoe moort m'aen allen syden, Die Godes heyl'gen naem aenroepen en belyden! Een yders hert met recht hier over schrickt en beeft, Men heeft nau oyt een tyt van treuren so beleeft.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.34.14;Rom.12.9 — Guard your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Rom.12.9 — Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Notes
- 1 ↩benout = distressed/oppressed (Dutch benauwd); rendered as overwhelmed to keep the force of extreme affliction without sounding archaic.
- 2 ↩gekrinckt likely = wrung/twisted/crushed with distress (related to krinken); rendered wrung. als in mijn schoenen sinckt is the Dutch heart-into-the-shoes idiom for failing courage.
Nederlandtsche Gedenck-clanck (Netherlands Memorial Songs) companion
Never lose the rhythm again
Chosen Portion delivers your morning, midday and night office to your phone — the Hours, without the bells.
Chosen Portion is a modern Book of Hours: it turns the fixed-hour structure this collection preserves into scheduled, tappable daily prayer on your phone.
- Three daily prayer moments scheduled around your real calendar, not a monastery's
- Psalms and historic prayers sequenced for you — no page-flipping or decision fatigue
- A visible streak of completed offices, so the rhythm compounds instead of collapsing