Befiehl du deine Wege
Surrendering to Divine Providence
The believer is called to entrust their burdens to God rather than relying on anxious self-effort.
Commit your ways, and whatever grieves your heart, to the most faithful care of the One who steers the heavens. He who gives the clouds, the air, and the winds their paths, their course, and their track will also find ways where your foot can go. You must trust the Lord if things are to go well for you; you must look to his work if your work is to stand.✦ You can't wring anything from God through fretting, grieving, or self-inflicted torment; it has to be asked for in prayer.✦1
The Unfailing Counsel of God
God's sovereign wisdom and grace ensure that His purposes for His children are always fulfilled.
Your eternal faithfulness and grace, O Father, see and know what is good or what brings harm to mortal blood; and whatever you have chosen, you carry through, strong Champion, bringing into form and being whatever your counsel is pleased with. You always have a way; you're never short of means. Everything you do is pure blessing; every step you take is pure light.✦✦ No one can hinder your work; your labor cannot rest when you intend to do what is good for your children.✦2 Even if all the devils here tried to resist, God certainly won't turn back; what He has resolved and what He wills must ultimately reach His purpose and goal.✦✦
Hope Amidst the Shadows
An exhortation to the soul to remain hopeful and patient, recognizing that God is the true ruler of all circumstances.
Hope, O you poor soul—hope, and don't lose heart! God will draw you out of the cave where grief is tormenting you, and he will do it with great grace; only wait for the time, and you will yet see the sun of the fairest joy.3 Rise up—say goodnight to your pain and your worries! Let go of whatever grieves your heart and makes it sad; after all, you aren't the ruler meant to steer everything. God is in command and guides it all well.✦4
The Trial of Faith and Final Deliverance
Though God may seem distant during trials, He remains faithful to deliver those who persevere in trust.
Him—let him act and rule! He's a wise prince, and he'll handle things so that you'll be astonished when he, as is fitting for him, brings to completion with wonderful counsel the work that has troubled you.5 He will, it's true, hold back his comfort for a while, and for his part act as if he had given you up in his mind, and as if you should hang forever in fear and distress, as if he didn't care about you. But when it turns out that you remain faithful to him, then he will set you free when you least expect it; he will free your heart from that heavy burden you've been carrying all this time—and not for any wrong of your own.✦6 How blessed you are, you child of faithfulness! You possess and carry away the victory and the crown of honor with glory and shouts of thanksgiving; God himself places the palms in your right hand, and you sing psalms of joy to the one who has turned your sorrow.
A Prayer for the Final Journey
A concluding petition for God to sustain the believer until they reach their heavenly home.
Bring it to an end, O Lord—bring an end to all our distress; strengthen our feet and hands, and until death let us always be entrusted to your care and faithfulness—then our paths will surely lead into heaven.✦7
Read the original Latin
BEFIEHL du deine Wege und was dein Herze kränkt der allertreusten Pflege des, der den Himmel lenkt. Der Wolken, Luft und Winden gibt Wege, Lauf und Bahn der wird auch Wege finden, da dein Fuß gehen kann.
DEM HERREN musst du trauen, wenn dir's soll wohlergehn; auf sein Werk musst du schauen, wenn dein Werk soll bestehn. Mit Sorgen und mit Grämen und mit selbsteigner Pein lässt Gott sich gar nichts nehmen: es muss erbeten sein.
DEIN ewge Treu und Gnade, o Vater, weiß und sieht, was gut sei oder schade dem sterblichen Geblüt; und was du dann erlesen, das treibst du, starker Held, und bringst zum Stand und Wesen, was deinem Rat gefällt.
WEG hast du allerwegen, an Mitteln fehlt dir's nicht; dein Tun ist lauter Segen, dein Gang ist lauter Licht. Dein Werk kann niemand hindern, dein Arbeit darf nicht ruhn, wenn du, was deinen Kindern ersprießlich ist, willst tun.
UND ob gleich alle Teufel hier wollten widerstehn, so wird doch ohne Zweifel Gott nicht zurücke gehen; was er sich vorgenommen und was er haben will, das muss doch endlich kommen zu seinem Zweck und Ziel.
HOFF, o du arme Seele, hoff und sei unverzagt! Gott wird dich aus der Höhle, da dich der Kummer plagt, mit großen Gnaden rücken; erwarte nur die Zeit, so wirst du schon erblicken die Sonn der schönsten Freud.
AUF, auf, gib deinem Schmerze und Sorgen Gute Nacht! Lass fahren, was das Herze betrübt und traurig macht; bist du doch nicht Regente, der alles führen soll: Gott sitzt im Regimente und führet alles wohl.
IHN, ihn lass tun und walten! Er ist ein weiser Fürst und wird sich so verhalten, dass du dich wundern wirst, wenn er, wie ihm gebühret, mit wunderbarem Rat das Werk hinausgeführet, das dich bekümmert hat.
ER wird zwar eine Weile mit seinem Trost verziehn und tun an seinem Teile, als hätt in seinem Sinn er deiner sich begeben und solltst du für und für in Angst und Nöten schweben, als frag er nicht nach dir.
WIRDS aber sich befinden, dass du ihm treu verbleibst, so wird er dich entbinden, da du's am mindsten gläubst; er wird dein Herze lösen von der so schweren Last, die du zu keinem Bösen bisher getragen hast.
WOHL dir, du Kind der Treue! Du hast und trägst davon mit Ruhm und Dankgeschreie den Sieg und Ehrenkron; Gott gibt dir selbst die Palmen in deine rechte Hand, und du singst Freudenpsalmen dem, der dein Leid gewandt.
MACH ENd, o Herr, mach Ende mit aller unsrer Not; stärk unsre Füß und Hände und lass bis in den Tod uns allzeit deiner Pflege und Treu empfohlen sein, so gehen unsre Wege gewiss zum Himmel ein.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.37.5 — Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.
- ↩Matt.7.7 — Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
- ↩Ps.37.5 — Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.
- ↩1John.1.5 — And this is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.
- ↩Acts.5.38-Acts.5.39 — And so now I tell you, keep away from these men and leave them alone; for if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will be overthrown. Acts.5.39 — But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them, and you may even be found fighting against God.
- ↩Isa.46.10;Job.42.2;Prov.19.21 — I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times what has not yet been done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.' Job.42.2 — I know that you can do all things, and no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Prov.19.21 — Many are the plans in a person's heart, but the counsel of the LORD—that will stand.
- ↩Eph.6.11-Eph.6.12;Rom.8.31 — Put on the full armor of God, so that you are able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Eph.6.12 — For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Rom.8.31 — What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
- ↩Ps.37.5 — Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.
- ↩Ps.37.5 — Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.
- ↩Ps.37.5 — Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.
Notes
- 1 ↩selbsteigner Pein: pain of one's own making (anxious self-torment), not God-sent trial.
- 2 ↩"darf nicht ruhn" in this older German hymnic use is read as impossibility/refusal of rest (cannot/must not rest), not modern permissive "may not."
- 3 ↩German 'mit großen Gnaden rücken' is rendered as 'draw you ... with great grace' (God moving the soul out of distress by grace); 'Gnaden' is plural in the source.
- 4 ↩Regente / im Regimente: rendered as ruler / in command for modern readability; the image is of sovereign government (God ruling), not a military regiment.
- 5 ↩Fürst here is royal/sovereign ruler language for God, not a mere earthly noble; kept as 'prince' to preserve Gerhardt's courtly image of divine government.
- 6 ↩Rendered as undeserved / not for the speaker's own wrongdoing. The German can also be read more narrowly as 'not unto any evil end' (the burden has not driven the sufferer into evil).
- 7 ↩Source surface has 'MACH ENd' for the hymn's 'Mach Ende'; translated from the intended reading 'Mach Ende, o Herr, mach Ende…'.
Paul Gerhardt Hymns (selected from Praxis Pietatis Melica) 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