{"id":790,"date":"2017-10-11T06:10:36","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T10:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/?p=790"},"modified":"2017-10-10T23:26:11","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T03:26:11","slug":"i-greet-thee-who-my-sure-redeemer-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/i-greet-thee-who-my-sure-redeemer-art\/","title":{"rendered":"I Greet Thee Who My Sure Redeemer Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite hymns from the Reformation is \u201cI Greet Thee Who My Sure Redeemer Art.\u201d The words are attributed to John Calvin, from the Strasbourg Psalter<\/em>, 1545. The tune (TOULON) was composed by Claude Goudimel, one of the musicians in Calvin\u2019s church in Geneva. It was originally composed as the melody for Psalm 124 and included in the 1551 edition of the Genevan Psalter.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a><\/p>\n

Calvin has been criticized regarding his convictions about music. One historian (M\u00fcnz) wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pope of Geneva, that dry and hard spirit, Calvin, lacked the warmth of heart which makes Luther so lovable \u2026 is the foe of all pleasure and of all distraction, even of the arts and music.\u201d<\/p>\n

A closer look at Calvin\u2019s thoughts on music, however, reveals that this harsh judgment is unfounded. During his ministry Calvin came to appreciate music as a valuable part of worship. He learned that music is a useful means to point our minds and hearts to Christ. He desired the church to sing Scripture and employed the gifts of renowned French poets in his congregation to set all 150 psalms, some of the canticles, and the Ten Commandments into metrical French. Clement Marot began the work on the Genevan Psalter and Theodore Beza completed the work. Louis Bourgeois, Claude Goudimel and other musicians in the church composed tunes to fit the psalms. The first complete edition of the Genevan Psalter<\/em> was published in 1562 and was widely used. By 1565 it had gone through at least 63 editions.<\/p>\n

Calvin recognized the devotional value of music. He encouraged his congregation to sing praise to God, not just in the worship services at church, but in their homes and places of work. In the preface to the 1543 edition of the Genevan Psalter, he wrote:<\/p>\n

The use of singing may be extended further: it is even in the houses and fields an incentive for us, like an organ, to praise God and to lift our hearts to Him, for consoling us in meditating upon His virtue, goodness, wisdom and justice, which is more necessary than can be expressed. Firstly, it is not without reason that the Holy Spirit exhorts us so carefully in the Holy Scriptures to rejoice in God that all our joy may be reduced to its true purpose, for He knows how much we are inclined to rejoice in vanity. So our nature causes us to look for all means of foolish and vicious rejoicing. On the contrary, our Lord, to distract us and draw us away from the desires of the flesh and of this world gives us every possible way to occupy ourselves in that spiritual joy which He desires for us. Among all other things which are proper for recreation of man and for giving him pleasure, music is the first or one of the principal and we must esteem it as a gift of God given to us for that purpose.<\/p>\n

Calvin\u2019s hymn \u201cI Greet Thee Who My Sure Redeemer Art\u201d is a wonderful encouragement to remember and meditate on the gospel. It embodies a major theological emphasis of the Reformation: Solus Christus<\/em> (Christ Alone). Our salvation is accomplished only by the mediatorial work of Christ. His sinless life and substitutionary atonement are alone sufficient for our justification and reconciliation with God. Indeed, \u201cour hope is in no other save in Thee!\u201d<\/p>\n

I Greet Thee Who My Sure Redeemer Art<\/strong><\/p>\n

I greet Thee, who my sure Redeemer art,
\nMy only Trust and Savior of my heart,
\nWho pains didst undergo for my poor sake;
\nI pray Thee from our hearts all cares to take.<\/p>\n

Thou art the King of mercy and of grace,
\nReigning omnipotent in every place:
\nSo come, O King, and our whole being sway;
\nShine on us with the light of Thy pure day.<\/p>\n

Thou art the life, by which alone we live,
\nAnd all our substance and our strength receive;
\nO comfort us in death\u2019s approaching hour,
\nStrong-hearted then to face it by Thy pow\u2019r.<\/p>\n

Thou hast the true and perfect gentleness,
\nNo harshness hast Thou and no bitterness:
\nMake us to taste the sweet grace found in Thee,
\nAnd ever stay in Thy sweet unity.<\/p>\n

Our hope is in no other save in Thee;
\nOur faith is built upon Thy promise free;
\nO grant to us such stronger hope and sure,
\nThat we can boldly conquer and endure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI Greet Thee Who My Sure Redeemer Art\u201d
\nWords from the Strasbourg Psalter, 1545
\nAttributed to John Calvin
\nTranslated by Elizabeth Smith, 1868, alt. 1961
\nMusic by Claude Goudimel (Genevan Psalter, 1551)
\n\u00a9Public Domain<\/p>\n

Download free sheet music<\/a> for this hymn, including chord charts and an arrangement of the tune TOULON for classical guitar.<\/p>\n

See more Hymns from History<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite hymns from the Reformation is \u201cI Greet Thee Who My Sure Redeemer Art.\u201d The words are attributed to John Calvin, from the Strasbourg Psalter, 1545. The tune (TOULON) was composed by Claude Goudimel, one of the musicians in Calvin\u2019s church in Geneva. It was originally composed as the melody for Psalm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[173,21,22],"tags":[175,50,61,15,98,174,52],"class_list":["post-790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-hymn","category-music-for-worship","tag-calvin","tag-church-music","tag-delight-in-christ","tag-gospel","tag-hymn","tag-reformation","tag-singing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4lLgO-cK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":793,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions\/793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}