All My Hope on God is Founded, ELW 757
1 All my hope on God is founded who will all my trust renew, who through change and chance will guide me, only good and only true.
God unknown, God alone, call my heart to be thine own.
2 Mortal pride and earthly glory, sword and crown betray our trust;
what with care and toil we fashion, tow'r and temple, fall to dust.
But thy pow'r, hour by hour, is my temple and my tow'r.
3 Great thy goodness, e'er enduring;
deep thy wisdom, passing thought;
splendor, light, and life attend thee, beauty springing out of naught.
Evermore from thy store newborn worlds rise and adore.
4 Still from earth to God eternal sacrifice of praise be done, high above all praises praising for the gift of God's own Son.
Christ doth call one and all:
ye who follow shall not fall.
Devotion
Joachim Neander (1650-May 31, 1680) wrote 60 hymns, including Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation. He is considered the first important German hymn writer after the Reformation. The words to All My Hope on God is Founded were written about 1680. He died shortly thereafter from tuberculosis.
In 1899, the hymn text was translated into English by the future Poet Laureate, Robert Bridges, who was living in the Birkshire village of Yattendon. Bridges did not like the range of hymn texts available at the time and so collected his own into a volume called Yattendon Hymnal. He included this hymn.
In 1935, the English composer Herbert Howells lost a child, Michael, from spinal meningitis, which deeply affected him. The story is told that he received a request in 1936 for a hymn tune. The request came in the mail and he wrote the tune over breakfast. He called the tune Michael.* Three men, different times, different circumstances, one great hymn.
* Note: Information drawn from Wikipedia articles on the hymn text All My Hope on God is Founded, and on Joachim Neander
Prayer
All my hope on God is founded. God unknown, God alone, call my heart to be thine own. Amen.