None of us experiences a life free from trials. They come in many forms and at many times. Some are from without, as we experience loss or opposition. Some come from within, as we are weighed down by discouragement and even depression. Others are the result of debilitating illness or broken relationships. Sadly, for some it can even be result of war. Sometimes they catch us off guard, and if we are not spiritually armed, we will find ourselves struggling, wondering where God is, and if He has deserted us. But what is common to us all is that we will experience situations where we cannot manage in our own strength, but must cry out to the Lord.
The Thirty Years War in Germany was such a time. This conflict lasted from 1618 to 1648, as competing forces sought to gain control of the region, either Protestant or Catholic. As armies engaged one another, common folk were caught in the middle. One-third of the population of the country died during those years. It wasn’t just the soldiers in battle (and the collateral civilian deaths). It was also the diseases that spread from the decaying corpses in the fields, and the starvation that resulted from food supplies being destroyed by the retreating armies. Back and forth the pendulum swung, until the Peace of Westphalia finally brought it to an end.
Though those thirty years were extremely tragic and gruesome, many of our richest and most helpful hymns that we know today were composed during that time. Some of the more famous authors included Paul Gerhardt (“O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”), Johann Heerman (“Ah, Holy Jesus”), and the author of this hymn, George Neumark (1621-1681), who wrote both words and music to “If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee.” We need hymns like these to help us keep our eyes on Him, even when He leads us into difficult and dangerous circumstances. As He guided our spiritual ancestors in Germany during those decades of war, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), and will guide us.
We are totally dependent on the Lord for all things, including guidance. He has promised to guide us when we call on Him through Christ. Scriptures assure us that He will do so even “through the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23). He led Daniel’s three friends into a fiery furnace, but was present with them there to preserve them and to glory Himself through their experience. We find that promise as well in Isaiah 43:2 where He tells us that He will be with us “through the rivers.” And one of the most precious promises we have is found in Proverbs 3:5-6. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” We should remind ourselves often that just as the Lord guided His people through the wilderness and brought them to the Promised Land, He will do the same for us today.
The story of George Neumark’s life is one of great tragedy and strife, and it is no wonder that this text can be found in the “Trust” or “Guidance” section of so many hymnals. The road that led Neumark to pen this hymn included his getting robbed, not being able to find work, and life generally not going according to plan, as was the case for many different hymn-writers in this time period. Despite all the difficulties Georg endured, he wrote thirty-four hymns in which he expressed his complete trust in God. Of this hymn, he wrote, “Which good fortune coming suddenly, and as if fallen from heaven, greatly rejoiced me, and on that very day I composed to the honor of my beloved Lord the here and there well-known hymn ‘Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten’; and had certainly cause enough to thank the Divine compassion for such unlooked for grace shown to me.” The Lord cared for him even in his blindness at the end of his life.
Born to a cloth and clothes salesman, George Neumark grew up in Thuringia in Germany. After being educated at the Gymnasium in Schlüingen and at the Gymnasium in Gotha, Neumark made plans to matriculate to the University of Könisberg, where he wanted to go to begin studying law. Although he did eventually make it to the university, Neumark’s life would be taken on a detour first. In the fall of 1641, he was traveling with a group between Leipzig and Lübeck. On his journey, just outside of Magdeburg, Neumark was robbed of everything he owned, except for a prayer book, and what little money he had sewn in his clothes.
After having to deal with being robbed, Neumark abandoned his original plans to go attend the University of Königsberg, and went back to Magdeburg to look for work. He was unsuccessful in finding a job, so he left Magdeburg and moved on, trying unsuccessfully to work in Lüneberg, Winsen, and Hamburg. As December of that year finally came around, Neumark was still without work and was willing to do anything. Eventually, he moved on to Kiel, where he became good friends with Nikolaus Becker, who was a native of Thuringia, and was chief pastor in Kiel.
Finally, towards the end of December, 1641, Neumark received news from Becker, that the family tutor for Judge Stephen Henning had fallen into disgrace, and had thus fled from Kiel. Neumark was offered the job, of tutor and immediately accepted, filling the vacant position and giving him the opportunity to write the hymn “If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee.” After staying with the family long enough to save some money, Neumark left in 1643 and finally matriculated at the University of Königsberg, where he was able to study law and poetry for five years. Life seemed to be looking up for Neumark, as he had finally made it to his original destination, and was accomplishing what he had originally set out to do, study law. Though things had finally begun to settle down for Neumark, he would eventually lose all of his belongings once again, in 1646, this time to fire.
Though Neumark had written the hymn, as well as the tune, in 1641, it was not published until more than fifteen years later. The original published text of the hymn contained seven stanzas. Neumark captioned the hymn, “Hymn of Consolation. That in God’s own time God will sustain and keep each person according to this text from Psalm 55:23, ‘Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken.’” In the 18th century, Johann Sebastian Bach used all seven stanzas of Neumark’s hymn for his Cantata 93 and as the music for his organ chorale prelude on that tune in his “Orgelbüchlein” (“Little Organ Book”).
Though there was no way of knowing just how popular “If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee” would become, Neumark was correct in saying that his tune was already somewhat well-known. This hymn was included in many different German hymnals, and was widely used among Lutherans and German Reformed. Many became familiar with the hymn as it began. To be used in the English-speaking world, being first introduced to Lutherans in North America through Catherine Winkworth’s translation. Though all seven stanzas were used in earlier publications, most 20th century hymnals narrowed it down to only four stanzas, and sometimes, outside of the Lutheran hymnals, even to just two or three stanzas.
Neumark’s text follows the pattern of such Psalms as number 103 (“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me bless, His holy name”), where we are talking to ourselves, reminding ourselves to trust the Lord’s guidance, even through these difficult times. Here is Catherine Winkworth’s 1855 and 1863 translation that has been so widely embraced.
Stanza 1 challenges us to put all our hope and trust in the Lord. The word “suffer” here does not point to endurance in pain as much as it does in “King James English” to convey the thought of welcoming God’s guidance. Some translations of the hymn render it as “trust.” It matches the theme of Proverbs 3:5-6 as with the concept of permitting or allowing. We need to hear this, because we are too easily tempted to turn away from looking to Him and looking instead to the waves, as Peter did when walking on the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 14:30-33). Read thoughtfully all the things this stanza tells us that He will do. If we hope in Him in all our ways, He’ll give us strength, bear us up, and enable us to have a life built on Him as “the Rock that nought can move,” nought meaning nothing or no one.
If thou but suffer God to guide thee, And hope in Him through all thy ways,
He’ll give thee strength whate’er betide thee, And bear thee through the evil days.
Who trust in God’s unchanging love Builds on the Rock that nought can move.
Stanza 2 tells us that we need to compare these “anxious cares” and “moans and sighs” which we experience here in this earthly life, alongside the great promises He has given us. More than that, as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:27, how will giving in to worry and anxiety help? Especially harmful can be the temptation to give in to bitterness, which will only make “our cross and trials” even heavier. No one can expect that to be easy, but He has promised to enable us to “do all things through Christ, who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
What can these anxious cares avail thee, These never-ceasing moans and sighs?
What can it help, if thou bewail thee O’er each dark moment as it flies?
Our cross and trials do but press The heavier for our bitterness.
Stanza 3 calls us to re-direct our thinking to look toward what God is doing rather than what we are experiencing, toward what we know rather than what we feel. In other words, we need to discipline ourselves to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). This will often mean that we need to learn to “wait His leisure in cheerful hope.” The only way we can do that, as Neumark so helpfully spells out, is to cultivate a heart that is content to “take whate’r thy Father’s pleasure and all-discerning love hath sent.” What path has He chosen as the best for us, even if we can’t see the immediate benefit of it? If we resist the temptation to doubt that He knows “our inmost wants,” by remembering that He has chosen us “for His own,” then we will be secure.
Only be still and wait His leisure In cheerful hope, with heart content
To take whate’er thy Father’s pleasure And all-discerning love hath sent,
Nor doubt our inmost wants are known To Him who chose us for His own.
Stanza 4 makes these truths even more clear as it applies the doctrines of God’s sovereignty and providence to bear on our situations. As we are taught in the book of Job, He knows what He is doing. And as we learn from the book of Ecclesiastes, He has appointed times for joy and for sadness. These are His choices, not ours. More than that, since everything He does is for His glory and our ultimate good, He will use all these times in our lives to make us more of what He wants to be, including purging us from sin and all deceit.
He knows the time for joy, and truly Will send it when He sees it meet,
When He has tried and purged thee throughly And finds thee free from all deceit,
He comes to thee all unaware And makes thee own His loving care.
Stanza 5 is an important reminder that God will never abandon us, even though there may be times when, to our ears, He is silent. We recall the 400 years of silence before the exodus, and the 400 years of silence before the incarnation. But He is always watching and listening and working. We can be certain of that, not only because He promised never to leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), but also because we are His “preferred,” adopted children. Our hard times will only last as long as He has wisely ordained. He “sets a bound to ev’rything.”
Nor think amid the heat of trial That God hath cast thee off unheard,
That he whose hopes meet no denial Must surely be of God preferred;
Time passes and much change doth bring, And sets a bound to ev’rything.
Stanza 6 gives us stability to know that He cares for even the least among us. This is the God who has repeatedly raised up the lowly and brought down the lofty, as Mary sang in her “Magnificat” in Luke 1:46-55. In addition to that, as Neumark wrote, this God is still working wonders, and is the sovereign in the heavens “who setteth up and brings to nought.” All the plans of men and nations are nothing to Him; He is accomplishing His perfect will.
All are alike before the Highest. ‘Tis easy to our God, we know,
To raise thee up though low thou liest, To make the rich man poor and low;
True wonders still by Him are wrought Who setteth up and brings to nought.
Stanza 7 brings the message to a climax as a joyful instruction to the soul. Whatever difficulties we may be experiencing, it is appropriate for us to worship the Lord with song, prayer, and obedience. In other words, though we may not know where the Lord is leading us at the moment, we need to turn to Him in loving dependance and to commit ourselves afresh to obedience to whatever He has revealed in His Word. As we do so, we can rest assured that as God has never forsaken any soul that trusted Him, so He will not forsake us.
Sing, pray, and keep His ways unswerving, So do thine own part faithfully,
And trust His Word, though undeserving, Thou yet shalt find it true for thee;
God never yet forsook at need The soul that trusted Him indeed.
Here is a link to several of the stanzas as sung by the Calvin College alumni choir.