"If God Had Not Been on Our Side"

                    by Martin Luther, 1483-1546

                               Text From:

                       THE LUTHERAN HYMNAL

        (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941)







        1. If God had not been on our side

        And had not come to aid us,

        The foes with all their power and pride

        Would surely have dismayed us;

        For we, His flock, would have to fear

        The threat of men both far and near

        Who rise in might against us.



        2. Their furious wrath, did God permit,

        Would surely have consumed us

        And as a deep and yawning pit

        With life and limb entombed us.

        Like men o'er whom dark waters roll

        Their wrath would have engulfed our soul

        And, like a flood, o'erwhelmed us.



        3. Blest be the Lord, who foiled their threat

        That they could not devour us;

        Our souls, like birds, escaped their net,

        They could not overpower us.

        The snare is boken-we are free!

        Our help is ever, Lord, in Thee,

        Who madest earth and heaven.



        


        Notes:

        Hymn 267 from _The Lutheran Hymnal_

        Text: Ps. 124

        Author: Martin Luther, 1524

        Translated by: composite

        Titled: "War' Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit"

        Tune: "War' Gott nicht mit uns"

        1st Published in: _Gesangbuch_

        Town: Wittenberg, 1537