Great Hymns from The Lutheran Hymnal

"Yea, as I Live, Jehovah Saith"
by Nikolaus Herman, published in 1560
Translated by Matthias Loy, 1828-1915
Text From:
THE LUTHERAN HYMNAL
(St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941)

This is best sung to Old Hundredth. The omitted verses, 5, 7, 9, are provided by the obsolete and forgotten Pollack TLH companion and added by Ichabod. Would someone please tell me how UOJ can be harmonized with this great hymn from the Reformation?


1. Yea, as I live, Jehovah saith,
I would not have the sinner's death,
But that he turn from error's ways,
Repent, and live through endless days.

2. To us therefore Christ gave command:
"Go forth and preach in every land;
Bestow on all My pardoning grace
Who will repent and mend their ways.

3. "All those whose sins ye thus remit
I truly pardon and acquit,
And those whose sins ye do retain
Condemned and guilty shall remain.

4. "What ye shall bind, that bound shall be:
What ye shall loose, that shall be free;
Unto My Church the keys are given
To ope and close the gates of heaven."

5. The words which absolution give
Are His who died that we might live;
The minister whom Christ has sent
Is but His humble instrument.

6. When ministers lay on their hands,
Absolved by Christ the sinner stands;
He who by grace the Word believes
The purchase of His blood receives.

7. All praise, eternal Son, to Thee
For absolution full and free,
In which Thou showest forth Thy grace;
From false indulgence guard our race.

8. Praise God the Father and the Son
And Holy Spirit, Three in One,
As 'twas, is now, and so shall be
World without end, eternally!

From Pollack:
5. They who believe when ye proclaim
The joyful tidings in My Name
That I for them My blood have shed,
Are free from guilt and Judgment dread.

7. However great our sin may be
The absolution sets us free,
Appointed by God's own dear Son
To bring the pardon He has won.

9. This is the power of Holy Keys
It binds and doth again release;
The Church retains them at her side
Our mother and Christ's holy Bride.

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Notes:
Hymn #331 from The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Ezek. 33:11
Author: Nikolaus Herman, 1560, cento
Translated by: Matthias Loy, 1880, alt.
Titled: "So wahr ich leb', spricht Gott der Herr"
Composer: Jeremiah Clarke, 1707
Tune: "St. Luke"
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This text was converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg by Cindy A. Beesley and is in the public domain. You may freely distribute, copy or print this text. Please direct any comments or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther
Library at Concordia Theological Seminary.

E-mail: smithre@mail.ctsfw.edu
Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA
Phone: (260) 452-3149 Fax: (260) 452-2126
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Nicolaus Herman's hymns were written primarily for children, to supplant the secular songs they loved. When his pastor Johann Mathesius "preached a speically good sermon, Herman straightway embodied its leading ideas in a hymn." Pollack, The Handbook to The Lutheran Hymnal, p. 521.