Let all within me bless His Name! Today’s HYMN OF THE DAY “My Soul, Now Praise Your Maker” (820) is based on Psalm 103. The author Johann Gramann (1487-1541) served as rector of St. Thomas School in Leipzig, and pastor in Würzburg, Nürnberg, and Königsberg. In a court-ordered public disputation, Gramann successfully refuted the Anabaptists on the basis of Scripture and saved his province from Anabaptist teaching.
The Margrave Albrecht of Brandenberg-Ansbach, a friend of Luther’s and supporter of the Reformation cause requested Gramann to write this hymn in 1525. It is noted that it was sung at the Peace of Westphalia in thanksgiving of the ending the Thirty Years’ War on October 25, 1648.
The PRELUDE is a setting of this hymn by Jan Bender (1909-1994).
The CHORAL VOLUNTARY is a setting of Psalm 17 by Italian composer Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739). “Give Ear Unto Me” is from his well-known collection Estro poetico-armonico, musical settings of the first fifty Psalms, composed in Venice from 1724-1727. He also composed settings of the Mass, the Magnificat, and other liturgical works.
