The Forgotten Deity

I've recently started learning German, the language infamous for sounding gruff and serious (I like it for the exact same reason!) and being Christian, I wanted to find out if there were any hymns that were in German so that I could find a way to expand my vocabulary. 

After skimming through the hymnal, to my surprise, many of the songs in it were hymns translated from German, and I immediately set out to listening to them in the original language. The feeling of any piece of written art is best expressed in the language it was originally written in.

I listened to two particular German hymns on YouTube: Stille Nacht (Silent Night) and Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress is our God), and as I usually would, I read the comments under these videos. 

Under the video of 'Stille Nacht', I found in a comment the story of the Christmas Truce of 1914, which took place during WW1 between the Germans and the British. Both sides sung carols and patriotic songs on their respective sides, and soon they met on the no man's land and exchanged gifts, rations, and buttons, and some accounts say that they even played football together! It was one of the most beautiful stories I've heard about a war.

German and British soldiers in the no man's land
Credit: By Robson Harold B - This is photograph Q 50719 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums., Public Domain

I've also found that 'Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott' has had its own influence in central and northern Europe too. The hymn was composed and written by Martin Luther, the head of the Protestant Reformation, and it has been dubbed the 'battle hymn of the Reformation'. I found, again, under the comments that in Sweden and Finland, the hymn was remembered as the song sung as they went to war.

In Sweden, the song, translated to Swedish, was sung as King Gustavus Adolphus and his troops went to fight in the Thirty Years War to fight against the Catholics for the religious freedom of the Protestants. 

King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden 
By Johann Jakob Walter - Self-photographed by Rama, 2010, Public Domain

In Finland, the same song, translated to Finnish, was their strength as they fought with and successfully drove away the Soviet Union during the Winter War of 1939.

Finnish troops during the Winter War
By Unknown author - https://finna.fi/Record/sa-kuva.sa-kuva-106977, Public Domain

Although not a German song, I think of another hymn called 'Battle Hymn of the Republic', which was a patriotic song of the Americans during the Civil War in the fight against slavery, which has religious undertones.

African-American Union soldiers in the Civil War at Dutch Gap, Virginia (November 1864)
Credit: Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons

When I listen to these hymns in their original and translated versions, I think of what the people back then had to go through. It's almost as if I was transported back to their day. They are rich and heavy with history and emotion.

I really wonder at how God was an essential part of the life of theistic people during the sorrowful World Wars. In their dark times, it was evident how a lot of them leaned on God for protection and assurance. It is rightly said by the famous Russian writer, Fyodor Dostoevsky, that:

"The darker the night, the brighter the stars. The deeper the grief, the closer is God!" 

Often times, our problems drive us to think about God, because we know that He's the only one who can help us (think of how many people turned to God when the 9/11 incident happened or even when the Pandemic struck). How different it is now! The world undoubtedly was pretty godless back then, but it's more so in our day. 

All these things in mind, I wondered how God would feel about it, and I've penned them down in the following poem:

Society has forgotten God today, and I like to think that it is why we are regressing in all aspects of our life. No more do we follow and uphold His law and keep the good old values we were taught.

Despite all of that, God still waits for us to come to him. We need God now more than ever before, and God needs us too.