A Poem For A Special Feast

Psalm 144:9-15

9I will sing a new song to you, O God!

I will sing your praises with a ten-stringed harp.

10For you grant victory to kings!

You are the one who rescued your servant David.

11Save me from the fatal sword!

Rescue me from the power of my enemies.

Their mouths are full of lies;

they swear to tell the truth, but they lie.

12May our sons flourish in their youth

like well-nurtured plants.

May our daughters be like graceful pillars,

carved to beautify a palace.

13May our farms be filled

with crops of every kind.

May the flocks in our fields multiply by the thousands,

even tens of thousands,

14and may our oxen be loaded down with produce.

May there be no breached walls, no forced exile,

no cries of distress in our squares.

15Yes, happy are those who have it like this!

Happy indeed are those whose God is the LORD.

Matthias Claudius had started out to become a minister like his father when he was infected with the rationalism of his day. A disciple and friend of the German philosopher-poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, he believed that people must believe not in God but in themselves. After getting a degree in law, Claudius became a newspaper editor.

But he became seriously ill when he was thirty-seven, and he realized that he had to believe in someone besides himself. That “someone” was Jesus Christ. Claudius became a sweet-spirited Christian, and he began writing religious poetry for his newspaper.

When a friend, Paul Erdmans, invited Claudius to his house for a special dinner, he was asked to bring a poem with him. So Claudius wrote the poem “We Plow the Fields and Scatter.” He originally wrote seventeen stanzas for it, thanking Erdmans and thanking God for friendship and for the abundant harvest.

Claudius had much to be thankful for, and his poem seems to echo the words of Psalm 144. But most of all, he was thankful because the Lord was his God.

We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land,

But it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand;

He sends the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain,

The breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain.

All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above;

Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all his love.

MATTHIAS CLAUDIUS

A Word on Words

The term “new song” can mean a song that is composed for a particular occasion, such as a victory. It could also mean a song that is sung at the time of renewal of a relationship. In the age to come people will sing a “new song.” See Revelation 5:9 and 14:3.

Notable Quotable

“New songs are demanded by new mercies. Let us give God freshly broken loaves for his table.”

F. B. MEYER