"Now Thank We All Our God" was written around 1636 by Martin Rinkart, a German Lutheran pastor who served during the Thirty Years' War and a severe plague in 1637. It is now a staple of Thanksgiving worship, and its story is one of gratitude in hard times.
Rinkart's town of Eilenburg was a walled city and a place of refuge, but the flood of refugees strained local resources. One devotional account says that during the plague he was the last surviving pastor in town.
The hymn began as a prayer at the table. The first two stanzas were used as a mealtime grace in the pastor's home, and a third stanza praising the Trinity was added later. Its German title is "Nun danket alle Gott."
The tune came from his contemporary Johann Crüger, and the hymn first appeared in Crüger's 1647 hymnal. English readers got it almost 200 years later through Catherine Winkworth's translation. Today the hymn appears in hundreds of hymnals.
The Thirty Years' War ended with the Treaty of Westphalia on Oct. 24, 1648, and Rinkart died the following year.
The hymn still speaks to Christians at Thanksgiving because its thanks doesn't depend on easy circumstances. It echoes the call in Psalm 34:1 to bless the Lord at all times. As families prepare for Thanksgiving on Nov. 26, many churches will sing it again, as they have for generations.
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