Gellert wrote "Herr, stärke mich, dein Leiden zu bedenken" in 1755.[1] It appeared first in Leipzig in 1757 in his collection Geistliche Oden und Lieder, with 22 stanzas[2] of four lines each,[3] titled "Passionslied" (Passion song). As the first line indicates, it is a Passiontide prayer requesting strength to think about the suffering of Jesus.[2] In the 1993 common Protestant hymnal, Evangelisches Gesangbuch, it appears shortened to ten stanzas and rearranged as EG 91.[2][4][5]
Text and theme
Gellert focuses on a reflection on the Passion of Jesus, without description of the actions as narrated by the Evangelists. Speaking in the first-person singular, he contemplates its meaning for the individual believer, both theologically and emotionally. His theological thoughts are based on the Epistles of Paul. In accordance with the contemporary anthropology, he aims to educate both the mind towards wisdom and the heart towards virtue.[1]
The format of the stanzas, with three long lines and a final short line, was based on the Sapphic stanza of Latin hymns. Beginning with a funeral song by Bartholomäus Ringwaldt from the 17th century, the format became associated with the topics of death, Passion and solace. Gellert succeeded mostly in filling the stressed fourth line with meaning,[1]
Melody and musical setting
Gellert chose to write his poem to match the melody of the well-known hymn "Herzliebster Jesu", composed by Johann Crüger in 1640, which was based on a 1534 tune by Guilleaume Franc.[4] Bach had included the first stanza of that hymn in his St Matthew Passion. Singers of Gellert's hymn would relate it to the context of the older hymn by Johann Heermann.[1] The character of the melody has been described as "floating, bitter-sad, serious" ("schwebend, herb-traurig, ernst").[1]
