"The Lord Will Provide" has been a favorite in probably every Apostolic Christian Church congregation since the Zion's Harp was first published. The last line of each of the six verses of this hymn end with the phrase, "The Lord will provide," which is also the title of the hymn. The first stanza sets the tone for the entire hymn:

Though troubles assail

And dangers affright,

Though friends should all fail

And foes all unite;

Yet one thing secures us,

Whatever betide;

This promise assures us:

The Lord will provide!

The theme of the hymn is the faithfulness of the Lord and the power of the faith of the believer to overcome every obstacle, whether it be adversity, temptation, fear or doubt. Surely there have been many times when the faith of Apostolic Christians have been bolstered by singing this hymn as it boldly addresses our failings, but assures us with the promises of Christ from His Word.

The Lyrics: This hymn is quite unique for the Zion's Harp, with its Swiss-German origins, because this is not a Swiss or German hymn, but an English one! One may wonder how an English hymn would find its way into a German hymnbook. Well, it had been translated into German by F. Wintler and his translation of this hymn appeared in a number of 19th century German hymnals. It is quite possible that those responsible for selecting hymns for the Zion's Harp were unaware that it was originally an English hymn! It is interesting to note that not all of the verses of this hymn made it into the Zion's Harp, even though all eight of the verses had been translated into German by Wintler. Below are all of the verses, as composed by the author:

1. Though troubles assail

And dangers affright,

Though friends should all fail

And foes all unite;

Yet one thing secures us,

Whatever betide,

The Scripture assures us,

The Lord will provide.

2. The birds without barn

Or storehouse are fed,

From them let us learn

To trust for our bread:

His saints, what is fitting,

Shall ne'er be denied,

So long as 'tis written,

The Lord will provide.

3. We may, like the ships,

By tempest be tossed

On perilous deeps,

But cannot be lost.

Though Satan enrages

The wind and the tide,

The promise engages,

The Lord will provide.

4. His call we obey

Like Abram of old,

Not knowing our way,

But faith makes us bold;

For though we are strangers

We have a good Guide,

And trust in all dangers,

The Lord will provide.

5. When Satan appears

To stop up our path,

And fill us with fears,

We triumph by faith;

He cannot take from us,

Though oft he has tried,

This heart-cheering promise,

The Lord will provide.

6. He tells us we're weak,

Our hope is in vain,

The good that we seek

We ne'er shall obtain,

But when such suggestions

Our spirits have plied,

This answers all questions,

The Lord will provide.

7. No strength of our own,

Or goodness we claim,

Yet since we have known

The Saviour's great name;

In this our strong tower

For safety we hide,

The Lord is our power,

The Lord will provide.

8. When life sinks apace

And death is in view,

This word of his grace

Shall comfort us through:

No fearing or doubting

With Christ on our side,

We hope to die shouting,

"The Lord will provide!"

You may have noticed that verses two and eight of the original did not make it into The Zion's Harp. One can find some reasons why verse two was omitted, but it is less understandable why the last verse was omitted, considering that so many of the Zion's Harp hymns end with a verse addressing death and/or the Christian's heavenly reward.

However, it is clear that those who translated the Zion's Harp into English in the last century were aware of the original English version of this hymn because the "translation" of most of the verses from German back into English resulted in verses nearly identical to the original English verses (note verses one four, five, six and seven above); obviously they had some of the original English verses at their disposal.

Verse three of the original (verse two of the Zion's Harp version) and verse seven of the original (verse six of the Zion's Harp version) vary noticably from the original; it would appear that the Zion's Harp translators did not have these particular English verses available to them, so relied on Wintler's translated verses. We have noted in looking at Wintler's German translation that he took some liberties with his translation; for instance a reference to "fishes of the sea" appears in his translation of verse two, even though there is no mention of any fish in the original! However the Zion's Harp translators were fortunate indeed in finding even four of the verses of this hymn in their original English form, as this hymn is quite rare (but not totally unknown) in English hymnals. The few English hymnals that contain this hymn today are generally from churches with a German heritage, so it is likely that there was a German predecessor of this hymn in their earlier German hymnals (as with the Zion's Harp).

The Lyricist: So who wrote the words to this memorable hymn?  None other than John Newton, the famous hymnwriter who wrote such favorites as "Amazing Grace" and "How Sweet The Name Of Jesus Sounds" and many others! In 1725 John Newton was born into a sailing family in London, England. His mother was a godly woman who taught him Scripture and children's hymns from a young age; she had prayed that he would become a minister someday. Sadly, she died when he was only seven years old.

At the tender age of eleven, John went on his first sailing voyage with his father, which was the start of his long maritime career (it is no coincidence that there are many allusions to sailing in his hymns, including this one). His life as a sailor was anything but godly, his nickname as "The Great Blasphemer" came from his dark reputation for profanity, coarseness and debauchery that was so exceedingly great that he stood out among his fellow sailors (which are commonly known for leading sinful lifestyles, even today). His father retired from sailing in 1742 and after that John's sailing career went into a downward spiral; his rank was reduced time after time until a point when he became a mere servant to a slave trader! He was eventually rescued from that pitiful condition by a friend of his father's.

In 1750 he found himself sailing "The Greyhound" in a North Atlantic storm. The storm would not abate; the sails had been ripped and the side of the ship had been bashed open. The crew desperately tried to keep the ship afloat, pumping furiously, day after day. On the eleventh day of the storm, John was completely exhausted and came to believe that death was nearly certain. He then remembered the instruction from his mother, particularly Proverbs 1:24-31, "Because I have called and ye refused . . . your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer." He knew that he needed to repent, but would God listen to such a sinner? The Old Testament did not give him much hope. Somewhere on the ship he found a Bible and opened it; he read Luke 11:13 which gave him the hope he needed, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him." That very day Newton was converted and received assurance of his salvation.

However, without the benefit of a strong, Christian role model, John continued sailing and even participated in the slave trade for four more years! However, in those days, slavery was an accepted practice by much of Europe. However, he studied the Bible, eschewed all of his former profane activities and even held Sunday services for the crew of his ship! After he quit sailing, he came under the wing of some good Christian role models, including the famous evangelist Whitefield; in fact John Newton came to be known as "Young Whitefield" because of his close association with him. Eventually Newton decided that he should enter the ministry and taught himself Greek and some Hebrew so he could study the Scriptures in their original languages. In 1760 he became the pastor of an independent (non-state church), but with the help of some influential friends he became ordained as a minister of the Anglican church in 1763 (the Anglican church was wary of his dramatic conversion experience and enthusiasm for Christ and clear condemnation of sin, as such things were not common in that church).

Newton became known for preaching extemporaneously and plain-talking, in contrast to the refined, precomposed, liturgical preaching of his peers. And like Whitefield, he readily preached to commoners and upper-class people alike (most Anglican preachers of the day looked down on "lower-class" people).  His sermons usually included illustrations from his own life's experiences, condemnation of sin and calls for conviction and repentance of the sinner and concern for the Christian's perplexities, temptations and troubles. This, along with his association with many evangelists outside of the Anglican church invited attacks against him by his peers. But despite this, Newton's preaching was highly popular, in fact, a wing had to be added to the church he pastored in Olney, England to make room for all of the parishioners! It was in Olney where he became friends with the psychologically fragile hymnwriter William Cowper (who attempted suicide several times because he came to believe he was not one of the "elect," but condemned to hell, a belief fueled by his devotion to the heretical Calvinistic doctrines of predestination and "election") . In 1779 Cowper included 280 hymns penned by Newton in the "Olney Hymns" hymnbook he compiled (as well as 68 hymns authored by himself); it was from this hymnbook that Newton's hymns became known in the English world. Some of Cowpers most well-known hymns include "There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood" and "God Moves In A Mysterious Way." At times Newton's friendship with him was strained because Cowper did not object to secular amusements and the excesses of Roman Catholicism like Newton did.

Newton collaborated with William Wilberforce (a man he helped convert), a member of Parliament in England and it was Newton's preaching that inspired Wilberforce to champion the banning of the slave trade in the British empire. He was aided in part by a book Newton published entailing the sordid tale of his experiences in the slave trade; it became highly popular among early English abolitionists.

Newton preached until the last year of his life, even though he was nearly blind by then. Some encouraged him to retire, but he retorted, "I cannot stop. What! Shall the old African blasphemer stop while he can still speak?" In one of those last years he told his friends, "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior." He died in 1807 at the age of 82.

The Tune: The tune that accompanies Newton's hymn in the current version of the Zion's Harp is the same one it was paired with in the original Zion's Harp. This hymn had the privilege of being published with musical notation (for this tune) even in the first edition; a privileged status as many hymns did not appear with musical notation in the original Zion's Harp (one had to flip to a tune that was located elsewhere in the hymnal for most hymns; this practice saved a great deal on printing expenses which were quite costly in those days). This privileged status must mean that there was a great deal of appreciation of this hymn from the very beginning of the Apostolic Christian Church.

The tune is not in the German chorale style (A-A-B) as most common with original Zion's Harp tunes, instead there are no repeated musical phrases within a verse. The music seems to be made specifically for these lyrics; it slowly builds into an emotional crescendo which parallels the lyrics, only to come at rest at the end of the song with the refrain, "The Lord will provide!" The arrangement is rather simple and relies mostly on its strong melody for appeal, it is completely devoid of musical ornaments such as suspensions, passing tones or walking bass lines, they would probably only get in the way of the melody. Thankfully, the editors of the 2000 edition saw fit to let this tune remain with this hymn, with the arrangement unchanged. This arrangement, incidentally, is very similar to one found in a 19th century Swiss Reformed Church hymnal, though that arrangement is in the key of E-flat, not E-natural.

The Composer: The Swiss origins of the Zion's Harp can be clearly be seen with this hymn. English hymnbook editors have paired this hymn with some rather unremarkable English tunes and the German editors paired the hymn with some unremarkable German hymn tunes; none of them seem as appropriate for these encouraging words as the Swiss tune found in The Zion's Harp. The composer of this tune was Hans Georg Nägeli. He is relatively unknown outside of Switzerland, where he is known as "the father of Swiss music" and "the man who taught Switzerland to sing." He was champion of music education in Switzerland and one of the first Swiss composers to come to national prominence. He composed mostly choral music and many of his compositions found their way into the Zion's Harp. He founded several choral societies and created a publishing house in Zurich. He also taught music in Switzerland, Germany and France.

Nägeli was born to a clergyman and his wife in Wetzicon, Switzerland (a small village near Zurich) in 1773 and lived there all of his life. As an adult he formed a close friendship with the German choral composer Friedrich Silcher, who wrote many hymn tunes and even wrote a book on the history of hymn singing in the Protestant church. Silcher was also a big proponent of choral singing (mostly due to Nägeli's influence). Dozens of Nägeli's tunes were used by the Swiss Reformed Church in their early non-Psalter hymnals (although the earliest such hymnal we could find was not compiled until around 30 years after the Zion's Harp was first published). Unlike the Lutherans, most Reformed churches would only sing hymns strictly based on the Old Testament Psalms because of Calvin's influence on the matter; these hymns were published in various "psalters" (psalm books) for the Reformed church; this did not change until the latter part of the 19th century for most of the German-speaking Reformed churches. Nageli died in 1836, a national hero of music in his own lifetime.

One of Nägeli's folk tunes became paired with the words to a German drinking song that is still sung today in German-speaking countries, however, it is doubtful that Nägeli was responsible for this marriage. The only tune of Nägeli's that is common in American hymnbooks today is the tune called "Dennis," a tune commonly paired with the hymn "Blest Be The Tie That Binds," which can also be found the Apostolic Christian hymnal "Hymns of Zion."

Recommendations: As this is a widely sung hymn in the Apostolic Christian Church, the church could benefit from the addition of the missing verses, especially the last verse. However, regarding the variation in lyrics from the original (because they have been translated twice or because of changes by Zion's Harp translators/editors, perhaps to favor Wintler's version of the hymn such as with verse four of the original/verse three of the Zion's Harp), the verses as they appear in the Zion's Harp should remain as they are (the changes actually appear to be improvements on the original). For example, do we really want to sing that Satan may appear "To stop up our path" (verse five above) instead of "Obstructing our path" as in the Zion's Harp version? These words may have seemed more eloquent in the century they were written, but fall short of their intended purpose today. And of course, we recommend no changes to the tune, it is perfect as it is.

Bibliography

Dictionary of Hymnology, 1907, John Julian

Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 40, 1894, Smith, Elder & Co.

Survey of dozens of 19th century German and Swiss hymnals as well as many later English versions of Lutheran and Reformed hymals, too numerous to list here.

Zion's Harp, original and all English revisions by the Apostolic Christian Church of America

Cyberhymnal.org and various other English, German and Swiss internet resources