~ October 2025 Newsletter ~

 

PSALM 116:1-4

I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and pleas for mercy. Because he
inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I
suffered distress and anguish, then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD, I
pray, deliver my soul!”

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PSALM 51:10-12

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not
away from your presence, and take me not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

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ST. JOHN CHRISTIAN GUILD & LUTHERAN WOMENS MISSIONARY LEAGUE
September 17,2025

This is the day that the Lord has made –let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Carol Fuhrman called the meeting to order.
Rev. Dean Suehring led the opening devotions on Psalm 130 and other selected
readings. He also prayed for prayer concerns.
Roll call was what is your favorite season? 6 members present; Kathy Polley was
welcomed as a guest.
Carol Fuhrman read the August minutes as, Barb Huebner had other
appointments so she was in and out.
Carol Lehman gave the treasurers report.
Leah Lehman gave the Sunshine report; in September a get-well card sent to Carl
Kriesel.
Loah Horton reported she sent 4 birthday cards in September.
LCFS thrift store Shawano, October workday is Monday the 6 th : volunteers are
Carol and Connie Fuhrman. Leah will also go if she is able.
Bible a month goes to South America.
No action was taken on the correspondence.
LWML Fall rally on Saturday, October 18th, at St John, Tigerton. Planning for it
took rest of meeting.
Food prep, Carol and Connie will make the main dish. The rest of us to bring, bring
a breakfast item, salad, and dessert, as they are able. Sent up is –planned at the
next, October 15 th , meeting.
Loah agreed to order folders and pencils for the rally. Carol Lehman will get a
cheese tray, and juices. Carol Fuhrman will order booklets as gifts. Betty Kohn and
Carol Lehman are going get flowers to decorate the tables, Betty has candy.
Everyone is invited to come for the day; cost is $5.00 and includes lunch. There
will be Christian growth, a speaker. More info to follow.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus,
Have you ever noticed all the information at the top or the bottom of the page of each hymn in
the hymnal and wondered what all that was? If so, after this you too will be able to decode all
that seemingly random info that is in the hymnal.
Since our churches use either the Lutheran Service Book (LSB) or The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH), I
will provide examples for both.
In TLH, all the information is at the top of the page. Our example here will be hymn number
262, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”. Under the “262” hymn number there are four lines on the
left-hand side of the page, I have placed these in a box to help highlight them. The usual
formatting in TLH is:
1) Scripture Reference
2) Title of hymn in the original language
3) Author of the words of the hymn, year the hymn
was written
4) Translator of the hymn.

1
2
3
4

Line 1 tells us that Psalm 46 is the primary Scripture reference for this hymn. TLH usually
provides only one Scripture reference for each hymn, while LSB may provide several. If you look
up Psalm 46, you’ll notice that Luther is very loosely drawing on the Psalm for this hymn.
Line 2 tells us the hymn originally had the title “Ein’ feste Burg is unser Gott.” This is German for
“A mighty Fortress is our God.” Since Luther was German, it makes sense that the title would
have originally been in German.
Line 3 tells us that the author of the words, a.k.a. the text, of the hymn is Martin Luther and
that he wrote this hymn in the year 1529. It’s important to note here that often times the
author of the words of the hymn is not necessarily the same person who wrote the melody,
a.k.a. the tune, of the hymn. In the case of “A Mighty Fortress…” Luther is responsible for both,
but again that’s not always the case.
Line 4 tells us that this translation of this hymn is a composite, that is, it is a combining of
several English translations, rather than the work of one individual.
This section may contain less lines. For example, TLH #647 “O Little Town of Bethlehem” only
has two lines of information on the left side: The Scripture reference, and the author, year.
There is no line with a foreign title because Phillips Brooks originally wrote the hymn in English,
which is also why there is no translator listed.
Looking back at the example of the hymn above, you’ll notice I also put a box around
some information on the right-hand side of the page. This box contains two lines:

In this box, Line 1 tells us that the name of the tune of this hymn is “Ein’ feste Burg,” and Line 2
tells us that it was written by Martin Luther in 1529.
This right-hand side “box” in TLH can container more lines of information. Sometime the tune is
not attribute to an individual, rather sometimes the earliest place the tune is found is listed. For
example, TLH #644 “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow” aka the Common Doxology the
tune name is “Old Hundreth,” and instead of listing an individual composer for the tune, the
hymnal notes that the earliest place this melody is found is in a book called “Geneva Psalter”
from 1551.
Lutheran Service Book puts all of its information at the bottom of the page. Again, we’ll
use “A Mighty Fortress…” LSB #656 for our example.

1) The name of the tune (melody) of the hymn.
2) The composer of the tune, and the year it
was written

*********************************************************************

In LSB, on the bottom, left-hand side of the page is the author of the text (words) of the hymn
and then the composer of the tune. As we might expect, Luther is listed for both for this hymn.
LSB does not provide the original title of the hymn in the original language. Also notice, how
instead of listing what year Luther wrote the text and tune like in TLH, in LSB the years that
Luther was alive are given. Notice also that any translation information about the hymn is going
to be in “Text” line. Here the translation, abbreviated “tr.”, is again listed as “composite.”
On the right-hand side in ALL CAPS is the name of the tune of the hymn. As we might expect for
“A Mighty Fortress…” EIN FESTE BURG is the tune. And on the lower right-hand side is listed
several Scripture references for the hymn. These references are provided by the committee
that assembled the hymnal, not the author who wrote the hymn.
Now that you know how to navigate some of the hymn information in the hymnal, test
yourself! Find the hymn “I Know My Redeemer Lives” LSB #461, TLH #200. Who wrote the
words of the hymn? Who composed the tune? What is the name of the tune of the hymn?
Given the information in the hymnal, do you think the hymn was originally written in English or
in a different language?
As you might imagine, this does not cover all of the possible things that you might come across
in the hymn information section of the hymnal. The authors of some texts and tunes are
unknown. Some texts have more than one author. Some texts and tunes are listed simply as
“Latin” or “English” or something else, because there’s no individual person they can be
attributed to, rather the oldest versions are found in this or that particular place or time. There
is always more to learn and discover, and the history of hymnody is no exception.

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– Pastor Suehring