Give to the Winds Thy Fears

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1. Give to the winds thy fears; hope and be undismayed. God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears, God shall lift up thy head.

2. Through waves and clouds and storms, God gently clears the way; wait thou God's time; so shall this night soon end in joyous day.

3. Leave to God's sovereign sway to choose and to command; so shalt thou, wondering, own that way, how wise, how strong this hand.

4. Let us in life, in death, thy steadfast truth declare, and publish with our latest breath thy love and guardian care.

Words by: Paul Gerhardt;
trans. by John Wesley
Music by: William H. Walter

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Story of the hymn Give to the Winds Thy Fears

"Give to the Winds Thy Fears" is the English form of a German hymn by the Lutheran pastor and poet Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676). The original title is "Befiehl du deine Wege".

Origin of the Text

Gerhardt wrote the hymn in the mid-17th century. It first appeared in print around 1653-1656 in Johann Crüger's influential hymnal "Praxis Pietatis Melica". The text is built as an acrostic on Martin Luther's German rendering of Psalm 37:5: "Befiehl dem Herren deine Wege und hoffe auf ihn, er wirds wohl machen" ("Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act"). The first words of the successive stanzas spell out that verse. The original German version has 12 stanzas of eight lines each.

Gerhardt composed it during his early years of ministry, most likely while serving as pastor in Mittenwalde near Berlin (beginning 1651). He had lived through the devastation of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), which brought widespread suffering, famine, and loss across Germany. His own life included long delays before ordination, the early death of several children, and later professional conflict.

The Popular Story and Its Limits

A well-known tradition claims Gerhardt wrote the hymn after being forced from his Berlin post in 1666. According to the story, he and his family were traveling on foot toward Saxony when they stopped at a village inn. His wife was in tears over their uncertain future. Gerhardt comforted her with the words of Psalm 37:5, then went aside and composed the hymn. That same evening messengers arrived with a letter from Duke Christian of Merseburg offering him a pension and a new position, prompting Gerhardt to show his wife the freshly written verses and say, in effect, "See how God provides!"

Scholars note that this account cannot be historically accurate. The hymn was already in print years before Gerhardt's dismissal from Berlin, and his wife had died in 1668 before he left the city for his final post in Lübben. The legend nevertheless captures the spirit of the hymn: deep trust in God's providence amid hardship.

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