Today’s hymn comes from Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli. Known primarily (and rightly so) as the main driving force of the Reformation in Switzerland, Zwingli was also an avid musician; his Roman Catholic foes used to sneer at him as “the guitar-player” and the “evangelist-on-the-flute”¹. Some believe that the occasion for writing this particular hymn was the First War of Kap­pel², an armed conflict in 1529 between the Protestant and the Catholic cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy during the Reformation in Switzerland. Enjoy!

Do Thou direct Thy chariot, Lord,
And guide us at Thy will;
Without Thy aid our strength is vain,
And useless all our skill.
Look down upon Thy saints below
When prostrate laid beneath the foe.

Beloved Shepherd, who hast saved
Our souls from death and sin,
Uplift Thy voice, awake Thy sheep,
That slumbering lie within
Thy fold; and curb, with Thy right hand,
The rage of Satan’s furious band.

Send down Thy peace and banish strife,
Let bitterness depart;
Revive the spirit of Thy grace
In each true Christian’s heart;
Then shall Thy church forever sing
The praises of her heavenly King.

¹Needham, Nick, “2000 years of Christ’s Power Volume 3: Renaissance and Reformation”, page 152
²http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/d/t/d/i/dtdirect.htm

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