Be Still, My Soul
Trust in God through grief and change, waiting for the day when Christ makes all things new.
The words are public domain. We print a hymn only after checking it word for word against a dated old printing, and this one hasn’t been checked yet. Hymnary has it now.
“Be Still, My Soul” at HymnaryAbout this hymn
The singer tells her own soul to be still and bear sorrow patiently, because God will order what is to come, and because the day is near when sorrow and death are gone.
It echoes Psalm 46:10, 'Be still, and know that I am God', and the Gospel story in which Jesus calms the wind and waves (Mark 4:39).
It is sung in any season and often at funerals. Katharina von Schlegel wrote the German text in 1752; Jane Borthwick's English translation appeared in 1855.
For musicians and planners
| Words | Katharina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel, 1752 | Public domain |
|---|---|---|
| Translation | Jane Laurie Borthwick, 1855 | Public domain |
| Tune | FINLANDIA · Jean Sibelius, 1899 | Public domain in the US |
Checked 2026-09-27 against hymnary.org text, tune and person pages (attribution and rights only). The words are not transcribed here yet.
Hymn numbers checked against Hymnary.org’s index of Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Full record: Hymnary.