If You But Trust in God to Guide You
A hymn for the middle of things, written by a man who had been out of work a long time.
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.
“If You But Trust in God to Guide You” at HymnaryAbout this hymn
Neumark spent years in poverty and looking for a position before one finally came. He wrote this out of that, and the hymn is unusually honest about how long the waiting was.
It does not claim the waiting was pleasant or secretly good. It claims only that he was not dropped. That is a much smaller claim than most hymns of providence make, and it survives contact with real life better.
For anyone in an unresolved stretch: illness, unemployment, a diagnosis not yet back, a decision not yet made.
For musicians and planners
| Words | Georg Neumark, 1641 | Public domain |
|---|---|---|
| Translation | Catherine Winkworth, 1863 | Public domain |
| Tune | WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT (NEUMARK) · Georg Neumark, 1657 | Public domain |
Checked 2026-09-27 against hymnary.org text, tune and person pages (attribution and rights only)
Hymn numbers checked against Hymnary.org’s index of Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Full record: Hymnary.