Today’s Word from Minister of Music Karl Olsen…
It is a common trait for people to look ahead, to wonder what’s next for me, or what might be just around the corner. As we are now dealing with a pandemic roaming the world (gratefully on decline here) we can easily be worried about what’s ahead or how we’re going to make it through.
Karolina (Lina) Sandell was born in 1832 and grew up in Småland, Sweden. The daughter of a Lutheran minister, at the age of 12, she was partially paralyzed due to an illness. Doctors doubted she would ever be mobile again, but her parents relied on their faith, and hoped that one day she would be made well.
One day, Karolina was left at home during the church service, and spent the morning reading and praying. Her parents returned from church to find her walking about the house with no difficulty. After this experience of healing, Lina began to write poems about her faith and devotion to God.
She was devoted to her father, Jonas, and at age 26, was accompanying him on a boat trip across Lake Vattern. When the boat suddenly lurched, her father was thrown overboard into the lake, and drowned. Although Lina had published a book of poetry prior to this time, this experience caused her to dive more fervently into her writing. Her deep faith helped carry her through.
Sometimes referred to as “the Fanny Crosby of Sweden,” she wrote and published over 600 hymn lyrics during her life. The loss of her father helped focus some of her texts on living with the knowledge of the constant presence of God, who she knew she could rely on no matter what came to pass.
The hymn Day by Day was written a few years after his death, and was attributed to that tragic event. It is a hymn of great assurance. You can hear the expression of her sorrow and of trust in the lines of her hymn. (Lina also wrote the lyrics for the well-loved hymn Children of the Heavenly Father, another hymn of comfort and hope.) In 1867 she married Oscar Berg, a future member of the Swedish Parliament.
The tune for Day by Day was written by Oskar Ahnfelt. Ahnfelt was a songwriter and singer, and part of the revivalist movement in Sweden along with Carl Olof Rosenius. Their views of faith were not always greeted warmly by the traditionalists in Sweden, and King Karl XV (of the united kingdoms of Sweden and Norway) had called on Ahnfelt to appear at the court, as the monarch had been asked to ban him from any future public singing in his kingdoms!
Worried about what the king might ask of him, he knew that he had to do his best work when he appeared, and asked Lina to write a text for him to sing. She complied with a very sincere, faith-filled lyric.
Who is it that knocketh upon your heart’s door
In peaceful eve?
Who is it that brings to the wounded and sore
The balm that can heal and relieve?
Your heart is still restless, it findeth no peace
In earth’s pleasures;
Your soul is still yearning, it seeketh release
To rise to the heavenly treasures.
When he sang it at the palace, the king was so moved by the song that Ahnfelt was allowed (and encouraged!) to sing anywhere in the kingdoms he wished. Ahnfelt would travel and sing with his guitar. Sandell-Berg said “he has sung my hymns into the hearts of the people.”
A few translations of the hymn exist, the most popular first translation by a Swedish immigrant to the U.S., Andrew Skoog. It became a popular addition to American hymnals in the late 1920s. The translation we sing in the ELW is made by Robert Leaf. The hymn is known in Swedish by its first three words—Blott en Dag—or “just another day.” Karolina died in 1903.
Please join me in this well-loved hymn.
Click HERE to listen.
Day by day, your mercies, Lord, attend me,
bringing comfort to my anxious soul.
Day by day, the blessings, Lord, you send me
draw me nearer to my heav’nly goal.
Love divine, beyond all mortal measure,
brings to naught the burdens of my quest;
Savior, lead me to the home I treasure,
where at last I’ll find eternal rest.
Day by day, I know you will provide me
strength to serve and wisdom to obey;
I will seek your loving will to guide me
o’er the paths I struggle day by day.
I will fear no evil of the morrow,
I will trust in your enduring grace.
Savior, help me bear life’s pain and sorrow
till in glory I behold your face.
Oh, what joy to know that you are near me
when my burdens grow too great to bear;
oh, what joy to know that you will hear me
when I come, O Lord, to you in prayer.
Day by day, no matter what betide me,
you will hold me ever in your hand.
Savior, with your presence here to guide me,
I will reach at last the promised land.
Karl Olsen
Text: Carolina Sandell Berg, 1832-1903; tr. Robert Leaf, Used by
permission. Tr. © 1992 Augsburg Fortress. OneLicense.net #A706892
