Children of the Heavenly Father

A lovely lullaby, once again too often relegated to a song just for kids.  We are ALL children of our heavenly Father! 

Original lyrics:

Children of the heav’nly Father
Safely in His bosom gather;
Nestling bird nor star in heaven
Such a refuge e’er was given.

Neither life nor death shall ever
From the Lord His children sever;
Unto them His grace He SHOWETH,
And their sorrows all He KNOWETH.

Though He GIVETH or He TAKETH,
God His children ne’er FORSAKETH,
His the loving purpose solely
To preserve them pure and holy.

God His own DOTH tend and nourish;
In his holy courts they flourish,
From all evil things He spares them;
In His mighty arms He bears them.

Lyrics by Caroline Sandell Berg, 
trans. Ernest W. Olson

Comments and Suggestions:

The suggested lyrics address the contemporary singer's discomfort with the "bosom/breast" metaphor.  The ending of each line of the song is characterized by a stressed penultimate and unstressed final syllable.  In two couplets, these are accomplished by way of verbs using the archaic third person singular ending "-eth."  This ordinarily can be fixed by moving to a helper verb + active verb combination, e.g., "does show" for "showeth."  In this instance, however, this moves the root verb to the unstressed syllable.  The lyrics above thus propose that the strong modern verb form be substituted without a preceding helper.  The singer in these four instances just holds the syllable and slurs down to the final note of the line, which is a commonplace happening in singing.  Alternatively, try the following:  "To them all His grace he does show, and their sorrows all he does know.  /  Though he gives to and he takes from, God his children ne'er forsakes one, . . . ."

Renewal lyrics:

Children of the heav’nly Father
Safe WITHIN His STRONG ARMS gather;
Nestling bird nor star in heaven
Such a refuge e’er was given.

Neither life nor death shall ever
From the Lord His children sever;
TO them ALL His grace He SHOWS,
And their sorrows all He KNOWS.

Though He GIVES AND ALSO TAKES,
God His children ne’er FORSAKES,
His the loving purpose solely
To preserve them pure and holy.

God His own WILL tend and nourish;
In his holy courts THEY’LL flourish,
From all evil things HE’LL SPARE them;
In His mighty arms HE’LL BEAR them.

Renewal lyric changes by RH Reinhard (c) 2014