Bei dir, Jesu, will ich bleiben

Bei dir, Jesu, will ich bleiben. Karl Johann Philipp Spitta* (1801-1859). From Spitta’s Psalter und Harfe, First Series (Pirna, 1833), entitled ‘Ich bleibe stets bei dir’ (‘I stay ever by thee’). It had six 8-line stanzas. It is found in EG in the ‘Geborgen in Gottes Liebe’ section, using all six stanzas (EG 406). It is based on Psalm 73: 23: ‘Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand’ and on John 15: 4: ‘Abide in me, and I in you.’ The reference to John 15 is picked up in verse 1 with the reference to the vine and the branches or shoots: ‘wie der Weinstock seinen Reben…’. It was translated by Richard Massie* in his Lyra Domestica: Christian Songs for...

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