Happy Thanksgiving!

To me, the prototypical Thanksgiving hymn is "We Gather Together."  Like "Now Thank We All Our God," its origin is not in harvest and plenty but instead in time of war. It was written to celebrate a victory in 1597 of Dutch Protestants against the forces of Philip II (he of the Spanish Armada).


It was a good 10 years after this victory that the Englishmen we now know as the Plymouth colonists spent a season in Amsterdam avoiding persecution for their non-conformity to the Church of England. So it doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to suppose that they may have heard this song during their Dutch sojourn and perhaps even brought it with them as they returned to England and later sailed out to help colonize a new world. My understanding of Separatist and Puritan worship practices is that the only music acceptable in corporate worship was the singing of metrical psalms, so I suppose it wouldn't have been sung in assembly. However, one can imagine that perhaps this song might have been one that was on their lips as they went about the daily work.


It turns out that the first line of this song is more significant than we realize if we do not know its origin.  In areas of Reformation Europe still torn apart by religious wars, neither freedom of worship nor freedom of assembly were at all considered inalienable rights.  The Protestants in the low countries were indeed forbidden to gather together, so that line is truly a proclamation of great victory. Similarly, the final line recognizes that they are still in need of divine help to secure true religious liberty.

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;

He chastens and hastens His will to make known.


The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.


Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,


Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;


So from the beginning the fight we were winning;


Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,


And pray that Thou still our Defender will be.


Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;


Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

I think from our 21st century American perspective, it is rather difficult to wrap our brains around the hardships and actual persecution that led the Separatists first to the Netherlands and eventually to the colony.  We forget that the first amendment, forbidding a state church and allowing complete freedom of religion, was a truly radical policy.  And we, or I, can just as easily fail to be mindful of believers in other places that still can not gather together legally, and that still face persecution. Lord, you have been at our side. All glory be Thine.  Lord, wherever they are, let Thy congregation be relieved from their tribulation. O Lord, make them free!


Some source material from:
Wikipedia
History News Network