This week we will be considering the confidence that we have in the one true God. We will study in particular the confidence that He gives us in the privilege of prayer. But "prayer" to any god is not really prayer. Only prayer addressed to the one and only God is true prayer. Our final hymn will emphasize the nature of that one true God, in whom we have absolute confidence and to whom we pray. This is hymn 541, O Blessed Holy Trinity in The Lutheran Hymnal. This hymn by Lutheran pastor Martin Behm, is both a prayer to the true God AND and confession of who that true God is.

The hymn is based primarily on the Aaronic and Pauline blessings of the Old and New Testament. These blessings highlight the nature of what the Christian Church has called the "Triune" God. Both of these blessings bring out the three-fold nature of the true God. The Aaronic blessing (the blessing given to Aaron in the Old Testament) states: "The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace." (Numbers 6:24-26). The Pauline blessing (the blessing used by the Apostle Paul) says: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen" (2 Corinthians 13:14). The stanzas of Behm's hymn develop and utilize these two Bible verses and what they tell us about God. He is three in person, but one in essence. The Triune God is Father and Maker, Son and Redeemer, and Holy Spirit and Comforter. This God has created and preserves us, protects us, instructs and cheers us, and illuminates and keeps us in the faith. 

The hymn, which was written just under a hundred years after the start of the Reformation, also draws from and beautifully incorporates Luther's Morning Prayer in stanza 2. Luther wrote:

In the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept all harm and danger away from me last night; and I pray that You would also protect me today from sin and every evil, that my life and all my behavior may please You. Into Your hands I entrust my body and soul and everything else. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the devil may have no power over me. Amen.

There is inestimable value in knowing the true God and having absolute confidence in His power, love and mercy. There is joy in our ability to come to the true God in prayer, knowing that He can and will answer according to our need and His will for us. We worship and serve a wonderful God!

Join us this weekend to be assured of that confidence and to blend our voices together to sing praise to Father, Son and Holy Spirit for all that our God does, has done and will do for you!