SENTENCES & RESPONSES
SDAH 666
Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
And He shall sustain thee;
He never will suffer the righteous to fall;
He is at thy right hand.
This hymn appears in:
Get the hymn sheet in other keys here
For Worship Leaders
Make each hymn more meaningful with these helpful tools: Short, ready-to-use hymn introductions for church bulletins, multiple ways to introduce a hymn based on your worship theme and in-depth history and insights to enrich your song service.
📖 Reference: Feel free to share but please cite hymnsforworship.org when reproducing.
Introductions for Sabbath School Song Service (based on specific lesson quarterlies):
This response is a collection of almost exact quotations from the Psalms: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved” (Ps. 55:22); “He is at my right hand” (Ps. 16:8); “Thy mercy is great unto the heavens” (Ps. 57:10); and “Let none that wait on thee be ashamed” (Ps. 25:3).
The tune BIRMINGHAM is a recognizable modification of MUNICH, SDAH 274, which itself is an arrangement of a 1693 melody by Jacob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847; see Biographies). It is taken from his oratorio Elijah, which was performed in Birmingham, England (hence the tune name) for the first time on August 26, 1846.
📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.
Text
Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
And He shall sustain thee;
He never will suffer the righteous to fall;
He is at thy right hand.
Thy mercy, Lord, is great, and far above the heavens;
Let none be made ashamed, that wait upon Thee.
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
(a) Ps 55:22, 16:8, 57:10, 25:3
Hymn Tune
BIRMINGHAM
Metrical Number
Irregular
Composer
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Year Composed
1846
Theme
SENTENCES AND RESPONSES
Recommended Reading
The general idea when it comes to hymns is that there is a close bond between the author and the composer. That the author writes a hymn and the composer invents a tune to suit it, and then provides the harmony to accompany the tune. However, such wasn’t always the case.
Many hymns actually worked vice versa wherein authors would write verses according to existing tunes. Hundreds of hymns are sung from borrowed tunes, such as secular songs, chants, and even classical works. That being said, I went ahead and researched which hymns in the SDA Hymnal were originally classical works.
