This hymn was first used in the fourth Finnish hymnal, 1886. And first and only use in America seems to be in the Lutheran Book of Worship, 1798.

Julius Leopold Fredrik Krohn (1835-1888) was a teacher of the Finnish language and literature, University of Helsinki. He was a member of the committee for the above Finnish hymnal, and wrote a number of original hymns and several translations that are used today by the people of Finland. In 1880 he published the first history of Finnish hymnals.

This translation to English was made by Ernest Edwin Ryden and Toivo Harjunpaa for Laudamus (Let Us Praise), 1963–Hymnal of the Lutheran World federation.

Earnest Ryden was born September 12, 1886, of Sweddish parents in Kansas City. Missouri. Graduating from the Lutheran Augustana College in 1910, he worked for a time as a newspaper editor. He studied for the Lutheran ministry at Augustana Seminary and was ordained in 1914. While there he married a fellow student, Agnes Johnson, an organist at Wakefield, Nebraska. After filing several posts as pastor in New York State, he served 14 years at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minnesota, which became under his leadership one of the largest congregations in the city.

His versatility led to many positions of responsibility: radio broadcaster of hymnology on station KSTP; president of an organization that built three orphanages; editor of Lutheran Companion from 1934 to 1961, president of the Augustana board of directors; president of the American Lutheran Conference; coeditor of The Hymnal, 1925, of the Augustana Synod, and secretary of the joint commission for the Service Book of Hymnal, 1958. In 1948, Sweden honored him with the Royal Order of the North Star. He died January 1, 1981, in North Grosvenor Dale, Connecticut.

His scholarship in the study of hymnology is available to all in two books, The Story of Our Hymns, 1935, and The Story of Christian Hymnody. His hymns have been printed in the hymnals of many churches.

Toivo K. I. Harjunpaa was born June 2, 1910, at Rauma, Finland; he studied at the University of Helsinki; the University of Abo, Finland; and the University of California at Berkeley. Ordained in 1936, he has served a church near Turku, Finland; as secretary of the Evangelical Student Association; seaman’s chaplain in London, 1938-1945; chaplain to the archbishop of Finland; pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church, New Bedford Massachusetts, pastor at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Berkely; and teacher at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. Fluent in Finnish, Swedish, German, and English, he has written many books and lectured widely on theology, worship, hymnology, and the work of the pastor. Recognized as a great leader, he has been called to serve the Lutheran Church in numerous official positions of responsibility.

FINLAND is a traditional Finnish melody about which very little is known. It was used with this text in the Lutheran Book of Worship, 1978, but research has been unable to find it in any other current hymnbook. An easy tune to learn and sing, it has a large number of single steps from one note to another, up or down.