Fret Not, O Soul: Bach's Cantatas for the 7th Sunday after Trinity

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This weekend’s celebration is the Seventh Sunday after Trinity. Bach wrote three cantatas for this Sunday: “Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht” (BWV 186, “Fret not, O soul”), “Was willst du dich betrüben” (BWV 107), “Why are you distressed [O my dear soul]?”), and “Es wartet alles auf dich” (BWV 187, “These wait all upon Thee”). The cover phone (disc 33 in the set) is of a woman from Gao, Mali.

In the CD notes, conductor John Eliot Gardiner comments that a criticism of Christianity of Bach’s time was the humble, suffering aspect of Christ, compared to a more pallitable vision of a heavenly, powerful Christ. The “fretting” of the title has to do with anxiety about God’s strength to save and help us, if “God’s true gleaming image, is concealed in a vassal’s form.” The two-part cantata is filled with assurances of God’s mercy and understanding: the weakness and poverty suffered by Christ is by no means an indication that Christ is any less merciful and available. If we lose heart amid our own suffering, we become like the Israelites who became consumed with anxiety and angry when they were in the Wilderness.

In 107, Gardiner comments that Bach uses all seven stanzas of a Johann Heerman chorale and somehow manages not to be repetitive and rigid in his music as he fits the structured hymn lines into beautiful music. The theme is similar to 186: we must not fret and have fear, because God forsakes no one and is stronger than all of Satan’s rage. Gardiner describes all the interesting things Bach does musically before concluding with an assuring chorus.

Grant, O Lord, that all my living days
I may sincerely 
increase Thine honor
and give Thee praise and thanks!
O Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
Thou, who with purest mercy
dost avert want and harm,

be praised for evermore!

BWV 186 combines the scriptures of Psalm 104 and the story of the feeding of the thousands by Jesus. As God provides for creation, God certainly provides for us as well. We may worry about our lives, but God knows what we need. As the soprano sings in a recitative:

If I but cling to Him with childlike trust

and gratefully accept what He apportions me,

then never shall I be bereft of help,

no matter what He may have in store for me.

All grieving is in vain, it avails the despondent heart
nothing to worry about its needs;

God has taken upon Himself these cares,

and so I know that He has set aside my portion for me.

Serendipity: I had just written in Tuesday's post about my experiences of fretfulness concerning God's help, experiences that are always followed by some amazing blessing from God that is not only a gift for that time but also causes other things to fall into place. This has happened several times in my life. I'm glad that God puts up with me---and all of us. The words of that soprano recitative are so true.

We can also cling to him with "weak, faltering steps," as the texts reads in an upcoming cantata ("Jesu, der du meine Seele," BWV 78). But then we still struggle with worry and care, which help nothing.

(As the CD notes indicate, all English translations are by Richard Stokes.)