Dear Friends

Harvest is nearly upon us. If I asked you to name a Harvest hymn, I am sure that many (maybe most of you) would name "We plough the fields and scatter" or if your German is up to it "Wir pflügen und wir streuen".

It is part of a poem based on Psalm 144 and was written by Matthias Claudius. Claudius had been ill and during his illness had written several poems. In 1782, a friend invited him over for dinner and asked him to bring one of the Christian poems he had written. He brought along ‘Wir pflügen’ or a peasant’s song as it was known.

Originally it had seventeen verses, but it is usually cut down and begins with the original third verse.

In 1862 in England, Jane Montgomery Campbell started to translate a number of German hymns into English. She translated "Wir pflügen und wir streuen" into English as "We Plough the Fields and Scatter"; however, she did not make a strict translation from the original German, but ensured retention of the hymn’s original focus of giving thanks to God for the Harvest. She taught the hymn to the children at the Church of England parish school in London where her father was the rector and it was later published in Charles Bere’s Garland of Songs and Children’s Chorale Book.

There are several biblical resonances in the hymn as we sing it today, but one of the strongest is in our first verse where we echo words attributed to Paul in a sermon at Salamis Recorder in Acts 14:17 "yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good-giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy."