Kernlieder
100 Hymns from LSB
Compiled by
Kantor Richard C. Resch – Pentecost 2020
This list of kernlieder (“core songs”) consists of one hundred hymns that enable confessional Lutherans to sing their faith throughout every single church year of their life. Such annual singing trains their hearts and minds as it also richly feeds their souls. It brings a singer of any age into Biblical truths as expressed in the Lutheran Confessions. But what is different here from reciting the catechism is that the truths are crafted into the homiletic form of a congregational hymn, where the form and the content allow them to sing their faith.
It was not difficult to compose this list, for LSB is a wonderful treasury of very strong hymnody. What was difficult was leaving out the host of very fine hymns that are not on this list of one hundred.
Inclusion on this list depended on how the church itself has treated a particular chorale, a text, or a hymn (Latin, English, American), throughout its history. Some hymns have been viewed as essential from early on in their lives, and composers have been led to write extensively on them, such as Nicolai’s “Wake, Awake for Night is Flying,” and “All Glory Be to God on High” by Decius. Also, some hymns in our Lutheran history have been designated as the “chief hymn of the day” (Hauptlied) from very early on in church year history, such as “Savior of the Nations, Come” for Advent I. These hymns automatically become Kernlieder, the normative core of Reformation hymnody.
However, when it comes to the hymns of our times, the 20th and 21st century, one has to observe how the more recent Lutheran texts and tunes have been embraced, and how they have come to fit into Lutheran practice today. Hymns such as Martin Franzmann’s “Thy Strong Word,” and Stephen Starke’s “The Tree of Life,” have not only been embraced, but have become beloved and embedded into today’s worship practice.
Another indicator of a hymn’s importance in our times is how some of the larger Lutheran church conferences such as Higher Things and The Good Shepherd Institute have featured the new hymns, in some cases designing a whole conference around a hymn text, such as “O God, O Lord of Heaven and Earth” and “We Praise You and Acknowledge You.” Such treatment plants those hymns into the life experience of the church and they become the Kernlieder for the church’s future.
_________________________________________
1. 332 Savior of the Nations
2. 334 O Lord, How Shall I Meet You
3. 344 On Jordon’s Banks
4. 347 Comfort, Comfort Ye
5. 357 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
6. 358 From Heaven Above
7. 359 Lo, How a Rose
8. 360 All My Heart Again Rejoices
9. 372 O Jesus Christ, Thy Manger Is
10. 384 Of the Father’s Love
11. 395 O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright
12. 402 The Only Son from Heaven
13. 406 To Jordon Came the Christ
14. 420 Christ, the Life of All the Living
15. 422 On My Heart Imprint Your Image
16. 434 Lamb of God, Pure and Holy
17. 438 A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth
18. 439 O Dearest Jesus, What Law
19. 442 All Glory, Laud, and Honor
20. 449/450 O Sacred Head Now Wounded
21. 458 Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands
22. 483 With High Delight
23. 487 Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain
24. 490 Jesus Lives! The Victory’s Won
25. 493 A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing
26. 494 See, the Lord Ascends in Triumph
27. 498 Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest
28. 508 The Day is Surely Drawing Near
29. 516 Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying
30. 544 O Love, How Deep
31. 555 Salvation Unto Us Has Come
32. 556 Dear Christians, One and All Rejoice
33. 561 The Tree of Life
34. 568 If Your Beloved Son, O God
35. 571 God Loved the World So That He Gave
36. 578 Thy Strong Word
37. 580 The Gospel Shows the Father’s Grace
38. 581 These are the Holy Ten Commands
39. 585 Lord Jesus Christ, with Us Abide
40. 594 God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It
41. 596 All Christians Who Have Been Baptized
42. 601 All Who Believe and Are Baptized
43. 607 From Depths of Woe I Cry to Thee
44. 614 “As Surely as I Live,” God Said
45. 617 O Lord, We Praise Thee
46. 633 At the Lamb’s High Feast
47. 636 Soul Adorn Yourself with Gladness
48. 637 Draw Near and Take the Body of the Lord
49. 645 Built on the Rock
50. 655 Lord, Keep Us Steadfast
51. 656 A Mighty Fortress
52. 666 O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe
53. 672 Jerusalem the Golden
54. 676 Behold a Host, Arrayed in White
55. 677 For All the Saints
56. 683 Jesus, Thy Boundless Love to Me
57. 689 Let Me Be Thine Forever
58. 696 O God, My Faithful God
59. 708 Lord, Thee I Love with all My Heart
60. 709 The King of Love My Shepherd Is
61. 710 The Lord’s My Shepherd, I’ll Not Want
62. 716 I Walk in Danger All the Way
63. 724 If God Himself Be for Me
64. 737 Rejoice My Heart Be Glad and Sing
65. 741 Jesus Christ My Sure Defense
66. 743 Jesus, Priceless Treasure
67. 746 Through Jesus Blood and Merit
68. 750 If Thou but Trust in God to Guide Thee
69. 754 Entrust Your Days and Burdens
70. 756 Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me
71. 758 The Will of God is Always Best
72. 760 What God Ordains is Always Good
73. 766 Our Father, Who from Heaven Above
74. 768 To God the Holy Spirit Let Us Pray
75. 774 Feed Thy Children, God Most Holy
76. 797 Praise the Almighty
77. 805 Praise God, From Whom All Blessings Flow
78. 818 In Thee is Gladness
79. 819 Sing Praise to God, the Highest Good
80. 820 My Soul, Now Praise Your Maker
81. 823 May God Bestow on Us His Grace
82. 834 O God, O Lord of Heaven and Earth
83. 839 O Christ, Our True and Only Light
84. 876 O Blessed, Holy Trinity
85. 878 Abide with Me
86. 880 Now Rest beneath Night’s Shadow
87. 887 Now the Light Has Gone Away
88. 895 Now Thank We All Our God
89. 897 O Rejoice, Ye Christians, Loudly
90. 909 Christ is Made the Sure Foundation
91. 913 O Holy Spirit, Enter In
92. 919 Abide, O Dearest Jesus
93. 934 My Soul Now Magnifies the Lord (Magnificat)
94. 936 Sing Praise to the God of Israel (Benedictus)
95. 938 In Peace and Joy I Now Depart (Nunc Dimittis)
96. 940/941 (Te Deum)
97. 947/948 All Glory Be to God on High (Gloria)
98. 953 We All Believe in One True God (Apostles’ Creed)
99. 954 We All Believe in One True God (Nicene Creed)
100. 960 Isaiah, Mighty Seer in Days of Old (Sanctus)