Praise Ye the Lord the Almighty

September 9, 2018 (Sunday)
Joachim Neander, who wrote this hymn, was born in 1650 in Bremen, Germany and died Mary 31, 1680 in that same city. He was the grandson of a musician and son of a teacher. He studied theology at Bremen University from 1666 to 1670. From 1674 to 1679, Joachim Neander was principal of the Reformed Lateinschule (grammar school) in Düsseldorf. During these years, he used to wander the secluded Düssel River valley, which was, until the 19th Century, a deep ravine between rock fac­es and forests, with numerous caves, grottos and waterfalls. Probably, Neander wrote and sang many of his poems there, but also held gatherings and services. In the early 19th Century, a large cave was named Neanderhöhle after him. In the mid-19th Century, the cement industry started to quarry the limestone, and the narrow ravine became a wide valley, which was now named the Neander Valley (in German, Neanderthal). The “Neanderthal Man” was found there in the summer of 1856, giving Joachim the distinction of being the only hymnist with a fossil hominid named after him! In 1679, Joachim Neander moved to Bremen and worked as assistant preacher at St. Martini church. The next year he became seriously ill and died, presumably of the plague.