Jesus, Grant that Balm and Healing
Jesus, grant that balm and healing
Jesus, Grant that Balm and Healing is a hymn text by Johann Heermann (1630) in L.M. (8.8.8.8) meter. Translated by Catherine Winkworth. Found in elw 613, lsb 421, lw 95, tlh 144. Sung to BALM IN GILEAD.
The hymn embodies Lutheran comfort in suffering through Christ's substitutionary atonement, drawing on Isaiah 53's theology that Jesus bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. It reflects the German pietist emphasis on personal appropriation of Christ's healing work while maintaining the objective reality of redemption.
History & Background
Johann Heermann wrote this hymn in German during the Thirty Years' War as a prayer for healing and comfort amidst suffering. Catherine Winkworth translated it into English in 1863 from Heermann's original German text, making it accessible to English-speaking Lutheran congregations.
Hymnal Appearances
- Evangelical Lutheran Worship — 613
- Lutheran Service Book — 421
- Lutheran Worship — 95
- The Lutheran Hymnal — 144
Translation
Bulletin Note
Written by Johann Heermann in 1630 during the Thirty Years' War, this hymn reflects Lutheran pietism's conviction that Christ's suffering atones for ours, offering not escape from pain but redemptive presence within it.
Preaching Connection
This hymn amplifies the gospel's proclamation that Christ's substitutionary suffering satisfies the law's demand and transforms our affliction into the comfort of His healing presence.
Stanza Arc
The narrative or theological arc traced by this tune's stanzas: From proclamation of Christ's healing power, through personal experience of Spirit-renewal in weakness, to inclusive call for all believers to witness regardless of gifts
Background Research
Johann Heermann, 'Jesu, deine tiefen Wunden', first printed in his Devoti Musica Cordis (Leipzig and Breslau, 1644), six 8-line stanzas. It is a Passion hymn: Christ's wounds, suffering and death are the 'balm and healing' and the defence against temptation, sorrow and the fear of death. Julian says it draws on a meditation in the medieval Manuale attributed to Augustine, itself drawing on Bernard of Clairvaux, so it belongs to the wound-mysticism tradition, here turned to evangelical comfort. Julian counts it among Heermann's finest, and Zinzendorf praised it highly. English: Massie's 'Oh, what precious balm and healing' (1857) is the ancestor of TLH's composite 'Jesus, grant that balm and healing'; Winkworth made another (1855). Heermann wrote through the Thirty Years' War at Köben, Silesia (from memory: he endured plundering and lost his voice to illness).
Sources: hymnary.org 'Jesu, deine tiefen Wunden' (citing Julian).
Overview
A second Passion hymn by Heermann (published 1644) that treats Christ's wounds as medicine for the soul in temptation. In five stanzas the singer asks to find healing in the wounds when body and mind suffer and when evil thoughts arise (st. 1); to remember the Passion when lust and Satan attack (st. 2); to recall Christ's burden when the world entices (st. 3); to be made whole by his stripes and comforted in bitter trials (st. 4); and to trust his death when dying (st. 5). It follows Luther's counsel that rightly meditating on the Passion is the Christian's weapon against sin and despair.
Central theme: The wounds and Passion of Christ as the remedy against temptation, suffering and death
Structure
Five eight-line stanzas (8.7.8.7.7.7.8.8). Each names an attack — inner thoughts (1), lust and Satan (2), the world (3), suffering (4), death (5) — and answers it with the Passion: the classic triad of devil, world and flesh.
Law & Gospel Shape
The Law appears as temptation and the 'treacherous heart' (1-3). The Gospel is the wounds and 'all-atoning Passion' (4) and Christ's victory over death (5).
Confessional Connections
The Passion as both sacrament (gift) and example; here chiefly gift that strengthens against temptation (Sixth Petition: 'that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us'). 'All-atoning Passion… procured my soul's salvation' — Christ's merit (AC IV). Victory over death (AC XVII).
Liturgical Use (Study Notes)
Lent; times of temptation; sickness and dying; Passion devotions.
Historical Notes
Heermann's original is longer; TLH abridges. The composite English text is used in TLH.
About the Tune
DER AM KREUZ (Johann Balthasar König, 1738).
Scripture References
1 Pet 2:24 Isa 53:5 Jer 8:22 Jas 1:14-15 1 Cor 10:13 Heb 2:18 Eph 6:11-16 Jas 4:7 Matt 7:13-14 1 John 2:15-17 Heb 12:2-3 2 Cor 1:5 Ps 18:2 1 Cor 15:54-57 Heb 2:14-15 John 11:25
Stanza by Stanza
Jesus, grant that I find balm and healing in your holy wounds every hour I feel pain of body and mind; should an evil thought within tempt my treacherous heart to sin, show me the danger and keep me from sinning before it even begins.
'By his wounds you have been healed' (1 Pet 2:24; Isa 53:5). The wounds are 'balm' (Jer 8:22, 'Is there no balm in Gilead?'). Healing is sought for 'pains of body and of mind' — Christ's work touches the whole person. The second half addresses temptation at its root: the 'evil thought within' and the 'treacherous heart' (Jer 17:9; Matt 15:19). The prayer is to be kept 'ere its first beginning' — James 1:14-15 traces sin from desire to conception to death; the singer asks to be stopped at the first step. This is the Sixth Petition in practice.
- Scripture
- 1 Pet 2:24, Isa 53:5, Jer 8:22, Jer 17:9, Matt 15:19, Jas 1:14-15, Matt 6:13
- Imagery & language
- Balm and wounds; treacherous heart.
- Law / Gospel
- Law — sinful heart; Gospel — healing wounds.
- Connection to previous
- Opening petition.
Should lust or sharp temptation prove too strong for flesh and blood, let me think on your Passion, and the breach is soon repaired; or should Satan press me hard, let me be on guard, saying 'Christ was wounded for me,' so that the Tempter flees confounded.
A practical theology of temptation. Human 'flesh and blood' cannot resist (Rom 7:23). The remedy is not willpower but 'think upon Thy Passion' — the breach in the wall is 'made good' by Christ, not by us. Against Satan, the weapon is a word: 'Christ for me was wounded.' This is the shield of faith (Eph 6:16) and the word of God that Jesus himself used against the devil (Matt 4:4-10). Luther famously answered the devil's accusations with 'I am baptized' or 'Christ died for me.' The devil flees (Jas 4:7) because his accusations lose their force before Christ's satisfaction (Rev 12:10-11).
- Scripture
- Rom 7:23, 1 Cor 10:13, Eph 6:11-17, Matt 4:1-11, Jas 4:7, 1 Pet 5:8-9, Rev 12:10-11
- Imagery & language
- Breach in a wall; armed guard; the Tempter routed.
- Law / Gospel
- Gospel — Christ's wounds as defense against Satan.
- Connection to previous
- From inner thoughts (1) to stronger temptations.
If the world entices my heart onto the broad, easy road with its mirth and alluring voices, let me think of the load you carried and endured, so that I flee impure thoughts, banish every wild emotion, and stay calm and blessed in devotion.
The third enemy: the world. The 'broad and easy road' is Matt 7:13. Its 'mirth and luring voices' are the pleasures that pull the heart from God (1 John 2:15-17). The answer again is the cross: 'think upon the load Thou didst carry' (Heb 12:2-3, 'consider him who endured… so that you may not grow weary'). Remembering what sin cost Christ makes sin less attractive. The goal is a heart 'calm and blest' — not by suppressing emotion through effort but by being anchored in Christ.
- Scripture
- Matt 7:13-14, 1 John 2:15-17, Heb 12:2-3, Phil 4:7-8, Rom 12:2
- Imagery & language
- Broad road; luring voices; the load carried.
- Law / Gospel
- Gospel — the cross as anchor against the world.
- Connection to previous
- Completes the triad of flesh (1), devil (2), world (3).
By your stripes, Lord, every wound that pains or grieves me is healed; when I am faint your cross revives me and gives new life to my soul; your comfort makes sweet every bitter cup, for your all-atoning Passion has won my soul's salvation.
Isa 53:5 directly: 'with his stripes we are healed.' The cross 'revives' the fainting soul. 'Every bitter cup' — the sufferings of life — is sweetened because Christ drank the bitter cup of wrath (Matt 26:39). This is Paul's 'as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort' (2 Cor 1:5). The last two lines give the ground: the Passion is 'all-atoning' and has 'procured my soul's salvation' — complete satisfaction, nothing left for us to add (Heb 10:14).
- Scripture
- Isa 53:5, Matt 26:39, 2 Cor 1:3-5, Heb 10:14, Ps 23:3, Isa 40:29-31
- Imagery & language
- Stripes healing wounds; bitter cup sweetened.
- Law / Gospel
- Gospel — complete atonement and comfort.
- Connection to previous
- Turns from temptation to suffering, and states the ground of all the hymn's petitions.
My God, my rock and tower, grant that I trust in your death, knowing death has lost its power since you trod it in the dust; Savior, let your agony always help and comfort me; when I die be my protection, light, life and resurrection.
The last enemy: death (1 Cor 15:26). 'My Rock and Tower' (Ps 18:2; 61:3). The singer asks for faith in Christ's death, because by dying he 'trod death in the dust' — Heb 2:14-15, 'through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death.' 'Thine agony' (Gethsemane and the cross) comforts the dying because Christ has gone through dying before us. The closing triple — 'Light and Life and Resurrection' — echoes John 8:12; 11:25. A fitting prayer for the deathbed: the old Lutheran ars moriendi in one stanza.
- Scripture
- Ps 18:2, Ps 61:3, 1 Cor 15:26, 54-57, Heb 2:14-15, Luke 22:44, John 8:12, John 11:25-26
- Imagery & language
- Rock and tower; death trodden in dust.
- Law / Gospel
- Gospel — victory over death.
- Connection to previous
- Final enemy, final petition.
Themes
Healing and comfort Christ's atonement Suffering and redemption Trust in Jesus Balm of Gilead