For All the Saints

"For All the Saints" (LSB 677) tells that the saints are all those who are set apart by God's grace in Christ, who trust in His forgiveness and confess His name by faith, who are enabled to do this by His Spirit through His Word and Sacraments.
This hymn address Jesus and all the saints who have gone before and attained their heavenly rest.

The Unaltered Augsburg Confession affirms in Article XXI that Christians should remember the saints to follow their example and for the strengthening of their own faith. We are not praying to the saints, but instead honoring their memory insofar as they showed Christ through their faith and work on earth (Hebrews 11). The focus of this hymn is on Christ, who is their and our salvation.

This "Church Triumphant" hymn features many military imageries throughout the stanzas. Stanzas one and two focus on the great cloud of witnesses. Stanzas three through six focus around the believers on earth. The fellowship, or communion, in stanza four presents the contrast between the saints who have fought and won and those who are still fighting on earth - "We feebly struggle, they in glory shine." This "communion" stresses the close relationship between saints on earth and saints above.

God provides His saints with sufficient armor and weaponry to wage war against Satan and his spiritual forces of evil. For everyone in Christ on earth, we will come out of this great tribulation and we are assured victory.

The final two stanzas proclaim the second Advent, or coming, of Christ. We gain a glimpse in the poet's words of the awesome event when the countless host of believers streams into paradise sounding the praises of the Holy Trinity. This glimpse is given also each Sunday during the Service of the Sacrament when we hear and sing in the liturgy: "Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud and magnify Your glorious name, evermore praising You and saving: Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth." What follows is nothing less than the foretaste of the coming feast with Christ, as heaven touches earth in the Holy Supper.

1 For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
    Alleluia! Alleluia!

2 Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might;
Thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true light.
    Alleluia! Alleluia!

3 Oh, may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old
And win with them the victor’s crown of gold!
    Alleluia! Alleluia!

4 Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
    Alleluia! Alleluia!

5 And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
    Alleluia! Alleluia!

6 The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest.
    Alleluia! Alleluia!

7 But, lo, there breaks a yet more glorious day:
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of Glory passes on His way.
    Alleluia! Alleluia!

D 8 From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
    Alleluia! Alleluia!

Text: Public domain