Be not afraid!

Last year the St. Peter's Chorale (my daughter's school choir) performed Mendelssohn's Elijah. In preparation I bought a CD which I came to really love. Just like the oratorios of Handel, Bach, and Haydn it is a masterpiece of synthesis of the Biblical text and theological reflection.

When I woke at 4am this morning I put on my headphones and listened to the prelude to Elijah's confrontation of Ahab and Jezebel:

Hear ye, Israel, hear what the Lord speaketh:'Oh, hadst thou heeded my commandments'Who hath believed our report! To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed!
Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and His Holy One to him oppressed by tyrants, thus saith the Lord:
'I am He that comforteth. Be not afraid, for I am thy God! I will strengthen thee! Say, who art thou, that thou art afraid of a man that shall die; and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, who hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the earth's foundations? Say, who art thou!'
'Be not afraid,' saith God the Lord,'be not afraid, thy help is near!' God, the Lord, thy God, saith unto thee:'Be not afraid!' Though thousands languish and fall beside thee, and tens of thousands around thee perish, yet still it shall not come nigh thee.

The full libretto is here.