Jij bent = You are, 1973 - 1993

Oosterhuis' text, a reflection on Luke 22:42, Jesus' pleading with the Father in the olive garden at Gethsamene. is about an ever-generous God, though the word generous cannot possibly even begin to describe God's ever-vigilant care over us. Perhaps another name for the One Who is beyond all names could simply be gift. The title, You Are (the God who has been given me), is a reflection on Exodus 3, the story of the burning bush. God has charged Moses with approaching the Pharoah, to release the Israelites from slavery. Moses' question is to ask who might be the One Who has sent me? The answer, YHWH, was no name, it was but a descriptive phrase, I Am For You. This continues to resonate throughut history, the echoes of an ever-present One, so distant yet so near. God’s gift of self to us is described only through imagery, as expressed in the verses. Oosterhuis uses the Bible as a thesaurus, so all of the images he uses are from both the Jewish Scriptures and the New Testament

Huijbers' setting is an arrangement of a J.S. Bach chorale, Liebster Immanuel - Beloved Emmanuel. It is a careful choice beetween the marriage of the old text and this new one. Writen for SATB choir, he has as usual incorporated an assembly line, the people singing with the sopranos. Also note that while he scored two accompaniments, the alternatve is not in the key of D major but C major, with accidentals where appropriate.

Later, at Oosterhuis' request, Antoine Oomen wrote a more romantic setting of this piece, for unison choir piano and assembly, [JM 510]. - Tony Barr