Bless the Lord for all the honours

Andrew King’s texts are often ‘preacher’s hymns’. This one and 923 arose from a series of sermons on Genesis at his Haywards Heath church: ‘Wanting to apply the doctrine of creation to contemporary issues in a way that did not bypass the gospel and eternal perspectives, I found myself trying to think through a Christ-centred theology of the environment.’ (It makes a change from ‘The Lord gave me this song’—yet is this any less of a gift? No doubt we need some of each kind.) Writing in 2002, the author continues: ‘Issues such as the image of God, dominion over creation, the fall, the curse, but now new creation in Christ and hope for the new creation in its fullest sense when the sons of God are revealed, these are motifs linking Genesis 1–3 with Psalm 8, Hebrews 2 and especially Romans 8.’ So these 3 stzs, printed first in Praises for the King of Kings (1994), speak respectively of the created order, the effects of the fall, and salvation and future hope. The author’s further hope is that it will be useful. With his agreement or at his suggestion, changes were made for Praise! at 1.2–3, 1.5, 2.5–8, 3.5–6, 3.8; such is the persuasiveness of a words committee and/or the openness of a hymnwriter.

Perhaps inevitably, the author had ABBOT’S LEIGH in mind as a tune; see 570, and many others. Walter S Vale’s HILLINGDON is by comparison little known; its composer, organist at All Saints’ church, Margaret St, London, and Prof at the Royal Academy of music, died in Jan 1939. His tune is chosen to help musicians and congregations by enhancing the meaning of the words. But the Middx town (with tube station) giving it its name currently joins W London’s concrete with the green fields beyond.

b Wroughton nr Swindon, Wilts 1961. Raised in the Gospel Standard Strict Baptist tradition in a family circle familiar with its classic hymns; converted at Caterham Baptist Ch in 1971, where he grew to love a fuller range of hymnody. Studied at Dulwich Coll, Sussex Univ (BSc Biology 1982). After working as a sausage salesman with the Walls Meat Company and as a food technologist with Hygrade Foods in Peckham, he assisted the Minister at Grove Chapel, Camberwell, while studying at the London Theological Seminary 1986–88. Pastor/teacher at Haywards Heath Evangelical Free Church in Sussex 1988–2000; where he edited (with others) the words-only hymnal Praises for the King of Kings (see no.12, note) for which he contributed several texts. Enjoyed writing from his youth up, and wrote some 35 texts at Haywards Heath after his first, a version of Ps 2 written at Camberwell soon after his marriage to Cora. For a time he was a member of the modern songs team for Praise! From 2000 he worked in Brazil as a Bible teacher and preacher with UFM Worldwide (the Unevangelised Fields Mission), with a roving commission to train, teach and encourage others in biblical exposition, based on his home in Florianópolis. He returned to England in 2008 and currently (2011) works as a kitchen sales consultant, also running a photography business. His texts have also been published in Australia and New Zealand, with one each in Sing Glory (1999) and the 2004 CH. Nos.12, 306, 598, 631, 686, 795*, 912, 923.