Jesus, eternal God

Another text delighting in Christ’s scriptural titles (cf the older 299 and 312), this one made its debut in the 1994 Haywards Heath collection Praises for the King of Kings. After its bold opening line, the hymn is built around ‘Prophet, Priest and King’, 1.8 and 5.1 forming the ‘brackets’ for the 3 central stzs. John Calvin was among the first to celebrate this triad, which the author considered to be under-represented in current hymns and songs. He wrote later, ‘Starting with the three offices as a grid, I planned a 5 verse hymn—introduction, each office in turn, and a conclusion—trying to use as much biblical vocabulary as possible, with obvious echoes of verses in John, Romans and Hebrews.’ The present text affirms that the divine possessor of these titles is also ‘ours’ (1.8, and the first lines of stzs 2–5), while we also recall that none of them was formally recognised during his life on earth. The hymn was one of several which Andrew King as the PKK compiler introduced there, for his own and other congregations sharing in its production, and which he considerably emended for the present book where it is first formally published. Lines which he has revised, sometimes following editorial group discussion, are 1.6 (from ‘he died to bear our sin’) and the second half of stz 2, while only 3 lines survive in each of the next 2 stzs, the final one being unchanged. The author wrote his words with DIADEMATA (480) in mind, and was consciously influenced by Crown him with many crowns as he wrote it. William Hitchens’ tune ASCENSION (another name with further claimants including Bancroft at 147, Gauntlett and Monk) comes from more recent years. The composer was a founder member of the Companion Tune Book Trust and this is his only entry in the present book; another little-known tune of his (INHERITANCE) appeared in GH towards the end of his life.   Due to copyright reasons we are unable to publish the tune ‘Ascensions’ on-line.

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.