King of the universe, Lord of the ages

This more recent text sounds the same notes of wisdom, justice, holiness, power, lifegiving and also the fatherhood of God, as in 248. It is characteristic of the work of Michael Saward, who has robustly defended the vigorous language used; it is certainly biblical. ‘Potentate’ (5.1) has also been retained in 480, stz 6. It has proved the most popular of 4 hymns written at Beckenham, Kent, on 25 April 1970, and was first sung in the chapel of Dalton House, Bristol, on the evening of 19 June. It is no. 1 in the 1980 Songs of Worship from Scripture Union, where it first appeared; it also comes in other books including Sing Glory (1999). The author has twice amended his original version (1981, 1999), changing rom ‘kneel in your presence’ (2.3); ‘man’s puny brain,/ ordering all things from concept to fulfilment’ (3.2–3); ‘bearing the sword against sin and corruption’ (4.3); and ‘yet we shall rise, cleansed from sin, freed from bondage’ (5.3).

The hymn cannot be fully understood without reference to Alexis Lvov’s 19th-c tune known to hymnals as RUSSIAN ANTHEM. It was composed in 1833 at the request of Tsar Nicholas I, who wanted a national anthem for Russia. It has often been used with Henry F Chorley’s God the all-terrible! King, who ordainest; like Chorley, Saward wrote his text for this tune and incorporated syllables and rhythm to match. The earlier hymn, he judged, was being used less and less; very few recent books include it, and a good hymn tune was in danger of being dropped. The music editors of Praise!, however, opted for Steve Layfield’s newer KING OF THE UNIVERSE, composed with this text in mind. Alistair Goudie’s tune with the same name had already appeared with these words in Hymns for the People, 1993.

b Blackheath, SE London 1932; d Switzerland 2015. Eltham Coll; Bristol Univ and Tyndale Hall Bristol (BA); ordained 1956. He ministered in Croydon, Edgware and Liverpool before becoming the C of E’s Radio and TV Officer 1967–72. From 1972 to 1991 he served W London incumbencies in Fulham and Ealing; during the latter he barely survived a vicious attack on himself and his family at the vicarage, by intruders high on drugs. He then became Canon Treasurer of St Paul’s Cathedral from 1991, providing one of the two evangelical voices heard throughout the decade from the cathedral pulpit; some sermons were published in 1997 as These are the Facts (a title from hymn 629). He retired to Wapping, E London, in 2000. He was a Church Commissioner and General Synod member; a prolific writer, speaker and broadcaster on the local and national church, doctrine, mission, liturgy, sexual ethics, baptism and hymnody. His book Signed, Sealed, Delivered: finding the key to the Bible (2004) explores the concept of ‘covenant’ as that key.

From early 1962 onwards he wrote over 100 hymn texts, his first ones including ‘Christ triumphant’ were published in Youth Praise (1966, 1969), followed by several in Psalm Praise (1973) and Hymns for Today’s Church (1982) of which he was words editor. He was a founding Director and later Chairman of Jubilate Hymns, with a leading role in other Jubilate collections including Sing Glory (1999) which features 23 of his hymns. 75 of them were published in 2006, with an introduction and brief notes, in Christ Triumphant and other hymns. In 2009 he initiated and edited Come Celebrate, a unique collection of 291 lesser-known hymn-texts by 20 living authors, 14 of whom are represented in Praise! He said of himself, ‘My style is deliberately punchy and I love to use strong, graphic illustration’. Nos.119D, 162, 166, 249, 291, 446, 525, 592, 629, 635, 656, 849, 865*.