Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “O God of blessings, all praise to you” by Marty Haugen. It could also be titled “Soli deo gloria” which is the brief refrain at the end of each of the six verses, as well as the name of the tune specially composed for it.
Marty Haugen is perhaps best known for hymns around the theme of social justice and inclusivity, but here we have one in which God is praised for all his gifts to us. It’s also perhaps unusual, though welcome, for a Catholic hymnwriter to use as a refrain a phrase more associated with the Protestant Reformation.
The first verse praises God for his love, shown in freeing the oppressed and comforting the distressed; the second, for wisdom shown in both ancient scriptures and contemporary “coaches, mentors and counsellors”; the third, for prophets and preachers to guide us; the fourth, for music; the fifth, for Jesus himself, “best gift divine”. The last verse takes a different tack as it imagines the whole worldwide Church, “A billion voices in one great song”, praising God through every culture and locality.
So this is indeed a very inclusive hymn in its own way, but reminding us also, through both verses and refrain, that the purpose of our life on earth is to glorify God in the way that we live.
This hymn is new to me: I confess that when I first saw it I thought it was terribly long, and wondered if the tune was going to be worth it for all six verses – but actually wrestling with playing and singing it made the hymn grow on me, and eventually I grew to like it. As Stephen says I associate Marty Haugen with the rather more inclusivity theme, and this was a refreshing change.
The risk with a hymn which begins in the Old Testament and works up to the climax of Jesus is that it can look as if Jesus is simply the latest in a long string, and not the climax after all, and I don’t think this hymn really overcame that problem – line 4 of verse 5 if anything only strengthens the impression, and the quick mention of “best gift divine” in that verse isn’t enough of a counterbalance. Nor do I really think bread and wine numbers early in the list of key things to mention about him. And I was a bit perplexed as to why Mary gets a mention in verse 4 – surely if one wanted a parallel to the Psalms of David it would be the “hymns of praise” of the New Testament as a whole rather than the Magnificat in particular? Nevertheless, the hymn is a worthy reminder of the grand scheme of things for which God solely gets the glory.