Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is ‘Praise the One who breaks the darkness’ by Rusty Edwards.
The hymn is all about Jesus, and is from the ‘General’ section of the book rather than ‘Advent’. I put it into this season because the opening lines, at least, seem appropriate: ‘Praise the One who breaks the darkness with a liberating light. Praise the One who frees the prisoners, turning blindness into sight’. The rest of the first verse recounts some of Jesus’ other miracles, all of which John the Baptist took as a sign that Jesus was indeed ‘the One who is to come’.
The word ‘One’, always capitalised, is what binds this hymn together. The second verse celebrates his powerful words (whether blessing children or driving out demons) and the well of living water that he promised in our hearts. The third verse is more theological (or even soteriological, if I have the right word) as it praises the One who is love incarnate, died and rose to save us by grace, and redeems us in glory. The final line is perhaps the only weakness in the words with a repetition: ‘Praise the One who makes us one’. The last word is to rhyme with ‘done’, so perhaps ‘Praise the Lord who makes us one’ would be better, or ‘Praise the One who is God’s Son’ which would keep the rhyme.
The hymn is copyrighted by an American publisher, and the name Rusty suggests an American writer. The tune ‘Nettleton’, also of American origin, is dated 1813, but the tune is much less staid than English hymn tunes of that era and together with the words makes a great song of praise. The tune was familiar as it is also used for the Iona song ‘We rejoice to be God’s chosen’.
I agree with Stephen that the hymn has a great atmosphere of praise; and as he says, “Praise the One” (capitalized) is the binding element of this hymn. (Strange, then, that two occurrences in verse 3, lines 1 and 7, aren’t capitalized – I wonder why not?) Somehow I felt the last word of the hymn was a betrayal of this element, and a weakness in its overall cohesion. And I wasn’t convinced by the importation of the Hebrews 4:12 phrase “two-edged sword”, nor about the “cool water in desert’s burning sand”.
The tune Nettleton was unknown to me. It ties together the openings of lines 1,3 & 7 instead of 1,3 & 5 which the hymn requires, and it pairs up lines 5 & 6 in a way in which the hymn doesn’t. Because of the pressure of other things near Christmas I didn’t really have time to master the harmonic variations between the different lines, so I decided to sing the hymn to a different tune. Ideally I’d have written a new one for it.