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Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is ‘We shall see him in the morning’ by Randle Manwaring. John chose to use an old Welsh hymn tune rather than the one written for these words.
I had originally chosen this for Armistice day, as a cursory reading of the words seemed to suggest it may have been written with that In mind (especially the reference to those who have ‘toiled and struggled till the earthly fight was won’) but John suggested swapping it for one that’s more explicit about that. The ‘earthly fight’ may in any case be intended as metaphysical, i.e. the struggle against evil, rather than referring to wars between nations.
Either way, whether soldiers of an earthly king or of the heavenly one are intended, the message is that it’s worth a struggle to live a holy life now, for the reward we will get in the next life. That reward is pictured as the welcoming arms of Jesus and his commendation for our efforts (“his welcoming ‘Well done!’”).
The ‘breakfast celebration’ (referring to the meal he cooked for his disciples when he met them on the shores of Galilee after his Resurrection) as well as the ‘mists of life’ suggests that the ‘toil all night’ may also hark back to their fruitless fishing expedition, in which case the promised welcome is not only for soldiers and spiritual heroes, but for all who have lived an honest and hard-working life.