All Creatures of Our God and King
The one and only St Francis of Assisi wrote this wonderful song of praise - and an English clergyman translated it into the beautiful English words we sing today. What a powerful hymn of worship, calling the whole earth to sing, and to forgive others in Christ.
Welcome to another Friday Classic Hymn. I can't believe I've reached 25,000 subscribers—amazing! Thank you for supporting this channel. It means a lot to me, and I hope these videos continue to bless you. I've done so many of these Friday Classics now. If you haven't checked out the whole catalogue, go and have a look. I'm sure you'll enjoy these songs, and I'm enjoying learning hymns that I never knew before, like this one.
All Creatures of Our God and King—a famous hymn, but not the type of stuff we sang in the church I grew up in. But I've come to enjoy this song. It's beautiful, and I can imagine churches singing this together with passion, with gusto on a Sunday morning.
Do you have any memories of singing this song in a church somewhere, or does the song mean something special to you? I always ask you to share that in the comments below because it's fascinating to read how these songs have gone all around the world. Please share if some of these words mean something to you as we go through them. Maybe something really touches your heart today. I'd love for you to share that below.
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The Story Behind "All Creatures of Our God and King"
The author of this hymn is Giovanni Bernardone, or as you probably know him, St Francis of Assisi. St Francis is a giant in church history—everybody knows that name. Chances are, in your town or somewhere close to you, something is named after St Francis because of the great impact that he had in this world.
He was born in 1182 to a very wealthy Italian family. He lived a luxurious life as a young man, but he had a radical conversion to Christianity in his early twenties. He renounced all of his earthly possessions and, as he put it, "wedded Lady Poverty." He began living the life of an itinerant preacher, walking around Italy preaching the good news of Jesus to all who would hear. He especially worked amongst the poor and the lepers of His day.
Pretty soon he had a band of followers, and the Franciscan order was created and approved by the Pope. Even now, you've got Franciscan monks or priests all around the world.
St Francis was particularly well known for His love of animals. He would preach to the birds and the animals, it is said, and tell them to praise God as He spoke with them. He seemed to have such a great ability with animals. In fact, I remember doing a blessing of animals service once at a Methodist Church we were involved in. Everybody could bring their animals to church for that one Sunday, and the minister blessed all these animals and prayed over them. It was really cool—a St Francis-themed day because of His great blessing of the animals and love for them. Of course, it shows in the song, doesn't it? All creatures of our God and King, lift up your voice and let us sing. It's a call to all creatures to sing, to praise, to worship God.
There are different accounts of how He wrote this song. One says that He wrote it in a rat-infested hut that He was staying in, in a kind of trance, trying to connect with God in a time of fasting and solitude. Another account says that He wrote the song right near the end of His life when He was virtually blind, about a year before He died. Most people seem to believe that, but some think He added some of the verses later because the first four verses are clearly about creation, and then the next two change themes, which they think maybe He added at a later stage.
However He came up with it, it's His words that were the basis of this great song. But how did it make it into English? St Francis was Italian, after all.
The English version is a paraphrase—a rewrite—by William Draper. William Draper was a Church of England minister, ordained in the 1880s. He wrote a good number of hymns himself, but he's probably best known for this beautifully worded paraphrase of St Francis's Italian words.
The tune that we sing it to is actually a German folk tune. It was a man named Ralph Vaughan Williams who paired the tune with this hymn, and it's since become the standard way to sing it. All those Alleluias and "praise Hims" are thrown in by him just to make it a little bit more rounded out.
I favour St Francis of Assisi—read a book, a biography of His. I've read one which was really meaningful to me. It was a good few years ago. I can't even remember which one it was, but He was such a fascinating man and had such a love for Jesus that just shone through His life. How great to sing a song of His, even if it's been paraphrased. How great to sing something special that He wrote, being such a lover of God, of people, and of animals.
What Do the Lyrics of "All Creatures of Our God and King" Mean?
Let's have a look at the words that He wrote, that William Draper paraphrased.
Verse 1
There are seven verses. Verse one goes: All creatures of our God and King, lift up your voice and with us sing—calling the animals to worship. It's typical of St Francis. That was His heart. He loved the animals. Alleluia! Alleluia! Some praise in the middle there. Thou burning sun with golden beam, thou silver moon with softer gleam.
Not just the animals, the creatures, but the sun and moon. He says, "Oh, praise Him!" If you go to the chorus, it says, Oh praise Him! Oh praise Him! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Just a call to all creation to sing.
It's thought that this was very much inspired by Psalm 145, which says, "Let every creature praise His holy name," and also Psalm 148, where all the different elements of creation are called to worship. Isn't it a beautiful thought that not just we who have minds and can think on God, but also everything that He's created is worshipping Him in their own way?
Verse 2
Verse two says this: Thou rushing wind that art so strong, ye clouds that sail in heaven along, oh praise Him! Alleluia! Thou rising morn, in praise rejoice, ye lights of evening, find a voice.
The wind that is so strong, the clouds that sail about in the sky, the morning and the evening—all of it is proclaiming the glory of God.
I wonder if you've thought of this lately: that just the very fact that there are seasons, days, and time passing along, the light and the dark—this all points to a wonderful, amazing God who we can worship.
Verse 3
Verse three says this: Thou flowing water, pure and clear, make music for thy Lord to hear. Now He's talking about water being something that praises. Thou fire so masterful and bright, that givest man both warmth and light.
Water, fire—elements that both speak of God's glory, that worship, in a sense.
The water in this part of the world isn't so good these days. We've just put a water filter at our home because the water is not that drinkable. When I read "the pure and clear water," I thought of in His day, the water was in better shape than it is now. If you are at a river or at a dam or at the ocean, does the water not just make you think how amazing God is? If there's fire, do you not see something of God in that beautiful, bright fire that gives light and warmth? Amazing stuff.
Verse 4
Verse four says this: Dear Mother Earth, who day by day unfoldest blessings on our way, oh praise Him! Alleluia! The flowers and fruits that in thee grow, let them His glory also show.
The whole earth, the flowers, the fruits—all blessing us and showing His glory.
I ran a 10K the other day with my friend Quinn. We went up into the mountains. It was out in the Cradle of Humankind here in South Africa. It was a trail run over this mountain, and it was so beautiful because you ran up the hill, which was hard enough, but by the time you got to the top, it was stunning. You just looked around and saw that landscape of beauty. I just loved it. I got to the top and thought, "Wow, this is beautiful." It was a moment of worship for me because the whole earth seemed to be showing the glory of God.
When last did you get out into nature and just take in the beauty of the earth that shows God's glory?
Verse 5
Verse five is the one that they think maybe He wrote at a separate occasion because of the sudden change in theme. He says, And all ye men of tender heart, forgiving others, take your part, oh sing ye! Alleluia! Ye who long pain and sorrow bear, praise God and on Him cast your care.
He's calling people to forgive one another, to cast their sorrows upon God, but forgive one another and have tender hearts.
I wonder if you need to remember this today. Maybe there's someone you need to forgive. Remember, that's also an act of worship. In fact, your act of worship—lifting up hands and singing God's praise without having forgiven—shows maybe that something's not right. Jesus said that we need to forgive, that God will forgive us.
Yes, maybe He did write this when He was going through some sort of clash with somebody, but maybe not. Either way, it's a reminder to us: let's forgive one another, not just proclaim His praise but then not fix our relationships and prioritise the people in our lives.
Verse 6
Verse six goes on and says, And thou most kind and gentle death, waiting to hush our latest breath, oh praise Him! Alleluia! Thou leadest home the child of God, and Christ our Lord the way hath trod.
Death was close, so maybe He did write this a year before His death. He was waiting for that last breath to come His way. He says death is going to lead Him home, the same path that Christ trod. Christ, of course, did die, but like Christ, we will also be raised from the dead and live on.
Wonderful, beautiful words to sing.
Verse 7
Lastly, verse seven, which talks about the Trinity: Let all things their Creator bless, and worship Him in humbleness. Love that—humbleness. We must remember to be humble. Oh praise Him! Alleluia! Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son, and praise the Spirit, three in one.
Yes, our triune God—one but three persons in one. Wonderful to sing such deep and praiseful words.
Conclusion
What words really touched you today? Did something in these verses just bring you nearer to God and awaken you in some way? Isn't it a lovely collection of thoughts in this song?
Maybe we should sing this more in our church. I'm looking at it thinking this would be the perfect song to start the service, kick off the service with: All creatures of our God and King, lift up your voice and let us sing. Awesome stuff. I think I'm going to do that soon.
Before we sing it together, I just want to say thank you to all who support this ministry. There are those of you who donate on PayPal, those of you who get my extra devotions and everything on Patreon. Thank you so much for your support. Join my mailing list if you would. Head on to my website, and you'll get a weekly email with all the things I'm doing—my devotions, sermons, classic hymns, and other music. I'd love for you to be part of all of that.
But come, let's sing it together and just worship Him in spirit and in truth.
References
Kenneth W. Osbeck. 52 Hymns Dramatised. 1992. Kregel Publications: Grand Rapids
John McLelland. The Ambassador Book of Great Hymn Stories. 1994. Ambassador Productions Ltd: Belfast
Ian Bradley. The Penguin Book of Hymns. 1989. Penguin Group: London
