Hymn Guide: Morning Has Broken
“Morning Has Broken” is both an international pop classic and a hymn of uncommon theological depth. It begins the day with praise to God for the beauty of his creation and the sustaining power of his Word.
The story of the hymn begins with Anglican priest Percy Dearmer, who wanted a text set to the Gaelic tune BUNESSAN. He commissioned Eleanor Farjeon, poet and children’s author, and published her text in the 1931 hymnal Songs of Praise. Cat Stevens’ 1971 recording became a global phenomenon, ranking on multiple national charts and now viewed on YouTube more than 75 million times. Best of all, this song that works on the radio is also fitting for morning prayer!
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Verse by Verse
The hymn works on two levels. Most simply, it is a song of praise to God, prompted by a beautiful morning with birdsong, dew, and dancing light. But the hymn also engages a more profound theme by connecting this morning to the “first morning” of creation.
Verse 1
Morning has broken
Like the first morning,
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird.
Praise for the singing!
Praise for the morning!
Praise for them, springing
Fresh from the Word!
Note the repeated connection to creation: this morning is “like the first morning,” and this blackbird is “like the first bird.” In other words, every morning, the creation is “fresh from the Word,” just as it was in Genesis 1.
The point is that the power of God’s Word continually sustains everything in our world. “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Contrary to the Deist view, we are not made once and then set to operate on our own power. Rather, every day is a “fresh” act of divine creation.
Verse 2
Sweet the rain’s new fall
Sunlit from heaven,
Like the first dewfall
On the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness
Of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness
Where his feet pass.
Eleanor Farjeon is said to have taken inspiration from her time at the village of Alfriston, whose church, St. Andrew’s, is located near a river and contains a lovely garden and graveyard.
It is also clear that she took inspiration from the Garden of Eden, for where the first verse recalled Genesis 1 with its morning and blackbird, this second verse recalls Genesis 2-3 with its rain, dew, and garden. The final line on the passing of “his feet” recalls God’s visit to Adam and Eve, “walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8).
Verse 3
The third verse introduces a more personal note to the hymn, glorying in the experience of God’s created beauty.
Mine is the sunlight!
Mine is the morning
Born of the one light
Eden saw play!
Praise with elation,
Praise every morning,
God’s re-creation
Of the new day!
The final verse has two key words: “play” and “recreation.” The power of these words is that they link the observation of nature to the character of God. Thus, the playful movement of the morning light is a reminder of Eden and God’s creative joy. God’s recreation, his pastime, is precisely to create the light again and again in all its splendid beauty.
Different Nature, Same God
Though this hymn is theologically accurate when properly understood, it is liable to a particular misinterpretation. Since the hymn connects the morning of an ordinary day and the first morning of creation, it might be read as if it were denying or forgetting the fall.
That would be a mistake because the fall of man has affected the natural world. The scriptures speak of the “creation subject to futility” and in “bondage to corruption” (Romans 8:19-20). In other words, though the natural world does point to God and God’s first creation, it is not the same natural world as on that first day. The natural world, just like the natural man, is corrupted by the fall and eagerly awaits its redemption.
But God has not changed, and that’s the deepest meaning of this hymn. The God who created the first day is the same God who made this day. And it is that same God who saves us from our fall by the recreating power of his Word. For it was that Word who took on flesh, who died, who rose again, and now brings light each and every day. Our existential morning has broken through the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
On Video
The first video of “Morning Has Broken” is a recording from Salisbury, with a choir of men and boys accompanied by an organ. The second video is a rendition by Cat Stevens, with guitar and piano, recorded live. Note how the piano incidentals, first composed by Rick Wakeman, feel variously like the song of the blackbird, the cascading waters, or the dancing morning light.
Image: Blackbird photo by Alex Badeev, courtesy of Unsplash.
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