In their eagerness to praise God, hymns sometimes neglect the place God has given to the life of the world on which we depend. To appreciate our reliance on fellow creatures honours God; the inherent value, wonder and mystery of the Earth is not in competition with the Creator and Sustainer, nor are these fringe benefits for humanity the only purpose of Creation. In the chain of enablement, Creation, directed by God, very much ‘calls the tune’.

Meter: 6.6.8.6
Tunes: St Michael (Genevan), or Sandys


1)Creation calls the tune;
no voice can sing alone:
our song needs Trees – because we breathe-
the Earth, for flesh and bone

2)God’s covenant’s diverse:
sustained by love’s embrace
the branch cut from the Tree is dead
though Earth brings fruit from death.

3)We claim God’s likeness true
and rule by right divine;
Yet Christ the Vine, by God, by Breath
sustains, creates, combines.

4)God gives us to the Earth
to till and tend and love;
though chosen violence is done
to soil, sea, heaven above.

5)Creation calls the tune:
a chorus-woven joy
of praise and justice: gifts of God
for healing to employ.