Robert Murray (b. Earltown, Colchester County, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1832; d. Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1910), editor of The Presbyterian Witness and an outstanding preacher, wrote this text. It was published with three other hymn texts, all identified with just the initial "M," in the first Canadian Presbyterian Hymnal of 1880.
Murray's text originally made reference to Canada's geography, but its opening lines, "From ocean unto ocean," recall the words of Psalm 72:8: "He will rule from sea to sea." Although many patriotic hymns express national pride, this text clearly affirms the sovereignty and healing power of God in human and national affairs and humbly admits human sin and folly. Stanza 1 confesses that the earth's natural resources will yield their bounty in praise to God (see Ps. 72: 16), and stanzas 3 and 4 profess submission to the claims of Christ. This hymn helps us to say and sing that our service to God has an impact on our daily lives, on our stewardship of resources, on our living together in community, and on our hope for and experience of reconciliation in the market¬place and in political life.
Murray began writing poetry at the age of ten. Educated at the Free Church College of Halifax, he was licensed to preach in the Presbyterian Church of Canada. His life's vocation, however, was not in pastoral ministry. Instead he served as editor of The Presbyterian Witness for more than fifty years. A member of numerous denominational committees, Murray favored Canadian confederation and the temperance movement in his editorials. A number of his hymns were first published in The Hymnal (1880) of the Presbyterian Church in Canada and its successor, The Book of Praise (1918).
Liturgical Use:
Worship that focuses on stewardship of natural resources (including harvest thanksgiving) and on justice and charity in public life; patriotic occasions and other times of prayer for national life.
--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1988
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