With every dawning of the day,
awakens mercy, blazing bright,
for Love has come to show the way;
it shines an everlasting light.

Your name will last forever,
your pow’r is as strong today as it always has been,
your word holds it all together;
your love shining over me, shining over me.

Like stars across the Milky Way,
your children glimmer in the night:
they raise a song to watch and pray,
and see the shadows put to flight.

When darkness seems to hide your face,
where fear creeps in to grip the soul,
O Morning Star, reveal your grace:
your mighty arm is in control!

The sun will one day cease to shine,
its glowing embers fade to grey,
eclipsed by glory all-divine:
the Son of God shines like the day!

You said, you said,
we’ll suffer trials for a little while;
we know, we know
your joy comes in the morning!

Roo Stewart
(incl. a line by Edward Mote, from ‘The Solid Rock’)
©2012 Rooster Music, admin by roostewart.com

Story behind the song

I was asked to lead the musical worship for a large Christian conference in Northern Ireland. I hadn't intended to write something specially for the event, but quickly found inspiration and the melody and lyrics came together quickly.

I was struck by the words in Lamentations 3:22-23 in the Bible that proclaim that the Lord's mercy is new each and every morning. The lateral thinker in me wondered when 'the morning' officially starts. Is it at midnight, as our clocks would tell us? Is it related to the sun rise, as tradition would tell us? Is its time synchronised with GMT or does it vary according to the time zone?

Of course, I was entirely over-thinking biblical poetry, but from that musing I started to reflect on the references to the sun, moon and stars in the Bible, and how, if God is everlasting, and God's love unchanging, perhaps our perspective on the passage of time is too short. After all these thoughts of the eternal, I had the lyrics written down and the melody and chords recorded on my phone within about a half hour!

A subtitle for this song is 'The Astronomers' Hymn' because I tried to fit as much astronomy into the song as possible! See how many references you can find in the song. I also included a line from Edward Mote's stirring hymn 'On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand' - a much-loved song in the church I attended as a teenager.

A live version of the song is featured on the Celebrating the 25th New Horizon live worship album recorded in 2012. Check out the lyric video: