All Praise to Him

"All Praise to Him" is based on a hymn by Horatius Bonar (1808–1889), one of the greatest Scottish hymn writers of the nineteenth century, with additional music and words by Matt Merker and Bob Kauflin. Bonar was a minister in the Free Church of Scotland who wrote over six hundred hymns during his long ministry, many of them during the disruption of 1843 when he left the established Church of Scotland over issues of spiritual independence. He was deeply influenced by the Evangelical Revival and the premillennial hope of Christ's return, themes that permeate his hymns. Merker and Kauflin updated Bonar's text with a modern melody and additional lyrics, making it accessible to contemporary congregations while preserving the theological substance of the original. This practice of adapting historic hymns with new tunes — pioneered in the modern era by groups like Indelible Grace and the Gettys — allows the rich theology of past centuries to speak afresh to today's church. The result is a hymn that bridges two centuries of Christian worship, joining Bonar's nineteenth-century Scottish piety with twenty-first-century musical sensibility.