Songfacts®:

• The son of Baptist pastor, the Revd. M. D. Kendrick, Graham Kendrick trained as a teacher before embarking on a singing career in the early 1970s. A prolific writer of songs sung in British churches, this is one of his most popular tunes.
• The song was written for the interdenominational British Christian gathering Spring Harvest, which takes place annually over the Easter school holiday period. Graham Kendrick told Christianity magazine: "'Servant King' was the title for Spring Harvest and it was sent out to several writers, including myself. I just found that funny phrase inspiring. We weren't being asked, 'Can you write a song with the words "Servant King" in it?' But it was those two words that set the juices flowing, because they were opposites."
  
  "If you are a lyricist, opposites always kickstart ideas; those two words don't normally sit together. So I just started to unpack that whole story. The obvious part of the story is the incarnation, 'From heav'n You came, helpless Babe…' And it's sort of unfolded from there."