Scripture Verse

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Psalm 19:1

Introduction

portrait
Franz J. Haydn (1732–1809)

Words: Jo­seph Ad­di­son, in The Spec­ta­tor, Lon­don, Au­gust 23, 1712. It fol­lowed an es­say on the pro­per means of strength­en­ing & con­firm­ing faith in the mind of man.

Music: Cre­ation Franz J. Hay­dn, 1798 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

portrait
Joseph Addison
(1672–1719)

Background

The Su­preme Be­ing has made the best ar­gu­ments for his own ex­is­tence in the for­ma­tion of the hea­vens and the earth, and these are ar­gu­ments which a man of sense can­not for­bear at­tend­ing to who is out of the noise and hur­ry of hu­man af­fairs…The Psalm­ist has ve­ry beau­ti­ful strokes of po­et­ry to this pur­pose in that ex­alt­ed strain (Psalm xix). As such a bold and sub­lime man­ner of Think­ing fur­nished out ve­ry no­ble Mat­ter for an Ode, the Read­er may see it wrought in­to the fol­low­ing one.

Joseph Addison

Lyrics

The spa­cious fir­ma­ment on high,
With all the blue ethe­re­al sky,
And span­gled hea­vens, a shin­ing frame
Their great Orig­in­al pro­claim.
Th’unwearied sun, from day to day,
Does his cre­at­or’s pow­ers dis­play,
And pub­lishes to ev­ery land
The work of an al­migh­ty hand.

Soon as the ev­en­ing shades pre­vail
The moon takes up the won­drous tale,
And night­ly to the list­en­ing earth
Repeats the sto­ry of her birth;
While all the stars that round her burn
And all the plan­ets in their turn,
Confirm the tid­ings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.

What though in so­lemn si­lence all
Move round the dark ter­res­tri­al ball?
What though no real voice nor sound
Amid the ra­di­ant orbs be found?
In rea­son’s ear they all re­joice,
And ut­ter forth a glo­ri­ous voice,
Forever sing­ing as they shine,
The hand that made us is di­vine.