Scripture Verse

Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise Him in the heights. Psalm 148:1

Introduction

portrait
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

Words: Is­aac Watts, The Psalms of Da­vid 1719.

Music: Lenox Lew­is Ed­son, in The Cho­ris­ter’s Com­pan­ion, by Si­me­on Jo­ce­lyn & Amos Doo­lit­tle (New Ha­ven, Con­nec­ti­cut: 1782) (🔊 pdf nwc) (re­peats last line of each verse).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Ed­son (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

Ye tribes of Ad­am, join
With Heav’n and earth and seas,
And of­fer notes di­vine
To your cre­at­or’s praise:
Ye ho­ly throng of an­gels bright,
In worlds of light, be­gin the song.

Thou sun with dazz­ling rays,
And moon that rules the night,
Shine to your mak­er’s praise,
With stars of twink­ling light:
His pow­er de­clare, ye floods on high,
And clouds that fly in em­pty air.

The shin­ing worlds above
In glo­ri­ous or­der stand,
Or in swift cours­es move,
By His su­preme com­mand:
He spake the word, and all their frame
From no­thing came, to praise the Lord.

He moved their migh­ty wheels
In un­known ag­es past,
And each His word ful­fills
While time and na­ture last:
In dif­fer­ent ways His works pro­claim
His won­drous name, and speak His praise.

Let all the earth-born race,
And mon­sters of the deep
The fish that cleave the seas,
Or in their bo­som sleep;
From sea and shore their trib­ute pay,
And still dis­play their mak­er’s pow­er.

Ye va­pors, hail, and snow,
Praise ye th’al­migh­ty Lord,
And stor­my winds that blow,
To exe­cute His word:
When light­nings shine, or thun­ders roar,
Let earth adore His hand di­vine.

Ye mount­ains near the skies,
With lof­ty ce­dars there,
And trees of hum­bler size,
That fruit in plen­ty bear;
Beasts wild and tame, birds, flies, and worms,
In va­ri­ous forms, ex­alt His name.

Ye kings and judg­es, fear
The Lord, the so­ver­eign King;
And while you rule us here,
His heav’n­ly hon­ors sing;
Nor let the dream of pow­er and state
Make you forget His pow­er su­preme.

Virgins and youths, en­gage
To sound His praise di­vine,
While in­fan­cy and age
Their feeb­ler voic­es join:
Wide as He reigns His name be sung
By ev­ery tongue in end­less strains.

Let all the na­tions fear
The God that rules above;
He brings His peo­ple near,
And makes them taste His love:
While earth and sky at­tempt His praise,
His saints shall raise His hon­ors high.