Scripture Verse

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

Introduction

portrait
Arvid A. Afzelius (1785–1871)

Words: Ar­vid A. Af­ze­li­us, 1814.

Music: Wer weiss, wie nahe (Bron­ner) Ge­org Bron­ner, Mu­sic­al­isch-Chor­al-Buch, 1715 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Bron­ner (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els), or a bet­ter one of Af­ze­li­us,

Lyrics

Unto the Lord of all cre­ation
Thy voice, my soul, in an­thems raise.
Let ev­ery heart a fit ob­la­tion
Bring unto Him with songs of praise.
O con­tem­plate in hum­ble­ness
The pow­er and rich­es of his grace.

In Him we live and have our be­ing;
And all the hosts of Heav’n and earth
The liv­ing God, all wise, all see­ing,
Thro’ His own Spir­it brought to birth.
His ho­ly name, writ in His Word,
Thro’ all the uni­verse is heard.

The Lord who laid the earth’s foun­da­tion,
And for the stars their course de­creed,
Whose hand hath or­dered all cre­ation,
Provideth for our ev­ery need;
For God is love: the Fa­ther’s care
His small­est child shall du­ly share.

From out the gloom mine eye des­cri­eth
The Mak­er’s foot­prints in the sky;
The star­ry chor­us tes­ti­fi­eth
To His eter­nal ma­jes­ty;
While on my path each tiny flow­er
Proclaims His glo­ry and His pow­er.

Into Thy hand, O God Al­migh­ty,
My weal and woe I will en­trust;
My need Thou seest who tak­est pity
On ev­ery worm that crawls the dust.
In plea­sure’s path or sor­row’s way
Be Thou my guide, O Lord, I pray.

And when the morn­ing star ap­pear­eth,
Thy grace, Thy glo­ry we pro­claim;
When falls the dew, and ev­en­ing near­eth,
O Lord, we call up­on Thy name.
Upon Thy mer­cy we rely,
Father, Cre­at­or, God on high.