Text:Praise the Lord: Ye Heavens, Adore Him (Osler)
Author (st. 3):Edward Osler
Author (vs. 1 & 2) :Thomas Coram
Tune:FABEN
Composer:John H. Willcox
Media:MIDI file

5692. Praise the Lord: Ye Heavens, Adore Him (Osler)

1. Praise the Lord: ye heavens, adore Him;
Praise Him, angels in the height.
Sun and moon, rejoice before Him;
Praise Him, all ye stars of light.
Praise the Lord, for He hath spoken;
Worlds His mighty voice obeyed.
Laws which never shall be broken
For their guidance He hath made.

2. Praise the Lord, for He is glorious;
Never shall His promise fail.
God hath made His saints victorious;
Sin and death shall not prevail.
Praise the God of our salvation;
Hosts on high, His power proclaim.
Heaven and earth and all creation,
Laud and magnify His name.

3. Worship, honor, glory, blessing,
Lord, we offer unto Thee.
Young and old, Thy praise expressing,
In glad homage bend the knee.
All the saints in Heaven adore Thee;
We would bow before Thy throne.
As Thine angels serve before Thee,
So on earth Thy will be done.

Text Information
First Line: Praise the Lord: ye heavens, adore Him
Title: Praise the Lord: Ye Heavens, Adore Him (Osler)
Author (vs. 1 & 2) : Thomas Coram (1796)
Author (st. 3): Edward Osler (1836)
Meter: 87.87 D
Language: English
Source: Psalms, Hymns, and Anthems of the Foundling Hospital, by Thomas Coram, 1796 (stanzas 1 & 2) & Edward Osler, Church and King, 1836 (stanza 3)
Copyright: Public Domain
Notes: Background: London’s Found­ling Hos­pi­tal was an or­phan­age that be­came fa­mous for sing­ing. It was found­ed in 1739 by a mer­chant named Thom­as Coram who was al­so in­volved in pro­mot­ing the Wes­leys’ evan­gel­is­tic ef­forts in Georg­ia. By the ear­ly 1800s it was quite in vogue for Lon­don­ers to vis­it Sun­day serv­ices at the or­phan­age where the child­ren were led in sing­ing by trained mu­si­cians and could be ob­served at din­ner in their quaint cos­tumes. Han­del was so fond of the in­sti­tu­tion that he do­nat­ed a cha­pel or­gan and gave a num­ber of ben­e­fit per­form­ances of “Messiah” to raise funds for it. The Found­ling Hos­pi­tal is re­mem­bered to­day chief­ly through a hymn­book called Psalms, Hymns, and An­thems of the Found­ling Hos­pi­tal, Lond­on, which was pub­lished by Coram in 1796. Pasted in­to the jack­et of that hymn­book were the words to this hymn. Though there is much conjecture about the au­thor­ship of the text, each the­o­ry has been re­fut­ed, and it re­mains anon­y­mous. However, the var­i­ous tunes that are com­mon­ly as­so­ci­at­ed with the text are more ea­si­ly stu­died. For in­stance, the first tune that was used with the text was Franz Jo­seph Hay­dn’s “Aus­tri­an Hymn.” The tune gained its no­to­ri­e­ty as Deutsch­land, Deutsch­land, über All­es, but be­gan its life as Gott er­halte Franz, den Kai­ser (God Save Em­per­or Franz) and it was first per­formed on Franz’ birth­day in 1797. Since some came to as­so­ci­ate the tune “Aus­tr­ian Hymn” with Hit­ler, the text to “Praise the Lord: Ye Hea­vens, Adore Him” is oft­en cou­pled with the hymn tune “Hy­fry­dol.” The first verse of the hymn is a par­ap­hrase of Psalm 148 which shows all of cre­a­tion prais­ing the Lord, from the an­gels and heav­en­ly hosts above to the crea­tures of the sea and land below. Imp­li­cit in this praise is the fact that God has cre­at­ed all of these be­ings and pro­vides for their needs. His most lov­ing pro­vi­sion is the re­demp­tion He’s of­fered to us from sin and death, which is the sub­ject of the se­cond verse. The third verse, which was add­ed in 1836 by Ed­ward Os­ler in his jour­nal Church and King and first ap­peared in Hall’s Mi­tre Hymn Book is a dox­ol­o­gy of praise for both the cre­a­tion of the first verse and the re­demp­tion of the se­cond. It is tru­ly a fit­ting re­sponse to God’s good­ness. Background par­a­graphs © 1996, Greg Scheer. Used by per­mis­sion. If you’d like permission to use this background text in church publications, please e-mail him (GregSchee@aol.com) or call (412) 247-7364. Alternate tunes: AUSTRIA, arranged by Franz J. Haydn, 1797; HYFRYDOL, Rowland H. Prichard, 1830; LANGDALE (REDHEAD), Richard Redhead, Church Hymn Tunes for the Several Seasons of the Church Year, Second Series, 1859
Tune Information
Name: FABEN
Composer: John H. Willcox (1849)
Meter: 87.87 D
Incipit: 55532 31555 46544
Key: B♭ Major
Copyright: Public Domain



Media
Adobe Acrobat image: Adobe Acrobat image
(Cyber Hymnal)
MIDI file: MIDI File
(Cyber Hymnal)
Noteworthy Composer score: Noteworthy Composer score
(Cyber Hymnal)
XML score: XML score
More media are available on the text authority and tune authority pages.

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