Musical Notes

Hello OCBC family,
“Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights!” (Psalm 148:1).

The hymn “Praise the Lord! Ye Heavens Adore Him” uses the whole Psalm 148 as based on its three stanzas. A very powerful hymn to declare God as the Creator of the whole universe. Who is the author of this glorious hymn, we do not know; in each hymnal we can read that the author of the lyrics is Anonymous.

“Praise the Lord! ye heav'ns, 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.
Law which never shall be broken
For their guidance hath He made.”

Captain Thomas Coram (1668-1751) was a very devout Anglican and a very close friend of the Wesleys. But during his time in London, he noticed that many children lived on the dirty streets of London, and nobody helped these little ones; Coram tried to help them.

He was not a wealthy man, so he asked for help from rich men in London, but they did not agree to help with this task. London was indeed a city of abandoned babies.

But Coram had a better idea, to approach the wives of these rich men, and show them the reality of the babies and little ones in London, and these ladies agreed to help the helpless ones. They opened a hospital in 1741, and on the first night, hundreds of women with little ones in their arms arrived asking for help; they received the help that they needed.

Soon, many artists supported this project, and a very famous artist in London helped this hospital with his most famous piece of art: George Frederich Handel was the artist, and “Messiah” his masterpiece. For each performance, Handel donated the money for the hospital that Coram founded.

What is the connection of this story with the hymn “Praise the Lord! Ye Heavens Adore Him” ? In 1796, Coram published a hymnbook entitled “Psalms, Hymns, and Anthems of the Founding Hospital, London.” And one of the hymns that was in this collection is this anonymous hymn. We don’t know unto this day who wrote this hymn, but we will never forget that it is associated with God’s love for children and His concern for the fatherless.

“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 heav'n adore Thee;
We would bow before Thy throne.
As Thine angels serve before Thee,
So on earth Thy will be done.”
​
In His service,
Israel