The heavens declare thy glory, Lord

The heavens declare thy glory, Lord. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748). This is one of three paraphrases of Psalm 19 which appeared in The Psalms of David (1719). The first, in two parts, was in Short Metre. That, and the third in 88.88.88 (described as ‘P.M.’ or ‘Peculiar Metre’), are somewhat closer to the text of the psalm itself. This Long Metre version had the title, ‘The Books of Nature and of Scripture compared; or, the Glory and Success of the Gospel.’ The first two lines closely paraphrase the psalm’s first verse, but then Watts inserts two lines to emphasise that for all the glory and wisdom of God declared in the heavens, it is in God’s word in Scripture that his glory and wisdom are...