Praise The Lord, Ye Heavens Adore Him (Quick Thoughts on a Hymn)

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. 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. 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 hymn book called Psalms, Hymns, and Anthems of the Foundling Hospital, London, which was published by Coram in 1796.

Pasted into the jacket of that hymn book 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. The first two verses are 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. The third verse was added in 1836 by Edward Osler in his journal Church and King.