The starry firmament on high

Author: Robert Grant

Grant, Sir Robert, second son of Mr. Charles Grant, sometime Member of Parliament for Inverness, and a Director of the East India Company, was born in 1785, and educated at Cambridge, where he graduated in 1806. Called to the English Bar in 1807, he became Member of Parliament for Inverness in 1826; a Privy Councillor in 1831; and Governor of Bombay, 1834. He died at Dapoorie, in Western India, July 9, 1838. As a hymnwriter of great merit he is well and favourably known. His hymns, "O worship the King"; "Saviour, when in dust to Thee"; and "When gathering clouds around I view," are widely used in all English-speaking countries. Some of those which are less known are marked by the same graceful versification and deep and tender feeling. The… Go to person page >

The starry firmament on high. Sir B. Grant. [Psalm xix.] This was given in Lord Glenelg's posthumous edition of Grant's Sacred Poems, 1839, p. 28, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines, and headed with the following words:—

"This is intended as a sequel or counterpart to Addison's hymn, 'The spacious firmament.' It corresponds to the latter portion of the 19th Psalm, as Addison's does to the former."

The use of this paraphrase in its full form is confined to a few American collections. The last stanza, "Almighty Lord, the sun shall fail," is given in Laudes Domini, N. Y., 1884, as No. 233.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)