The starry firmament on high — an adaptation in English verse of Psalms 19 by Sir Robert Grant

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Robert Grant

Shared on:

4 April 2026 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Psuqei d'Zimrah/Zemirot l'Shabbat ul'Yom Tov

Tags:

19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., English poetry, English Romanticism, Prayers as poems, psalms 19

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	The starry firmament on high, And all the glories of the sky, Yet shine not to thy praise, O Lord, So brightly as thy written word: The hopes that holy word supplies, Its truths divine and precepts wise— In each a heavenly beam I see, And every beam conducts to thee.
	When, taught by painful proof to know That all is vanity below, The sinner roams from comfort far, And looks in vain for sun or star, Soft gleaming then those lights divine Through all the cheerless darkness shine, And sweetly to his ravished eye Disclose the day-spring from on high.
	The heart in sensual fetters bound, And barren as the wintry ground, Confesses, Lord, thy quick’ning ray;— Thy word can charm the spell away, With genial influence can beguile The frozen wilderness to smile; Bid living waters o’er it flow, And all be paradise below.
	Almighty Lord! the sun shall fail, The moon forget her nightly tale, And deepest silence hush on high The radiant chorus of the sky; But, fixed for everlasting years, Unmov’d amid the wreck of spheres, Thy word shall shine in cloudless day, When heaven and earth have pass’d away.

This paraphrase of the second half of Psalms 19 in English verse by Sir Robert Grant was first published posthumously under the title “Psalm ⅩⅠⅩ” by Robert’s brother Charles Grant (Lord Glenelg) in Sacred Poems by the Late Right Hon. Sir Robert Grant (1839), pp. 28-30. As Charles Grant writes as introduction to the poem, it “is intended as a sequel or counterpart to [Joseph] Addison’s hymn, “The spacious firmament.” It corresponds to the latter portion of the 19th Psalm, as Addison’s does to the former.”

Source(s)

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Robert Grant

Sir Robert Grant, GCH (1779 – 9 July 1838), born in Bengal, was a British lawyer and politician who had a distinguished public career as Governor of Bombay and as a member of the British Parliament. Of Scottish ancestry, his father was a director of the East India Company. His family relocated to England in 1790 where he later studied law at Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 1807, he passed the bar after which he became a Commissioner in Bankruptcy. Between 1818 and 1832, he was an elected member of Parliament for several different Burghs. He advocated for the removal of the "Jewish disabilities" (legal restrictions, limitations and obligations placed on British Jewry). and twice carried bills on the subject through the House of Commons. They were, however, rejected in the Upper House, which did not yield on the question until 1858, twenty years after Grant's death.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)

The starry firmament on high — an adaptation in English verse of Psalms 19 by Sir Robert Grant

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