'O Worship the King' (1833) by Robert Grant is one of the grandest nature hymns in the Anglican tradition - a paraphrase of Psalm 104 that takes the Hebrew psalm's celebration of the Creator through the physical world and renders it in the stately, elevated diction of early 19th-century English verse. Set to the tune 'Lyons' (attributed to Haydn), it creates a morning hymn of cosmic scope that spans from divine majesty through natural phenomena to human frailty.
Robert Grant
Sir Robert Grant (1779-1838) was a distinguished public servant - Member of Parliament, Member of the Indian Board of Control, and eventually Governor of Bombay, where he died in office. He was also a committed Evangelical Anglican, associated with the Clapham Sect's successor networks, and he wrote several hymns, of which this is the one that has survived in continuous use. His brother Charles Grant, 1st Baron Glenelg, was Colonial Secretary; the family's combination of public service and evangelical faith was characteristic of the Clapham tradition.
Grant's hymn was published posthumously in his Sacred Poems (1839), though it may have been written earlier. Its placing in the Anglican hymnbook tradition has been as a morning hymn of praise - appropriate to the Psalm's celebration of God as the one who 'set the earth on its foundations' and brings the morning light.
Psalm 104 as Source
Psalm 104 is the great creation psalm of the Hebrew Bible - a sustained celebration of God as the Creator and sustainer of the physical world, tracing divine creative activity through light, water, mountains, springs, vegetation, animals, seasons, and human life. It draws on imagery similar to Genesis 1 but in a more lyrical, less schematic form.
Psalm 104:1-3 (KJV): 'Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind.'
Grant's opening stanza translates this directly: 'O worship the King, all glorious above! O gratefully sing his power and his love! Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days, pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.'
The phrase 'Ancient of Days' is drawn from Daniel 7:9 rather than Psalm 104, but Grant weaves multiple scriptural streams together to create a composite picture of divine majesty.
The Progression of the Hymn
The hymn moves from divine majesty to natural phenomena to human dependency:
Stanzas 1-2: The cosmic king, clothed in light, his chariot the clouds. Stanza 3: Divine creative and providential work - 'His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form, and dark is his path on the wings of the storm.' Stanza 4: The frailty of humanity - 'Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail.' Stanza 5: Confident petition: 'O measureless Might! Ineffable Love! While angels delight to worship above.' Final stanza: 'Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend' - four titles summarizing the full range of divine relationship to humanity.
The movement from transcendence (cosmic king) through immanence (providential care for the weak) to personal relationship (Maker, Defender, Redeemer, Friend) is a characteristic Anglican theological progression: the God of cosmic majesty is also the God who is personally engaged with human life.
The Tune 'Lyons'
The tune attributed to Haydn (though the attribution is uncertain) is a strong, processional tune in triple time, with a nobility that suits the hymn's elevated diction. Its long phrases carry the stanzas without urgency, as if the singing were itself an act of leisurely worship before the eternal King. The tune has been associated with this text in British and American hymnody since the 19th century.
Legacy
The hymn is a standard in Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, and evangelical traditions, used particularly as a morning hymn and at harvest or creation-themed services. Its combination of Psalm 104's breadth, Grant's stately verse, and the Haydn-attributed tune creates a piece that has been almost impossible to displace from its position as one of the grandest congregational hymns in the English tradition.