Creeping Things, Praise your Creator!

Flying Fowl and Creeping Things, Praise Ye the Lord. Isaac Watts

1 Sweet flocks, whose soft enamel’d wing

Swiftly and gently cleaves the sky,

Whose tuneful notes address the spring

With artless, melting harmony:

In leafy shadows as ye sit,

Awake, and with the dawning light

To nature’s God your matins pay,

Who gives the sun his ev’ry ray.

2 Serpents, who o’er the meadows slide,

And wear upon your shining back

Those num’rous ranks of gaudy pride,

Which thousand mingling colours make:

In harmless play twist and unfold

The volumes of your scaly gold;

Let soften’d fires glance from your eyes

And speak your Maker kind and wise.

3 Insects and mites of mean degree,

That swarm in myriads o’er the land,

Moulded by wisdom’s artful hand,

And painted with a various dye:

In your innumerable forms

Praise him that wears th’ ethereal crown;

And bends his lofty counsels down

To earth, to despicable worms.

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A great piece for a new year. Irnawan mentioned creeping things in a recent post and I remembered this clever hymn from long ago. The English is old but the theme is fresh and overlooked.

Let everything which has breath, praise the Almighty Jehovah.