I sing the mighty power of God,
That made the mountains rise,
That spread the flowing seas abroad,
And built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained
The sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at His command,
And all the stars obey.
I sing the goodness of the Lord,
That filled the earth with food;
He formed the creatures with His word,
And then pronounced them good.
Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed,
Where’er I turn my eye,
If I survey the ground I tread,
Or gaze upon the sky.
There’s not a plant or flower below,
But makes Thy glories known,
And clouds arise, and tempests blow,
By order from Thy throne.
Public domain hymn text (1715). Words by Isaac Watts.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Isaac Watts wrote this hymn's text in 1715, publishing it in a collection titled 'Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children,' a hymnal specifically intended for children's use that Watts compiled as part of his broader belief, unusual for its time, that theology and Christian devotion could and should be taught to children in genuinely simple, accessible, memorable verse rather than only through more demanding adult catechism.
That collection went on to become enormously influential in shaping English-language children's religious education for well over a century afterward, and this particular hymn, structured around a straightforward survey of the natural world — mountains, seas, sky, sun, moon, stars, and living creatures — as evidence of God's 'mighty power,' 'wisdom,' and 'goodness' in turn, reflects a specifically educational intent: teaching children to observe the ordinary natural world around them as a continuous, ongoing source of theological instruction rather than treating nature and religious instruction as separate subjects.
Watts's own considerable contribution to English-language children's religious verse, exemplified by this hymn, existed alongside his more famous adult congregational hymns represented elsewhere throughout this collection, and Watts himself, despite his own lifelong poor health and choice never to marry or have children of his own, wrote with particular attentiveness to how children specifically learn and retain religious concepts, a pedagogical interest that shaped this hymn's simple, concrete, image-based structure considerably more than his more theologically dense adult hymns.
The hymn's tune, adapted from a traditional English folk melody, has remained closely associated with the text across the more than three centuries since its original publication, and the hymn itself remains a standard piece of children's hymnody in English-speaking Sunday schools, teaching young singers to find theological meaning in the ordinary natural world around them just as Watts originally intended.
