Behold the lofty sky. I. Watts. [Ps. xix.] 1st published in his Psalms of David, &c, 1719, being a paraphrase of the first part of Psalm xix., and headed "The Book of Nature and Scripture. For a Lord's-Day Morning." It is in 8 stanzas of 4 lines; and was given with the omission of stanza vi. in J. Wesley's Psalms & Hymns, Charlestown, South Carolina, 1736-7, p. 08. The paraphrase, "Behold the morning sun," deals in 8 stanzas of 4 lines with another aspect of the same Psalm, and is given next after the above in the Psalms, &c, 1719. Both paraphrases, usually abbreviated, are in common use, the latter specially in America. In Martineau's Hymns, 1840 and 1873, the hymn "Behold the lofty sky," No. 247, is a cento from these two paraphrases, stanzas i., ii. being from the first, and iii.—vi. from the second.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)