English poem
The Lord Descended From Above.
by Hezekiah Butterworth (1839–1905)
A flash of genuine inspiration was vouchsafed to Thomas Sternhold when engaged with Rev. John Hopkins in versifying the Eighteenth Psalm. The ridicule heaped upon Sternhold and Hopkins's psalmbook has always stopped, and sobered into admiration and even reverence at the two stanzas beginning with this leading line--
The Lord descended from above And bowed the heavens most high, And underneath His feet He cast The darkness of the sky.
On cherub and on cherubim Full royally He rode, And on the wings of mighty winds Came flying all abroad.
Thomas Sternhold was born in Gloucestershire, Eng. He was Groom of the Robes to Henry VIII, and Edward VI., but is only remembered for his Psalter published in 1562, thirteen years after his death in 1549.