Beyond the Hymnal: How Great Thou Art
“For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, Who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.’” (Isaiah 45:18, KJV)
Quick: Name a hymn!
What did you say?
I cannot hear “How Great Thou Art” without being a kid again, sitting in the seats of my childhood church. I can see the exact shade of the carpet. I can feel the slightly scratchy cushion of the seatback behind me. I can hear the very off-key singing of Ella, the older lady who sat next to my family.
To me, “How Great Thou Art” is the hymn I think of when I think of the most well-loved hymn of all time. And I know I’m not alone. In fact, this song travelled the globe before it was popularized during the Billy Graham crusades in the 1950s.
Like many hymns, this one started as a poem; written in 1885 by a Swedish minister named Carl Boberg. From there, the poem travelled in relative anonymity to Russia, where an English missionary, Stuart Hine heard it and expanded the general premise into the four stanzas we know today. Each verse was inspired by a chapter in Hine’s ministry throughout the Carpathian Mountains. The first was composed when he witnessed a thunderstorm while staying in a Carpathian village. The second was inspired by birdsong he heard near the Romanian border. The third came from watching those living in the mountains as they came to Christ by His grace. Upon returning home from his mission work, Hine wrote that final, movingly triumphant verse.
Years later, Dr. J. Edwin Orr heard “How Great Thou Art” being sung by Naga tribespeople all the way in Assam, a state in Northeast India, and he decided to bring it back to America to use during his own services. In California, it came to the attention of a publisher who tracked down Mr. Hine and pushed him to publish the hymn.
From there, it was included in a book of music that George Beverly Shea used, and he shared it with Billy Graham’s team while he was leading a crusade in London. At the New York crusade in 1957, Shea sang this hymn ninety-nine times before it traveled around the world and landed in your local church service.
What a testament to God’s longstanding goodness to us: that a song that is so loved by so many would make its way across decades and half the globe so that we could be moved by His greatness. That generations of people from different countries that should have nothing in common turn out to have Jesus in common; that we could sing the same awesome chorus together to the glory of our God. That we could praise the Savior who is so vast in His love for us. How great He is!
Together, as Christians, we can all see the same wonders that Hines does– the rolling thunder, the stars, sweet birdsong, mountain grandeur, a babbling brook– and be in awe of God’s design in His creation. We can sing about God sending His Son to die and carry the weight of our sin, being humbled by that sacrifice and what it cost.
We can all lean forward and look ahead to that long-awaited moment where the limits of this world grow thin, waiting expectantly for when God should call us home. This song stirs up a daydream of heaven and the all-encompassing joy of finally seeing our Great God face to face.
What is there left to sing except, “How great Thou art!” What more can we offer as praise to this God who gave His all to gain His bride, the Church?
This hymn proves that impassioned praise and reverent worship of our God is the uniting factor that binds all Christians together. None of us are worthy of His greatness. None of us can stand absolved from our sins apart from Him. And yet, we can sit at His feet because of His grace. We can rest in His presence because He paid that price. And that saving grace unites us with all the saints that came before us. That comfort and redemption links us with Christians in India, Russia, London, and California– all singing in one voice the praises of our King.
“Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee: How great Thou art! How great Thou art!”
He is the Creator of all– of heaven and earth. He formed it, established it, filled it, and saved it. There is no one like Him and there never will be. His faithfulness reaches out to His beloved and knows no bounds. Nothing He created was in vain, and nothing was for naught. The perfection of His creation holds true and it doesn’t stop at the grandeur of the mountains or the beauty of a gentle breeze. It overflows to us. It bubbles up in our worship and our wonder of Him.
How could we be stingy with our praise of God? How could we withhold anything but the very best of the love in our hearts?
Being a worship leader, over the years I’ve heard plenty of complaints over songs that people believe to be “overly-repetitive.” So many people whine if a chorus is simple and repeats a phrase– even amazing songs like “How Great Thou art.” But the fact of the matter is: Worship of our Lord should not draw up so short that we can’t bear to sing something like, “God you are so great and my soul cannot help but sing about it.” If it does, then we need to re-evaluate our understanding of what the Lord has done.
We should never tire of singing God’s praise. We should not shudder at the thought of singing a chorus ninety-nine times. Our soul should never tire of it. How great He is. How blessed we are that we serve a God who is so vast in His wonder and yet chose to include us in His creation and redemption.
Take some time today to think on the Lord– to meditate on His Word and the sacrifice of His Son for us. Be still and wait on Him until that worship wells up in your soul; a song of praise for your Savior God. And as you sing, know that there is a host of fellow believers worshiping the Lord alongside you, united by a God so great it’s difficult to fathom.
