Sunday songs

How great are your works, O Lord!  Psalm 92:5 ESV

I've heard and/or sung How Great Thou Art hundreds of times.  Even so, the words still fill my heart with emotion.  I'm unable to comprehend the immense greatness of God, yet I know in His greatness, I'm humbled that He loves even me.  The story behind the hymn follows the lyrics.

How Great Thou Art

Composed by Carl Boberg

Oh Lord, my God when I in all some wonder

Considered all the worlds Thy hands have made

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder

Thy art throughout the universe displayed

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee

How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee

Carl Boberg

How great Thou art, how great Thou art

When Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation

To take me home what joy shall fill my heart

Then I will bow in humble adoration

And there proclaim, My God how great Thou art

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee

How great Thou art, how great Thou art

Then sings my soul, My Savior God to Thee

How great Thou art, how great Thou art

How great Thou art, how great Thou art

The hymn How Great Thou Art traveled a long road before it ended up a favorite edition to English hymnals. It was originally a poem written in 1886 by a Swedish pastor, Reverend Carl Boberg.  It was published in a periodical, and several years later he was surprised and delighted to hear his poem being sung by a church congregation, to the tune of an old Swedish folk melody.

Boberg's poem was soon translated into German by Manfred von Glehn.  In 1925, an American Reverend E. Gustav Johnson translated the Swedish poem into an English version that is somewhat different than the one popular today. For instance, the first line of Johnson's hymn reads Oh mighty God, when I behold the wonder.

In 1927, I.S. Prokanoff translated Glehn's German version into Russian, to be enjoyed by that culture also. Throughout all of these translations, the original Swedish folk tune remained the same.

George Beverly Shea

In 1933, English missionaries to the Ukraine, Reverend and Mrs. Stuart K. Hine heard the song for the first time, fell in love with it, and sang it often throughout their missionary journeys.  Hine also translated it into English, adding one or more verses.

Then in 1954, at Billy Graham's London crusade, someone gave George Beverly Shea a copy of the leaflet. Shea stuck the leaflet in his pocket, and didn't think much more about it at the time.  People often gave him copies of music for his consideration.  But later, Shea examined the leaflet more carefully, and was impressed by the power of the words.  He introduced it at the Toronto Crusade in 1954.  When George Beverly Shay and the Billy Graham gospel choir, directed by Cliff Barrows, began to sing the song at virtually every crusade event, How Great Thou Art soon became one of the most recognized songs around the world.