How Great Thou Art
Growing up in a small Southern Baptist church I always knew more hymns than the popular music that was played on the radio. “How Great Thou Art” has been one of my favorite hymns since I was a young child.
This song as the title would suggest is about the Greatness of God. In the first Stanza we stop and stand in awe of all that God has done. the Second Stanza takes us into nature and its beauty. the Third Stanza brings us back to the reason we all will one day be in heaven, Jesus died on the cross bearing the sins of the world. the final stanza talks about the return of Christ about the joy that will feel our hearts and how we will proclaim “My God How Great Thou Art.”
Origin
Carl Gustav Boberg is credited with the poem “O store Gud” (“O Mighty God”) that Stuart Hine translated and made into “How Great thou Art.” This poem was written in the summer of 1885 after Boberg had spent the day admiring nature and listening to the church bells ring. The original poem consisted of nine stanzas while we only have four in our hymnals. It would be several years and translations later before Hine hears these words being played to Russian folk tunes during his time as a missionary in the Ukraine.
Tune
The tune O STORE GUD was written by Stuart K. Hine. Hine and his wife spent many of their first married years in the Ukraine as missionaries by working and singing during their time there. After moving back to Great Britain in 1931, he and his wife conducted Gospel Campaigns throughout Great Britain. It is during this time that Hine wrote most of his music including “How Great Thou Art.”
During the stanzas you will find that the melody stays within the same five notes and has a simplicity to it that I see as complementing the act of just sitting there and thinking about how Great God is. Then the chorus comes along and the melody becomes a bit more complex adding accidentals and moving up the scale allowing for a freedom to let your soul sing out to God.
This is a group called Home Free they are an a cappella Country singing group. I like this arrangement because they stay fairly true to the original tune of the song. Between the Second and Third Stanza of this recording they have included the Chorus from It Is Well With My soul. This recording shows people that Hymns do not always have to be the same, they can be performed in many different ways and still hold the same message.
Stanza #1
O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Chorus:
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!
Stanza #2
When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.
Chorus:
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!
Stanza #3
And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on a Cross, my burdens gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.
Chorus:
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!
Stanza #4
When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: “My God, how great Thou art!”
Chorus:
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!
