Journey On: A hymn for God today

HOW GREAT THOU ART

2 Samuel 7:22

New King James Version (NKJV)

²² Therefore You are great, O Lord God.^[a] For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

the following is quoted from : httphttp://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/h/o/w/how_great_Thou_art.htm

Courtesy of the Cyber Hymnal™

O Lord, how great are Thy works! Psalm 92:5

---

Carl G. Boberg (1859-1940)

Words: Stuart K. Hine. In 1885, at age 26, Swed­ish preach­er Carl G. Bo­berg wrote the words only of a po­em en­ti­tled O Store Gud. Sev­er­al years lat­er, Bo­berg at­tend­ed a meet­ing and was sur­prised to hear his po­em be­ing sung to the tune of an old Swed­ish mel­o­dy.

In the early 1920s, Eng­lish mis­sion­ar­ies, Stuart K. Hine and his wife, min­is­tered in Po­land. It was there they learned the Russ­ian ver­sion of Boberg’s po­em, O Store Gud, cou­pled with the orig­in­al Swed­ish mel­o­dy. Lat­er, Hine wrote orig­in­al Eng­lish words and made his own ar­range­ment of the Swed­ish mel­o­dy, which be­came pop­u­lar and is now known as the hymn, How Great Thou Art.

The first three vers­es were in­spired, line upon line, amidst un­for­get­ta­ble ex­per­i­ence­s in the Car­pa­thian Moun­tains. In a vill­age to which he had climbed, Mr. Hine stood in the street sing­ing a Gos­pel Hymn and read­ing aloud, John, Chap­ter Three. Among the sym­pa­the­tic list­en­ers was a lo­cal vill­age school­mas­ter. A storm was ga­ther­ing, and when it was ev­i­dent that no fur­ther tra­vel could be made that night, the friend­ly school­mas­ter of­fered his hos­pi­tal­i­ty. Awe-in­spir­ing was the mighty thun­der echo­ing through the moun­tains, and it was this im­pres­sion that was to bring about the birth of the first verse.

Pushing on, Hine crossed the moun­tain fron­tier into Ro­ma­nia and in­to Bu­ko­vina. To­ge­ther with some young peo­ple, through the woods and for­est glades he wan­dered, and heard the birds sing sweet­ly in the trees. Thus, the se­cond verse came in­to be­ing. Verse three was in­spired by the con­ver­sion of many Car­pa­thi­an moun­tain-dwell­ers. The fourth verse did not come about un­til Hine’s re­turn to Bri­tain.

Music: How Great Thou Art, Swed­ish folk melody mel­o­dy, adapt­ed by Stuart K. Hine

Lyrics

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:

Refrain

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!

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 hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:

Refrain

And when I think that God, his Son not sparing, Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in, That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin.

Refrain

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 there proclaim, My God, how great thou art! we serve an awesome great God!