"How Great Thou Art" - A Reflection On A Great Hymn

Introduction

I was in my early twenties, alone in my room, listening to a new Elvis Presley album I’d just bought, a live show that took place in Memphis in the 1970s.  Elvis went through the usual rock n roll and ballads and then began to sing a hymn, ‘How Great Thou Art’.  Never before had the words of a hymn spoken to me in such a powerful way.  I don’t know if it was the actual words of the hymn, or the passionate and expressive way Elvis sung it, but the words spoke to my mind and my heart.  I listened to this hymn several times in a row, so profound was its affect on me.  I then decided to look the words up in Hymns and Psalms and was surprised to find that it wasn’t even in it.  Fortunately it is in other hymn books.

‘How Great Thou Art’ was written by the Swedish pastor, editor, and member of the Swedish parliament, Carl Gustaf Boberg (1859-1940), after a walk through the lovely summer evening near Kronabäck, Sweden, probably in 1885.  A thunderstorm came up suddenly and the wind blew fiercely over the meadows.  After the storm was over he looked out over the Mönsterås Bay which was suddenly as clear as glass.  He heard the call of the thrush as clear as a bell, and then the evening church bell in the still evening.  The hymn was subsequently translated into German and then Russian, before being translated into English by Stuart K Hine.  It became well known when it was sung over 100 times by George Beverly Shea at a Billy Graham crusade in New York.

Reflection

Many years ago I stood on a hill top in the Yorkshire Dales, marvelling at the night sky, at the myriad stars and the glow of the Milky Way.  If you’ve only ever seen a night sky in the town, then you haven’t really seen it.  As I stood there, feeling humbled by the sheer immensity of the number of stars and galaxies out there I felt an overwhelming certainty that this incredible universe could not have come into being by chance, that there is a God who created it and continues to create.  “O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the works thy hand hath made, I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed.”  I sung those words softly to myself over and over.  Verse one and verse two speak of our Creator God, our God who made everything.  Even if we have never experienced the beauty of a night sky without the light pollution of our towns most of us have experienced the beauty of nature.  We have all seen trees, heard bird song, felt the breeze on our faces.  The sheer variety and complexity of our natural world again leads us to our Creator God.  What other can we do that cry out, My God, how great thou art!”

Verse three reminds us that our God is not just a Creator God but a Saviour God too.  A God who sent his only Son to suffer the penalty for our sins and die in our place.  The author of this hymn echoed my own feelings when he said, “I scarce can take it in.”  It’s relatively easy to say that Jesus died for our sins, but far harder to say that Jesus died for my sin.  “He bled and died to take away my sin.”  My sin!  Can there be anything more humbling than that, that God in Jesus died in my place to take away my sin?  What other response can I make than to cry “How great thou art?”

The hymn reminds us of our creator God; it reminds us of our saviour Jesus who died to take away our sin and in verse 4 we are reminded of the glorious future that awaits us, that death is not the end but the beginning of our eternal life.  We join the ascended and triumphant Christ in heaven.  “When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.”  We are just temporary residents of planet earth, as Christians our true home is in heaven and what a joy it will be when we arrive there.  When we see and understand God without the limitations of our human existence we will proclaim, with complete understanding, ‘How great thou art!”

I believe in a God who created this immense, complex and wonderful universe.  I believe that same God sent his only Son to die for me and sinners like me to take away our sin.  I believe I will one day be in heaven where I will be able to praise God in a way I cannot do now because my understanding of God will be infinitely greater, I will be able to sing with complete understanding, “My God, how great thou art!”