December 30 Devotion

Psalm 150

There are so many ways we can praise our God. I don’t play an instrument (I can barely read notes). But I do love to sing – especially hymns that I’ve grown up with and sung at home, church, the car, wherever and whenever I can.

I will praise the Lord all my life,
I will sing praises to my God as long as I live.
Psalm 146:2

I have a book called “Then Sings My Soul” by Robert J. Morgan. It contains 150 of the world’s greatest hymn stories. I enjoy reading it and would like to share this story:

How Great Thou Art
Written by Carl Boberg

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

Carl Boberg, a 26-year-old Swedish minister, wrote a poem in 1885 which he called “O Store Gud’ – “O Mighty God.” The words, literally translated to English, said:

When I the world consider
Which Thou has made by Thine almighty Word
And how the webb of life Thou wisdom guideth
And all creation feedeth at Thy board.

Then doth my soul burst forth in song of praise
Oh, great God, Oh, great God!

His poem was published and “forgotten” – or so he thought. Several years later, Carl was surprised to hear it being sung to the tune of an old Swedish melody; but the poem and hymn did not achieve widespread fame.

Hearing this hymn in Russia , English missionary, Stuart Hine, was so moved he modified and expanded the words and made his own arrangement of the Swedish melody. He later said his first three verses were inspired, line upon, line by Russia ’s rugged Carpathian Mountains . The first verse was composed when he was caught in a thunderstorm in a Carpathian village, the second as he heard the birds sing near the Romanian border, and the third as he witnessed many of the Carpathian mountain-dwellers coming to Christ. The final verse was written after Dr. Hine returned to Great Britain .

Some time later, Dr. J. Edwin Orr heard “How Great Thou Art’ being sung by Naga Tribespeople in Assam , in India , and decided to bring it back to America for use in his own meetings. When he introduced it at a conference in California , it came to the attention of a music publisher, Tim Spencer, who contacted Mr. Hine and had the song copyrighted. It was published and recorded.

During the 1954 Billy Graham Crusade in Harringay Arena, George Beverly Shea was given a leaflet containing this hymn. He sang it to himself and shared with the other members of the Graham team. Though not used in London , it was introduced the following year to audiences in Toronto.

In the New York Crusade of 1957, it was sung by Bev Shea ninety-nine times, with the choir joining the majestic refrain:

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee,
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

Trudy Hilty
Pam Gruber’s sister