[Biblemat] hymn study, "How Great Thou Art"

[Wayne S Walker]

Wayne Walker here with another weekly hymn study.
 
"HOW GREAT THOU ART"
"O Lord, how great are Thy works!" (Ps. 92.5)
 
     INTRO.:  One of the best-known and most-loved hymns praising God for
His greatness is "How Great Thou Art" (#5 in Hymns for Worship Revised
and #1-a in Sacred Selections for the Church).  The text is based on a
hymn written in Swedish by Carl Gustaf Boberg, who was born on Aug. 16,
1859, at Monsteras in Smaland, Sweden.  His father was a shipyard
carpenter.  After working as a sailor for a few years, Carl attended a
craft school at Nybro and taught crafts in his hometown.  Later, at age
nineteen, he began preaching and, following two years at a Bible school
in Kristinehamm, became a preacher in his hometown.  One summer evening
in 1885, Boberg was returning from a meeting at a beautiful country
estate near Kronoback on the southeast coast of Sweden.  An afternoon
thunderstorm had formed a rainbow over the calm waters of the Monsteras
inlet which were as clear as glass.  While walking through the hills and
woods in the rain, the 25 year old minister was struck with the beauty of
nature, the sweet songs of birds in nearby trees, and the sound of church
bells pealing in the still air, and the result was a nine-stanza poem
which he penned and had included in the Mar. 13, 1886, edition of the
Monsteras Tidningen. The hymn was then sold to the Swedish Missionary
Society and was copied in several other periodicals.  However, Boberg
forgot about it until a few years later when he was attending a meeting
in the province of Varmland and heard the congregation singing his words
to the old Swedish folk melody to which it is now attached.  
 
     Since Boberg was editor of the weekly Sanningsvittnet from 1890 to
1916, he printed the song there in 1891, for the first time with the tune
(O Store Gud), of unknown origin, as arranged by Erik Adolf Edgren. 
Boberg went on to publish several collections of poems, as well as two
hymnbooks for the Swedish Covenant Church, and served in the Swedish
parliament from 1912 to 1931.  He died on Jan. 7, 1904, at Kalmar,
Sweden.  However, even before his death, his hymn was being translated
into a number of different languages.  In 1907 a German translation, "Wie
gross bist Du," was made from the original Swedish by Manfred von Glehn,
a resident of Estonia, and quickly spread throughout Germany.  Five years
later, in 1912, Ivan S. Prokhanoff, translated the hymn into Russian from
Glehn's German version and published in in St. Petersburg, Russia.  It
was included in a 1927 Russian hymnbook, and that same year this
arrangement was heard by an English Methodist missionary to the Ukraine,
Stuart Wesley Keene Hine (1899-1989).  Around 1933, while working in a
Carpathian mountain village in what was then Czechoslovakia, Hine made a
loose translation of the first stanza into English during a thunderstorm.
 During the 1930's, he added the second and third stanzas, but there is
disagreement as to how much relation they bear to the original.  Some
sources say that Hine translated stanza 2 and provided his own stanza 3,
while others say that he translated stanzas 2 and 3, and still others say
that stanzas 2 and 3 were both not so much a translation as his own
creation.  
 
     It is generally believed that stanza 2 may be a kind of paraphrase
of other portions of Boberg's poem made while Hine was riding a train
through eastern Europe.  However, Boberg's poem was primarily a nature
hymn without reference to Christ's death and second coming.  I have seen
the rather literal translation of the whole hymn by E. Gustav Johnson,
beginning "O mighty God, when I behold the wonder," but am unable to
locate it anywhere now.  Therefore, it is thought that Hine produced
stanza 3 himself, perhaps while visiting a home in Carpathia where he was
teaching a family from the Bible about Christ's sacrifice.  After the
outbreak of World War II in 1939, Hine returned to England where he
finished the hymn with the fourth stanza in 1948, and published the
entire song the following year, with his own harmonization of the melody,
in the magazine Grace and Peace and allowed it to be printed in leaflets
which were taken by missionaries to colonial areas of Africa and India. 
The man who is said to be responsible for bringing it to America is J.
Edwin Orr, who had heard it sung in Deolati, India, by a choir of Naga
tribesmen from Assam.  In 1953, with a few minor changes, it was
copyrighted by Gospel Light Publications and published in broadsides.  It
was brought to the attention of George Beverly Shea, song director for
the Billy Graham Crusades, and he sang it over 100 times during campaigns
in Toronto, Canada, London, England, and New York City, NY,  thus making
it very popular.  Manna Music of Pacific City, OR, now owns the
copyright.  
 
     Among hymnbooks published by members of the Lord's church, the song
appeared with an arrangement of the tune by R. J. Hughes on the front
flyleaf of the 1963 Christian Hymnal edited by J. Nelson Slater.  Since
at one time Manna Music was rather tight about granting permission to use
the song, several of our books have had other "versions."   A hymn titled
"How Wonderful, O Lord" by M. Homer Cummings, which does not claim to be
a translation but whose chorus reads, "O hallelujah, praise Thy matchless
name! How great art Thou," was used in the 1965 Great Christian Hymnal
No. 2 edited by Tillit S. Teddlie.  A song titled "O Mighty God"
(remember Johnson's literal translation) and beginning, "O Lord our God,"
said to be taken from the Psalms by Vana R. Raye, penname of L. O.
Sanderson, was contained in the 1966 Christian Hymns No. 3 edited by
Sanderson.  "Great Is Our God," taken from the Psalms by Alton H. Howard,
is used on the front flyleaf of the 1971 Songs of the Church edited by
Howard.  And an arrangement of "O Mighty God, When I Behold the Wonder"
by John Peterson is contained in the 1977 Special Sacred Selections
edited by Ellis J. Crum.  Hine's hymn is found in the 1975 Supplement to
the 1937 Great Songs of the Church No. 2 originally edited by E. L.
Jorgenson; the 1983 edition of the 1978 (Church) Gospel Songs and Hymns
edited by V. E. Howard; the 1986 Great Songs Revised edited by Forrest M.
McCann; the 1990 Songs of the Church 21st C. Ed. and the 1994 Songs of
Faith and Praise both edited by Alton H. Howard; and the 1992 Praise for
the Lord edited by John P. Wiegand; in addition to Hymns for Worship and
Sacred Selections.
 
     The hymn expresses several reasons why God is so great.
 
I. Stanza 1 tells us that God is great because of His omnipotent power in
creation
"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."
A. Hine's original read, "all the works Thy hands have made," and indeed
all the wondrous works that God has  done are great: Ps. 86.10
B. Hine's original also read, "I hear the mighty thunder," which occurs
in the heavens above the earth, both of which were created by God: Gen.
1.1
C. Therefore, to every honest observer, the natural universe does indeed
"declare the glory of God": Ps. 19.1
 
II. Stanza 2 tells us that God is great because of His glory seen in the
beauty of the earth
"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."
A. God created both the trees of the forest and the birds which sing in
them: Gen. 1.11, 21
B. God also brought forth the mountains with their lofty grandeur: Ps.
90.1-2
C. Not only does the whole universe display God's power, but the earth
also is His and is evidence of His goodness: Ps. 24.1
 
III. Stanza 3 tells us that God is great because of His love for us shown
in Christ
"And when I think that od, 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."
A. The same God who created the heavens and the earth loved each one of
us enough to send His only begotten Son: Jn. 3.16
B. The purpose of Christ's coming to earth was to die for us on the
cross: Rom. 5.8
C. God's aim in sending Christ to die for us was to make it possible for
us to have forgiveness of sins: Eph. 1.7
 
IV. Stanza 4 tells us that God is great because of the hope that He gives
to us
"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!'"
A. Someday Christ shall come with shout of acclamation, as promised by
the angels: Acts 1.11
B. When He comes, He will take His people home to be with Him: 1 Thess.
4.16-17
C. Then, like the hosts of heaven, we shall bow in humble adoration and
praise our great God forever and ever: Rev. 4.8-11
 
     CONCL.:  As the chorus so majestically proclaims:
"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!"
In a 1974 poll, this song was rated the number 1 hymn in America.  And it
is no wonder.  When Mary was told what God would do through her, her soul
was moved to magnify the Lord (Lk. 1.46).  And when we consider all that
God has done for us, our souls are likewise moved to sing, "How Great
Thou Art!"
 
     Brotherly,
Wayne S. Walker
9024 Amona Dr.
Affton, MO  63123
home phone: (314) 638-4710
office phone: (314) 544-1612
e-mail: wswalker310 at juno.com
website: www.defenderoftruth.com
     Notes: Other hymn studies are available at the Defender of Truth
website.  Also, some of my previous hymn studies are now included in book
that I have written entitled Songs of Zion.  It can be ordered from the
publisher by calling 1-800-423-2484 or going to www.faith-facts.com.  And
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     P.S.  Those of you on the Hymn of the Day list may have received two
postings of "At the Cross" yesterday.  I posted it, or at least I thought
that I did, in the morning, but I checked several times during the day
and it hadn't come through, so I thought that maybe I had forgotten, so I
posted it again yesterday evening.  Right after I posted it the second
time, I received a message from Yahoogroups that they were experiencing
delays in posting messages.