How Great Thou Art

lyrics by carl boberg and stuart k. hine, traditional swedish melody

How Great Thou Art 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.

 

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!

 

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.

 

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!

 

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.

 

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!

 

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!"

 

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!

 

How Great Thou Art Guitar Chords

 

          G              C                                 

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder,

         G       D          C          G   

Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made;

          G                 C                 

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,

                 G       D  C        G

Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

D             G        C             G                    

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee,

G              D        D7         G 

How great Thou art, how great Thou art,

D             G        C             G                    

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee,

G              D    C   D          G

How great Thou art, how great Thou art,

 

 

Scripture References

  • Psalm 145:3 - Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.
  • Isaiah 45:18 - For this is what the Lord says- he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited - he says: "I am the Lord, and there is no other.

The Story

 

How Great Thou Art is a hymn that literally travelled the world before becoming the beloved hymn we sing today.

 

The hymn's story began In 1885 when Carl Boberg, a 26 year-old minister in Sweden wrote a poem called O Store Gud, translated in English to "O Mighty God". The poem didn't get much attention at first, but over time it began to be sung in assocation with an old Swedish folk melody.

 

An English missionary names Stuart Hine heard the poem being sung and arranged the words and the music to become the familiar ones we hear today. Hines explained how he arrivved at each of the four verses while living in the Carpathian mountains of Russia. The first verse, he said, was writen when he was caught in a thunderstorm in a village. The second verse was written near the Romanian border, when he heard birds singing. The third verse was written when he saw many of the Carpathian villagers and mountain people coming to accept Christ. And the fourth was written once he was home in England.

 

Again, the hymn didn't achieve widespread attention until Dr. J Edwin Orr (a reknowned Baptist minister who among other things penned the lyrics to "Search Me, O God") heard the hymn sung in India. He brought to back to the United States. It finally achieved widespread popularity when George Beverly Shea (famed singer and author of "I'd Rather Have Jesus") sung it at a Billy Graham crusade.

 

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