How Great Thou Art Series

How Great Thou Art is a top scared hymn of praise among God’s people

The English translation was written by Stuart K. Hine along with the music arrangement

The text was based on the Bible verse Psalm 145:3 “Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom”

I like how the Contemporary English Version says it

Psalms 145:3. You are wonderful, LORD, and you deserve all praise, because you are much greater than anyone can understand.

The original Swedish text was a poem entitled “O Store Gud”, written in 1886 by a Swedish preacher Carl Boberg.

Boberg’s inspiration for “How Great Thou Art” came from a visit to a beautiful country estate on the southeast coast of Sweden

He got caught up in a midday thunderstorm with awe-inspiring moments of flashing violence, followed by a clear brilliant sun

Soon afterwards he heard the calm, sweet songs of the birds in nearby trees.

The experience prompted Boberg to “fall on his knees in humble adoration of his mighty God”

The English translator Stuart Hine with his wife, was a missionary in Poland and Czechoslovakia

The thought of writing the original English lyrics came while crossing into the Carpathian Mountains of Russia in the 1930’s

Where the scenery greatly played its part.

One day the couple was caught in a violent storm

The thoughts of the first three verses in English were conceived

The forth verse was penned after World War II

This morning we will be looking at how each of these verses touch our lives indifferent ways

How they portray the Scriptures and how this great song of praise truly does that

Praise the name of our Lord

I. His Power and Might

“awesome wonder”

“all the works Thy hands have made”

“the stars…mighty thunder”

“Thy power throughout the universe displayed”

You ever wondered about some of the works His hand have made?

Ever seen a picture of a platypus?

Strand creature these things are

They live on the east coast of Australia

The bizarre appearance of this mammal baffled European naturalists when they first encountered it, with some considering it an elaborate fraud

First off it is a mammal – that lays eggs

It has a beaver like tail, a bill that looks like a duck

Its feet are like an otter, webbed for swimming

And it is venomous

It is one of the few venomous mammals

The male platypus has a spur on the hind foot that delivers a venom capable of causing severe pain to humans

It is indeed an amazing creature

I think these are proof of God having a sense of humor

They are funny looking

And indeed part of the mighty works He has made

How about a cheetah?

The smallest of the big cats, it has amazing speed and stealth, while lacking climbing skills

It is the fastest land animal reaching speeds between 70 and 75 mph in short bursts covering distances up to 500 yards.

The cheetah can accelerate from 0-68 mph in 3 seconds

Faster than most sports cars

That’s fast, and our God created the cheetah

One of my favorite animals is the elephant

These massive creatures are a sight to see

The largest elephant ever recorded was shot in Angola in 1956

This male weighed about 26,000 lb with a shoulder height of 13.8 ft

And these massive beasts are not dumb giants

With their large 11 lb brains they display a wide variety of behaviors

Including grief, making music, art, play, use of tools, compassion, and self-awareness

All evidence of a high intelligence level

These mammals are very interesting and again created by our God

All these animals and the thousands more are all part of the works Thy hands have made

This hymn also has us look to the stars

Have you ever tried to count the stars?

It’s impossible, you cannot do it.

Look into the sky on a clear night, out of the glare of streetlights, and you will see a few thousand individual stars with your naked eyes.

With even a modest amateur telescope, millions more will come into view.

Astronomers estimate there are about 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way alone.

Outside that, there are millions upon millions of other galaxies also!

Genesis 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

Oh yeah, and He made the stars

Seems like an afterthought like it was no big deal

No big deal to God

But what a feat it was to create the billions of stars in the universe

These past few weeks we have experienced some amazing rainfall

And these rains have been accompanied by thunder and lightning