Beside Still Waters Ministries

This hymn was written as a poem in 1886 by a young Swedish pastor, Carl Boberg, who was caught in a sudden thunderstorm while visiting a beautiful country estate.  After the storm passed, the air was filled with the sweet songs of birds and the green countryside glistened in sunlight, and he was inspired to write the nine original stanzas (verses) of this hymn and it came to be sung to a Swedish Folk melody.

Later it was translated into German and Russian, and in the 1920’s Reverend Stuart K. Hine, a British missionary to the Ukraine, learned it in Russian and sang it in his ministry there.  He translated three stanzas into English, which was sung at an evangelistic meeting in England during World War 1.  Later he wrote the fourth stanza, and published it in Russian and English in a Russian evangelistic paper he wrote and distributed to Russian emigrants in North and South America.  George Beverly Shea sang it at many Billy Graham Crusades, which is part of why it is so well-known and loved today.

There is a story about the inspiration of the fourth stanza which Rev. Hines wrote, though the validity of the story is questionable.  He was visiting a home in the Carpathian Mountains near the Polish border when he found a Christian by the name of Dimitri and his wife.  Almost by chance, a Bible had fallen into their hands, but no one in the village, save Dimitri’s wife, had learned to read, and she only with the greatest of effort.  As she slowly spelled out the wonderful words of John 3:16 to the wondering villagers, tears began to flow, and one by one they dropped to their knees, crying aloud to God.  Twelve of these villagers had been truly converted, and it was these believing disciples that Rev. Hines met when he called at the cottage in the mountains that day.  He arrived just in time to hear them crying out in amazement again at the revelation of God’s love at Calvary.  He was so inspired that he wrote this fourth stanza:

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

And can you not help to go ahead and sing the chorus?

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!
© 1941 Manna Music

And for those of you like me that have a hard time with the King James – type lingo, “How great You are!  How great You are!”  If there is anytime that you come upon a hymn you have trouble understanding because of the language used, you might want to write it out using more contemporary language (and look up the words you don’t know the meaning to in a dictionary) for your devotional time and see if that helps.  If you don’t have a hymnal at home, just about all well-known (and a bunch of not-so-well-known!) hymn texts can be found at www.cyberhymnal.org.  Understanding what words you are singing will add such tremendous depth and meaning to your worship, and I believe that it will also open new doors to a deeper relationship with God.

Soli Deo Gloria (To God only be glory)