Exegeting the Hymns #81 - How Great Thou Art

How Great Thou Art
w/m - Stuart K. Hine

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 pow'r thru’out the universe displayed

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

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

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

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

This is one of the most popular hymns in history. It was written, in its current form by Stuart Hine, a Methodist missionary who was greatly influenced by the “Prince of preachers”, Charles Spurgeon. 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 pow'r thru’out the universe displayed. The curse of spiritual blindness, that every man is born into, is never more clearly on display than when man looks at the beauty, creativity, and incredible detail of nature and comes to the conclusion that all of this happened by chance from nothing.  

Romans 1 says, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.” If not for the grace of God, we would all still be radically depraved and without excuse. Without excuse, because “The heavens declare the glory of God.”

Then sings my soul my Savior God to Thee, “How great Thou art, How great Thou art”. Once we are made alive, regenerated by God, we can truly see what we couldn’t see in our sin, and marvel at how great He is.

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…This verse continues the look at the amazing design and plan in nature, and concludes that it must take a great and powerful Creator to bring about such a stunning creation.

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. Now here is where the song takes an even more gripping turn. For all the power it took to create the universe, the most amazing miracle in our history is when God sent His Son to this created earth, to die for this created mankind. Speaking the world into existence was nothing compared to the grace shown when God poured out His wrath on His Son to save a created man.

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. This fourth verse was added to the song later, but brings the story full-circle. There is no mention of a resurrection in the song up to this point, and without it and it leaves the story with Christ in the tomb. Here we see Christ alive and coming on the clouds to gather His church and take them home to heaven. Our joy will be complete and everlasting when we are home, in our new bodies, standing before the throne singing, “How Great Thou Art!”

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