Hymn of the Week, A Lenten Devotional: February 27, 2023
How Great Thou Art (O Lord My God)
Glory to God: 625
Text Stuart K. Hine 1953
Music Swedish Folk Melody: adapt, Stuart K. Hine 1949
Today’s Hymn of the Week will be in two parts. Next week will feature a different devotion on the final verse.
O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder
consider all the works thy hands hath made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
thy pow'r throughout 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;
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!
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 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 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!"
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!
Hymn Texts: A Lenten Devotional
The next several week’s devotions come to us from a book that takes us on a Lenten journey, using hymns of our faith. Each day of Lent is represented with a beloved hymn in the book. I will be sharing music and approximately 6 of the many devotionals available in the book.
The devotion has been reprinted with permission of the author, James C. Howell, from his book entitled: Unrevealed Until Its Season: a Lenten Journey with Hymns. Published by Upper Room Books 2021. The book can be found here: The Upper Room
How Great Thou Art
When I was a boy, my mother tuned in to the Billy Graham crusades on television. I don’t recall much of what Graham said, but I was always struck and moved (as much as a little kid can be “moved”) by George Beverly Shea singing “How Great Thou Art.” It’s a hymn, reminding us just how great God is.
We often underestimate God’s grandeur. We whittle God down to size, to an assistant, a power boost, a doctor’s helper, or a rescuer in times of trial. God is not small, utilizable, or dispensable; God is not a helpful extra. Idolatry is when we shrink God down to a tool or a machine, a badge to stick on our political ideology, or a hideout from challenges of the world.
We will never exaggerate when we speak of God’s amazing greatness. Our most spectacular, eloquent words, songs, and actions will be embarrassingly modest, falling far short of how great God is. When I think of this hymn and of God’s greatness, I recall the times I’ve heard it sung in faraway places and in different languages. Once, with a group of pilgrims at the Jordan River, we peered across the place where Jesus may well have been baptized and admired a group of Korean Christians singing the stirring rendition of “How Great Thou Art.” They’d come from the other side of the globe to the place where Jesus showed us how great God really is, and there they were, singing enthusiastically. We echoed their rendition, singing back in English. God’s greatness echoed for just a marvelous moment.
God is so great, encompassing all people, everywhere and always, that we are summoned by that greatness not to settle back into our easy chair. If God is great, then we are set free to be courageous for God. We are required to be bold for God. We cannot help but labor for those God cares about – if this God really is as great as we sing.
Heavenward
The hymn literally directs our attention heavenward. “I see the stars.” Of course, pollution and urban ambient light make it so we can’t see as many stars as our grandparents, St. Francis, or Jesus did. Aristotle believed stars left a trail of music as they travelled through the heavens. Dante spoke of God as “the love that moves the stars.” Indeed, God “determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names” (Ps. 147:4).
Years ago, my friend Ralph called me late one night asking me to bring my children to his house quickly. He had a big telescope set up in the driveway, and we all squinted into it and saw the moons orbiting Saturn. Ralph always knew what would appear and when. This predictability and awe-inspiring order and grandeur made him feel, as he repeatedly told me, “At home in the universe.”
Those stars seem so gentle adorning the night sky. We forget they are massive fireballs; if you were to get within a few thousand miles you’d be incinerated. Nature is like that: loveliness and terror, beauty and peril. “I hear the rolling thunder.” We see a lightning flash. The sound rumbles in a few seconds later. I count in my head, calculating how far away the electrical arc actually is. Ancient people cowered in fear of their gods, imagining them tossing down thunderbolts of wrath. Israel’s God wasn’t moody like that. And yet the world has built-in risks. Thunder, stars, just being alive; it’s dangerous out there. Something in the edgy precariousness of it all elicits even greater praise in our hearts.
This hymn recognizes that God’s greatness is embodied in Christ – who sacrificed everything – even his own life – to liberate us from sin and death. And he’s not done; he’s not a figure in the religious past. “When Christ shall come . . .and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.” This thrills me every time we sing it.
And what will heaven be like? Will it just mean having fun with people we like? Hardly. It will be something far grander: “Then I shall bow in humble adoration, and there proclaim, my God, how great thou art!” We will need an eternity to try to tell God how awed we are, how grateful we are, how humbled and ennobled we are to be God’s people, and to delight in the gift of dwelling – forever! – in God’s presence.
Sources
Raymond Barfield, Wager: Beauty, Suffering, and Being in the World (Eugene, OR: Casace Books, 2017). 1.
