The well-known and beloved-by-many words of “How Great Thou Art” have had a protracted and varied trajectory from Swedish poem to German hymn to a practice at Billy Graham crusades.
In celebration of the seventy fifth anniversary of the hymn’s popular English translation, Grammy-winning Christian singer-songwriter Matt Redman has teamed up with 15 other artists and released a new edition, continuing the hymn’s transatlantic trek that has led it to be featured in countless hymnals and recorded on lots of of albums.
“Someone wrote something out of the depths of their heart toward God after which it got wings,” Redman said in a late February interview. “It’s just phenomenal to think — is not it? — that Elvis recorded this and he gave it some extra wings. And then Carrie Underwood’s version is one other version a number of people discuss.”
Redman first sang and played the hymn as a teenage guitar player in an Anglican church within the English village of Chorleywood because, he said, its chord structure was easier to administer than other hymns. Now, he has added to the complex history of the hymn after being approached by the British charity that owns the copyright for it, the Stuart Hine Trust.
Hine was a British missionary who published the English words in his gospel magazine in 1949. He was inspired by a Russian hymn — which was based on an original Swedish poem — when he was traveling lots of of miles via bicycle to distribute Bibles and preach through the Carpathian Mountains that traverse Eastern Europe.
Redman worked with Australian native Mitch Wong on the commission of “How Great Thou Art (Until That Day),” which contains a latest verse, a special beat and a probability to supply humanitarian aid to Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans within the midst of war.
“We decided we will have the word ‘war’ on this hymn,” said Redman, who noted that he thinks worship songs mustn’t be considered “escapist” means to momentarily leave behind the issues of the world.
“Now, that is not a traditional sort of hymn word. It’s not something people often would consider singing on a Sunday morning, but it surely felt like a very important word.”
The latest stanza of the hymn reads: “Until that day/When heaven bids us welcome/
And as we walk this broken warring world,/Your kingdom come,/ Deliver us from evil,/And we’ll proclaim our God how great You are!/With hope we’ll sing our God how great You are!”
The hymn has been played over 2.5 million times on digital streaming platforms within the month since its release on Jan. 26 by Capitol CMG Publishing and Integrity Music. Phil Loose, one in every of the trustees, said it is simply too soon to understand how much money the recording has raised.
The Stuart Hine Trust, which has supported Christian outreach and Bible translation, intends to make use of the proceeds from the writing, production and royalties of the recording to supply humanitarian aid and support rebuilding efforts in Eastern Europe.
Over its lifetime the hymn has faced moments of relative obscurity and waves of recognition. It dates to 1885 or 1886 when Swedish editor Carl Boberg got caught in a thunderstorm and wrote the primary version, then titled “O Store Gud” (or “O Mighty God”), after marveling on the calm that followed it. It was published in a newspaper, then set to music in his country. Though a few of its history is hazy, music professor C. Michael Hawn wrote that an English translation made it into some hymnals but “never caught on.”
In the early 1900s, the words were translated into German after which Russian, which Hine heard sung while within the Eastern European mountains. He paraphrased the primary two verses in English and was inspired to put in writing the third and fourth verses of “How Great Thou Art” over a 14-year period, in response to his trust’s website.
The website quotes him as writing that “the thoughts of the primary three verses of How Great Thou Art! were born, line by line, amid my unforgettable experiences in those mountains.” The fourth, which begins with the words “When Christ shall include shout of acclamation,” was written in 1948 to assuage the grief of Eastern Europeans after the top of World War II.
In the Nineteen Fifties, the hymn began to have what Redman called a “wildfire moment” when singer George Beverly Shea began using it on the “crusades” of evangelist Billy Graham — including one at New York’s Madison Square Garden that was broadcast on television and lasted 16 consecutive weeks.
Shea wrote in his 2004 book, “How Sweet the Sound: Amazing Stories and Grace-filled Reflections on Beloved Hymns and Gospel Songs,” about how he modified the lyrics “consider all of the works thy hands have made” to “consider all of the worlds thy hands have made” and modified “I hear the mighty thunder” to “I hear the rolling thunder.”
“I got a bang after I used to listen to Elvis Presley sing my two words,” he said in a Religion News Service interview concerning the rock-and-roll singer, who won his first Grammy for his 1967 rendition of the hymn and earned one other for his 1974 live version of it.
Brian Hehn, director of The Hymn Society’s Center for Congregational Song, said the hymn lends itself to each congregational singing and solo and duet voices, as in Redman’s and Wong’s new edition.
“I feel it does point to the final singability of the song,” he said. “And that is one in every of the explanation why it’s extremely popular, right? Because congregations can sing it. It feels good to sing.”
The hymn, which was popular within the society’s March Madness-type tournament in 2019, is sung each in churches that use contemporary Christian music and is featured in hymnals utilized in mainline Protestant, African American and Catholic churches.
Hehn notes that the new edition leaves out the second verse often present in hymnals and that the brand new verse moves more quickly to the hymn’s give attention to a belief within the atonement of Jesus.
“The latest stanza also acknowledges the stress between living within the ‘in between’ time where Christ’s victory over death has been accomplished and yet there continues to be death and sin because that final day when all tears are wiped away has not yet arrived,” Hehn added via email.
“With the nod towards that ‘in between’ time and the addition of the word ‘hope,’ they’ve transformed what was originally a song of praise appropriate for any season into what I read as an Advent hymn!” he wrote.
The latest version featured coast-to-coast logistics, with among the contemporary Christian and country artists recording their parts in California and others in Tennessee at Nashville’s RCA Studio B, where Presley once recorded it.
Worship leader Chris Tomlin and country band Lady A’s Hillary Scott sing the primary verse of the hymn, while Redman and producer Matt Maher sing the brand new last verse. Other sections include vocalists Naomi Raine of Maverick City Music, TAYA and Blessing Offor.
Jon Reddick, a worship pastor at Church of the City within the Nashville suburb of Franklin, was a part of the recording session in California. He said he enjoyed each the “synergy” of the artists coming together and the prospect to sing a song they knew but were also attending to learn in a latest way with the extra verse.
© Religion News Service
