Forrest - "How Great Thou Art" (Sam Enriquez, bass-baritone)

SOLO "How Great Thou Art"
(music by Stuart K. Hine, 1949; arr. By Dan Forrest, 2015)
Sam Enriquez, bass-baritone; Dale Morehouse, piano
St. John's Methodist - Kansas City, MO
September 24, 2023
It is a rather miraculous route that delivered this hymn that you probably deeply love. First of all, it’s a Brit’s added verses to his English translation of a Russian translation of a German song based on a Swede’s poem written after he was caught in a thunderstorm. And then, the copyright holder refused to let publishers of hymnbooks disseminate this hymn and its tune for decades. But it got to us somehow, didn’t it? God moves in a mysterious way.
Stuart K. Hine was a British Methodist missionary on a mission trip in Ukraine in 1931 when he heard the Russian translation of a German song inspired by Carl Boberg's poem "O Store Gud" (O Great God) and Psalm 8. Hine began to translate the song to English and added several verses. The third verse was inspired by the conversion of villagers in Russia who cried out to God loudly as they repented and realized God's love and mercy - "And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in."
Hine and his family left Ukraine as famine and World War Two began, and settled in Somerset, Britain, where he continued to serve as a missionary to Polish refugees. The fourth verse was inspired by displaced Russians who experienced great loss and looked forward to seeing their loved ones again in heaven - "When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation to take me home, what joy shall fill my heart."
The final English version of "How Great Thou Art" was published in 1949 and quickly spread among Britain, Africa, India, and America. The hymn was popularized by George Beverly Shea and Cliff Burrows during Billy Graham’s crusades, and it was ranked second (after Amazing Grace) on a list of the favorite hymns of all time in a survey by Christianity Today magazine in 2001 and in a nationwide poll by Songs of Praise in 2019.
O Lord my God! How great Thou art!
Oh 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 power throughout the universe displayed.
REFRAIN: Then sings my soul, my savior God to Thee, 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 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 how great Thou art!
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
To 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! REFRAIN
(words by Carl Boberg, 1885, and Stuart K. Hine, 1949)