In 1885, Carl Boberg, a Swedish editor and future politician, was walking home in the bayside town of Mönsterås, located on Sweden’s south-eastern coast. A thunderhead appeared on the horizon. Lightning flashed. Thunderclaps shook the air, sending Boberg running for shelter.
When the storm began to relent, he rushed home. He opened his windows to let in the fresh bay air, and the vision of tranquility that greeted him stirred something deep in his soul. The sky had cleared. Thrushes sang, and in the distance, the resonant knell of church bells sounded. With the juxtaposition between the roaring thunderstorm and such bucolic calm as background, Boberg sat down and wrote “O Store Gud”-the poem that, through a winding series of events would become “How Great Thou Art.” In the first decade of the 20th century the song was translated into German. A handful of years later a Russian version appeared. The first English language version wouldn’t be penned until 1925. But this English iteration, translated by the Swedish-American E. Gustav Johnson, is a far cry from the song we know today. It took another quarter century, a British missionary, and a new translation before the song developed into its now recognizable form. In the early 1930s, Stuart K. Hine, an English missionary, first heard the Russian version of “O Store Gud” while in the Ukraine. For years he and his wife sang the song with locals before he finally sat down and translated it into English. Translation is of course more art than science, and Hine took some liberties, most particularly with the title, which in 1949 he rechristened “How Great Thou Art.””
- Behind The Song: Carl Boberg, “How Great Thou Art” (Jon Little)
Usually I post the typically oft sung lyrics. However for this I would like to post the translation of the original Swedish lyrics.
O mighty God, when I behold the wonder
Of nature's beauty, wrought by words of thine,
And how Thou leadest all from realms up yonder,
Sustaining earthly life with love benign,
Refrain:
With rapture filled, my soul Thy name would laud,
O mighty God! O mighty God!
With rapture filled, my soul Thy name would laud,
O mighty God! O mighty God!
When I behold the heavens in their vastness,
Where golden ships in azure issue forth,
Where sun and moon keep watch upon the fastness
Of changing seasons and of time on earth.
When crushed by guilt of sin before Thee kneeling,
I plead for mercy and for grace and peace,
I feel Thy balm and, all my bruises healing,
My soul is filled, my heart is set at ease.
And when at last the mists of time have vanished
And I in truth my faith confirmed shall see,
Upon the shores where earthly ills are banished
I'll enter Lord, to dwell in peace with Thee.
“How Great Thou Art”
Arr: Shane Sparks, 2016
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