Did you know that How Great Thou Art is a Swedish hymn? It started out as a poem written by 26-year-old Swedish minister, Carl Boberg. The original title was
“O Store Gud” or “O Mighty God”.
His poem was published and forgotten until several years later Carl heard his poem being sung to the tune of a Swedish melody. The hymn became widespread during the Billy Graham Crusade in the 1950s. In the 1957 New York Crusade, it was sung by George Beverly Shea Ninety-Nine times! We will only sing it once this Sunday☺.

How Great Thou Art speaks of His great creation. Then we focus on the fact that this Great God sent His Son to die for you and me. I love the phrase, “I scarce can take it in”. That phrase simply means that I cannot fathom what He was willing to do for me. The fourth verse of this great hymn takes us to our first face-to-face meeting with Christ. “Then I shall bow in humble adoration. And there proclaim, “My God, how great Thou art!”

Then we will continue worshipping in song with “He Is Lord and Because We Believe”. Then we will transition into a modern hymn, “There Is a Redeemer”, written by Melody Green, wife of singer songwriter Keith Green who died in a plane crash in the early 80s. Melody Writes:

There is a redeemer, Jesus God’s own son. Precious Lamb of God, Messiah Holy One. Thank you, oh, my Father, for giving us Your Son. And leaving your Spirit til the work on earth is done.

We will sing another great hymn, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, by Isaac Watts with a chorus called Wonderful Cross.

Finally we will sing a song written by a friend of mine, Eugene Gregory, 1965-2009. The song is called Higher. It was Eugene’s prayer that he would draw closer to God. Eugene wrote: “I want to go higher. Take me deeper. I want to go farther. In Your presence Lord. Here’s my life, mold me, change me, make me more like You.”

If you will pray that same prayer this week I believe it will have an impact on how you worship Him on Sunday.