“Singing the Faith: How Great Thou Art”
Psalm 145:3-6

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost—October 16, 2016

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

This fall we are having sermon series on “Signing the Faith,” looking at the background and meaning of some favorite hymns. 

Our current hymnal Lutheran Service Book contains over 600 hymns.  While that seems like quite a lot, it is staggering to think that those have been selected out of over 1 MILLION Christian hymns it is estimated have been written. 

Surveys have been taken of people’s favorite hymns, and this morning we are considering #1 favorite hymn in America, in the world, and perhaps of all time.  Which is really extraordinary, because this hymn has only been around about 100 years: “How Great Thou Art.”  You are invited to follow along the sermon outline on the last pages of the bulletin.

This original version of this beloved hymn was written in 1885 as a poem by Swedish preacher Carl Boberg and published in a local newspaper.  Several years later Boberg was visiting another part of Sweden and was surprised to hear his poem being sung to an old Swedish tune, the same tune we still use today.  Boberg published the text and tune together and the first English translation soon followed, as well as German and Russian versions. 

But, the hymn as we know it was really made popular by Stuart Hine, a Briton who served as a missionary in eastern Europe in the 1920’s and 30’s, and first learned the hymn there in Russian.  From the Russian version he made a new English translation that is really a whole new hymn.  He wrote the first two verses while living and working high in the mountains of Romania, the first verse after being caught in a fierce storm:

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder

Consider all the works Thy hand hath made,

I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,

Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

The opening verses of this hymn allude to what Christian theology calls the Natural Knowledge of God.  This is the teaching of Scripture that all humans have an innate natural knowledge that there is a God. 

We know there is a God from the natural world itself.  As Psalm 19 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”  Paul explains in Romans, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.” 

Today this is called “Intelligent Design,” recognition of the fact that some aspects of the natural world could not have developed randomly by chance but must have had a Designer.  A member of my congregation in Lawrence, Kansas is a professor at the University of Kansas and one of the world’s leading researchers in genetics, and he told me, “Pastor, I work with the human body every day, and there is no way this happened by accident.  In fact, what I am trying to do in my research is reverse engineer and use to our advantage the design that IS there.  The proof of divine creation is right here in our own bodies.  I see it every day.” 

David said same thing 3,000 years ago in Psalm 139, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  Hebrews puts it this way, “For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.” 

When through the woods and forest glades I wander,

I 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!

But, we can’t stop with the Natural Knowledge of God; we can’t stop with just the first two verses of “How Great Thou Art.”  For, the Natural Knowledge of God only tells us that there is a God.  It does not tell us WHO that God is, or how to come into a relationship with him.  It is impossible to please God, or worship the true God, or be saved, on the basis of the Natural Knowledge of God alone. 

Only the Revealed Knowledge of God in Christ, in the Holy Scriptures, can bring you into a saving relationship with God.  As Jesus declares, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Paul puts it this way in today’s Epistle Reading: “The Holy Scriptures . . . are able to make you wise for salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.”

So, in the third verse of “How Great Thou Art” we move from the Natural Knowledge of God to the Revealed Knowledge of God in Christ.  Stuart Hine said he wrote this third verse based upon his mission work in very remote mountain areas.  He encountered many people who were hearing the story of Christ’s crucifixion for the FIRST time.  They would often cry out and sob in overwhelmed amazement at the Good News that God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all.

But when I think that God, His Son not sparing,

Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in.

This Good News of Christ’s sacrifice for your salvation is what the Christian faith is really all about.  Paul puts it this way in 2nd Corinthians, “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. . .  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

The Good News is, YOU are reconciled to God.  On account of Christ’s sacrifice, YOUR sins are not counted against you.  In Christ, YOU are righteous in God’s sight.

But 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!

Because of World War II, Stuart Hine had to return to Britain from his decades of mission work in eastern Europe.  During and after the war Britain was crowded with refugees whose languages he spoke and so he ministered to them.  He wrote the fourth verse of “How Great Thou Art” in response to the QUESTION these refugees from other lands would always ask, “When are we going HOME?

Like those weary refugees with whom Stuart Hine worked, anxious to go home, Peter says that all Christians are “strangers and exiles in the world.”  Hebrews says that we are “strangers and foreigners on earth. . .  longing for a better country—a heavenly one.”  “For our citizenship is in heaven,” Paul says in Philippians, “and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”  “In my Father’s house are many rooms,” Jesus promises, “I am going there to prepare a place for you. . .  I will come again and take you to be with me so where I am you also may be.”

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!

Stuart Hine had these four familiar verses of his hymn printed in pamphlets to give to the refugees with whom he worked.  After World War II those refugees were relocated all over the world and his hymn went with them.  Soon it was included in every hymnal and quickly became the most popular hymn ever.  Sometimes people wonder why this hymn wasn’t included in The Lutheran Hymnal of 1941 that many of us grew up with, but the answer is very simple: the entire hymn wasn’t even written yet in 1941, and in America it was totally unknown, so it couldn’t have been included.

Stuart Hine himself went to his heavenly home in 1989.  In 1958 he added another, beautiful verse to this favorite hymn, printed in today’s bulletin, but which has never been included in any hymnal. 

When burdens press, and seem beyond endurance,

Bowed down with grief, to Him I lift my face;

And then in love He brings me sweet assurance:

“My child!  For thee sufficient is My grace.”

There is a widespread misunderstanding, even among many Christians, that being a Christian is like having a permanent “Get Out of Trouble Free” card, that all your troubles and pains and suffering will go away.  But, Paul says, “We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. . .  In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”  Jesus put it this way at the Last Supper, “In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”

As far as this world is concerned, being a Christian does NOT mean you have a “Get Out of Trouble Free Card.”  In some cases being a Christian may actually mean that you have MORE troubles, as Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

“In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”  Being a Christian does NOT mean that in THIS world your troubles will end, but it DOES mean that all your troubles WILL one day come to an end in heaven.  “But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”  “You will be with me in paradise,” Jesus promises.  “And God will wipe every tear from their eyes,” Revelation says, “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.”

Hebrews says, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”  In the midst of your troubles and pains and suffering in this world, you have comfort in the hope of eternal life, like an anchor for your soul amidst the storms of life.  Peter puts it this way: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”

When burdens press, and seem beyond endurance,

Bowed down with grief, to Him I lift my face;

And then in love He brings me sweet assurance:

“My child!  For thee sufficient is My grace.”

Psalm 145 says, “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.  One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts.  They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works.”  In the hymn “How Great Thou Art” we meditate, as the psalm says, on the wonderful works of the Lord.  Verses 1 and 2 describe his wonderful works of CREATION; verse 3 his wonderful work of REDEMPTION in Christ; and verses 4 and 5 his wonderful work of ETERNAL SALVATION. 

Amen.