By Barnabas Piper
Does your soul ever sing? That phrase sounds a bit odd. We sing in the car when a favorite tune comes on. We sing the national anthem at sporting events. We sing in church (sometimes). We say that good news is music to our ears and the sound of bacon frying is sweet music too. But do our souls sing?
That’s the refrain of “How Great Thou Art”— “Then sings my soul…”
But what does that mean?
My guess is that each of us knows what it means even if it is not the phrase we’ve used. Maybe we’ve never put words to the experience of the soaring, lifting, and filling of the soul—to the passion and joy that sometimes wells up in us— or maybe we can’t put words to it. But each verse of this hymn paints a picture of those things that might make a soul sing.
Verse one looks at the cosmos, the whole universe. It sees the power and bigness and majesty of God’s creation expanding beyond our sight, bigger than our comprehension. I think about lying in a canoe at night in the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota, staring at a sky so full of stars that it’s nearly as bright as the dawn. That makes my soul sing.
Verse two focuses in on the tangible creation—the sounds of birds and beautiful mountain views. I think of climbing House Mountain in East Tennessee, scrambling over boulders and pulling myself up on saplings and over fallen trees so that I could step onto a rocky outcrop and see the view of the valley below. The breeze cooled me and the quiet was so still that I could hear my soul sing then too.
While those verses offer hints of what it is that fills our soul, verses 3 and 4 dive deep into what the song of our souls really is. Yes, God created a majestic beautiful world that makes us feel and yearn, but we don’t find fullness in that. He did something more. He sent His Son to take our sins from us, to suffer and die on our behalf, to bear the burden we could not bear. Indeed, “I scarce can take it in.”
But that is not all.
The final glorious stanza of the hymn reveals the final glorious stanza of God’s mission – Christ shall come and will be greeted with shouts of praise. We will “bow in humble adoration” because His glory will be so great. Wrongs will be made right. Sin and pain will be abolished. There is only one response to this: “My God, how great Thou Art!”
What makes your soul sing? Don’t stop at the song of nature, no matter how beautiful it is. Find the truest soul song there is in the work Jesus Christ has done for you.
Written by Barnabas Piper
How Great Thou Art
Carl Gustav Boberg, 1885; Stuart K. Hine, c. 1920
O 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! How great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee:
How great thou art! 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:
Refrain
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.
Refrain
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!
For an added layer of worship during reading plan, we’ve created a Spotify playlist for Hymns. You can find the complete HRT Hymns Playlist here, or listen to the first track on the player below. Enjoy!
87 thoughts on "How Great Thou Art"
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Tom Macias says:
He’s so big and incredible, my mind can’t even begin to comprehend his massiveness. It shows me that he is so much more powerful, intelligent, and in control beyond what I can understand. He is a big God who cares for little me. He loves me and made this universe for us to enjoy. What a loving father.
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I will be thankful for every detail of my world. God has given us so much and it’s easy to fee the need or want for more. I will be content in what he has given me. I will find security in his relationship with me. I will trust that the all powerful God knows what is best for me and wants that.
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Nick S says:
God created a beautiful and majestic world that makes us feel and yearn but he did not create this awesome world for us to find fullness in it but only in himself.
God is so great!
God is trust worthy. The Lord is the maker of heaven and earth. He is my helper. He is my refuge. He is my comfort. He is sovereign. He watches over me. He cares for me in distress.
God is greater than I Can even imagine. He is good. He is righteous. His works are awesome. He is Glorious.
He will come back. Ready for war. He will rescue his people
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When man fixes his eyes on the Lord he is overcome with joy and wonder, praise comes from his mouth and from his heart. When man sees the beauty of God he cannot help but respond in worship.
Man is needy of God and can find ultimate satisfaction and fullness in him.
We belong to Christ.
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God is our savior, our refuge, our help. Jesus died so we might have life in him, realize his greatness, be raised on the last day, worship him forever more.
He will take away our sin and our pain. The glory of God is clearly displayed.
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I will respond by praising my God! He is so great! He is faithful to me, he never leaves my side! His love for me remains at all times. He is not far from me, he is actually very close.
I want to experience the goodness and glory of God. I want to feel his presence. I want to be filled up by him. I want to praise him. He is a mighty God!
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God,
I surrender to you today. I want to taste your goodness. I want to be still & know that you are God. You are my helper, my deliverer, my rescue, my comfort, my defender, my goodness, my righteousness, my glory, my satisfaction.
God make me a man who loves you. Take away this apathy in my heart. Take away my laziness. Take away my idolatry, my love for sin & things. Show me your glory, let me find my joy in you, let me love you, let me be satisfied in you. Let me get excited about you. Let me feel you. Fill me with your spirit, impress upon my heart. Use me for your glory.
Let me share your greatness with those around me. To tell of your greatness to your people. To tell of your greatness to those outside the fold of God, that they might also see your glory and be grafted in.
God, you are great!
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Austin Helsel says:
God will descend from the heavens
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Dalton Beaty says:
He is above and beyond all that we can ask or imagine. His creation is something that I personally marvel at it’s beauty, and thank him for his endless creativity in nature. But I never place that over the ultimate awe-some sacrifice of His son for my sin. I get into His creation in order to be with Him, and to feel His presence in tranquility. I love being alone with Him in His creation, but His sacrifice never slips my mind.
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I typically get into nature so that I can be alone in His presence and appreciate more what an artist He is, and How creative he is. That is my favorite place to be alone with God. But I want that to be a part of my fuel to spread His Gospel, and His love and His truth. I want the beauty of what He does be motivation to try and uncover that for those around me as well.
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As wicked, cruel, twisted as man is, there is still a sense of wonder that we have for nature. It is a natural inclination to appreciate a beautiful sunset, or a mountain backdrop. But it is not a natural inclination for us to appreciate where it came from. We leave the appreciation at seeing the wondrous sight with our eyes alone. Not allowing us to experience the presence of God in that moment. We are so quick to overlook the creator when appreciating creation. An artwork may be nice to look at, but there is no value without knowing who the artist was, and having his signature. God’s signature is all over His creation n, but why do we give no value to his creation. We simply look at the canvas, and then continue on without a second thought.
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The Gospel is something that should make our “soul sing”. As beautiful as all of creation is, and all of the things that meet our eyes on a daily basis, the most beautiful thing our Father has EVER done happened on the cross in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
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I will continue to praise God for his abundant creativity in the world around me, praise Him for the time they he took, and the thought that He put into all that we see and have for our enjoyment.
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Jason says:
That he created all the things that can make your soul sing with rejoice.
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That everything that God created can aspire and touch the soul of man if not taken for granted all the wonderful creations he has given us.
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Josh McGuire says:
We are frail and insignificant beings. We are fickle and are driven every which way by the slightest wind and the smallest wave.
We have no power with in us to save us.
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God is the creator and sustainer of all things. He created the vastness of space, the mountains in all their greatness and the depths of the oceans. This same God, this Master craftsman saw fit to give up his son for a creation that scorned him. A people who declared war and sought to become greater than he.
The greatest offense that could ever be committed was thrown by us towards God. Yet, in his mercy and in his grace he sent his Son to die in our place to atone for our sins against him.
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Lukas Fortunato says:
Father, thank you for the things you have made. Thank you for Lake Tahoe, for Yellowstone, for the Andes. Thank you for the wonder it stirs in me. Thank you that your redemption, love, and grace in my life brings me wonder and caused my soul to sing.
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He is an artist whose creative power reaches deeply within us. I think of mornings on St. Simons Island looking out over the water. I think of hiking through Patagonia, driving along Highway 1 in California or sitting in front of the main tank at the Georgia Aquarium. He has done great things.
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Our souls have a desire to discover God’s greatness. We want to enjoy his creation and be amazed at the beauty he has made. That same wonder, that soul singing is how we want to experience grace and forgiveness and the cross.
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