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Dare to Believe with DJ Jash (Episode Seven [How Great Thou Art])

Aired: September 1, 2012

A blessed day to all of you! Once again you’re with DJ Jash. Dare to believe will start in a bit, so please stay with me. And while you wait, here’s Shout to the LORD and How Great is Our God by Christ Tomlin, and You Are More by Hillsong.

Music

Each of the song I’ve played is about the greatness of our Creator. Our main song for tonight also declares the greatness of Yahweh.  We sang this song at church last Sunday and I’ve been LSSed to it ever since. Here is How Great Thou Art, rendition by Carrie Underwood.

PRESENTATION

Music: How Great Thou Art (Carrie Underwood)

What you’ve just heard is only one of over one thousand, seven hundred documented recordings of How Great Thou Art. This performance by Country star Carrie Underwood reached #1 spot in iTunes Top Gospel Song and Top 40 in iTunes All-Genre Songs only April last year after being televised. It debuted at #2 position in Billboard Christian Digital songs chart and #35 in Country Digital Songs chart. After four months, it sold 236,000 digital copies in the USA.

Among other notable performers of the hymn are Alan Jackson, George Beverly Shea, Burl Ives, Dixie Carter, Roy Rogers,  Connie Smith, and Elvis Presley, whose rendition received a Grammy Award for “Best Sacred Performance”.

How Great Thou Art became widely known first in 1957 when the Billy Graham Crusade in New York City launched it on a never-ending spiral around the world; it was used more than 100 times by George Beverly Shea and the Crusade Choir in 119 meetings. Two years later, it became the theme of Billy Graham’s “Hour of Decision” weekly radio broadcast. It also became the best-loved hymn of the Billy Graham Crusades. Soon, How Great Thou Art has been named in numerous polls as the number one hymn in Britain and America, and How Great Thou Art has been performed in Broadway productions in New York, and on the London stage.

In the mid 70’s, How Great Thou Art received an award for one million performances on radio and television, and was also named, in 1978 by American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, as “The All-Time Outstanding Gospel Song” in America. It is considered to be the most recorded Gospel song by major Gospel artists, as well as many secular artists. How Great thou Art has been used on major television programs, major motion pictures, and has been named as the favorite Gospel song of at least three United States’ presidents. The song has received two Grammy Awards.

These things are no doubt quite impressive, but indeed these things aren’t the real deal. The real deal is that this majestic song speaks of praise and adoration of the omnipotence of the Creator who did it all. It was translated from Swedish, to German, to Russian, and finally to English, and ever since many other translations have been made from each of these versions; and the important thing is this song has spread around the world, revealing to the heathens and reminding the saints the greatness of Yahweh. As Billy Graham put it, “[How Great Thou Art] turns Christian’s eyes toward God, rather than upon themselves . . . . it is such a God-honoring song.”

  "It was that time of year,” said the original writer of How Great Thou Art, “when everything seemed to be in its richest colouring; the birds were singing in trees and everywhere. It was very warm; a thunderstorm appeared on the horizon and soon thunder and lightning. We had to hurry to shelter. But the storm was soon over and the clear sky appeared.

"When I came home I opened my window toward the sea. There evidently had been a funeral and the bells were playing the tune of 'When eternity's clock calling my saved soul to its Sabbath rest.' That evening, I wrote the song, 'O Store Gud.'”

How Great Thou Art was originally written by Carl Gustav Boberg. He was a Swedish poet and writer who was born in the end of 1850s (August 16, 1859) in Mönsterås, Kalmar County in Småland. Boberg was a shipyard carpenter’s son, and had worked briefly as a sailor. He became a lay preacher, the editor of a weekly Christian newspaper from 1890 until 1916, and an elected official in the Upper house of the Swedish Parliament for 20 years from 1912 to 1931. He published more than 60 poems, hymns and gospel songs, including collaboration with Swedish hymnist Lina Sandell.

            Boberg was around 26 when he wrote the lyrics of ‘O Store Gud’ or ‘O Great God’. It was after attending an afternoon service in Kronobäck. He was a young minister then, walking back home to Mönsterås (myozteroz) with some of his friends. It was said that “Nature was at its peak that radiant afternoon. Presently a thundercloud appeared on the horizon, and soon sharp lightning flashed across the sky. Strong winds swept over the meadows and billowing fields of grain. The thunder pealed in loud claps. Then rain came in cool fresh showers. In a little while the storm was over, and a rainbow appeared.”

After trekking through a thunderstorm from a church meeting two miles away, Boberg arrived home and opened the window, seeing the bay of Mönsterås like a mirror before him… “From the woods on the other side of the bay, he heard the song of a thrush…the church bells were tolling in the quiet evening. It was this series of sights, sounds, and experiences that inspired the writing of the song.” In short, it was the beauty of creation reflecting the majesty of the Creator that urged Boberg to write the poem. A literal translation of the poem is as follows:

When I the world consider Which Thou has made by Thine almighty Word And how the webb of life Thy wisdom guideth And all creation feedeth at Thy board.

Then doth my soul burst forth in song of praise Oh, great God Oh, great God.

Yes, Boberg wrote a poem, not a hymn. He did not write any music to the text. The truth is after appearing in several periodicals and being published in his weekly paper in 1891, the poem was seemingly forgotten. Several years later though, Boberg attended a meeting and was surprised to hear his poem being sung to the tune of an old Swedish folk melody of unknown origin. This was followed by a German translation in 1907, which spread throughout Germany, which the German people sang. After twenty years, from German, a Russian translation appeared and was published in Moscow in a Russian hymnal. This was the version that Stuart Hine first heard, while on an evangelistic mission to the Carpathian Mountains, near the Polish border, in 1927.

Stuart K. Hine was an English Methodist missionary who was born in 1899. He believed in the Messiah when he was fourteen years old, and was influenced greatly by the teachings of British Baptist evangelist Charles Spurgeon. Being members of the Salvation Army, his parents dedicated him to Yahweh during a time when there was a strong opposition against those who proclaimed the Messiah. After serving in the Armed Forces, Hine was called to the mission field. For many years he served in Poland and, with his young wife, in Czechoslovakia, where they first heard a very meaningful hymn that was a Russian translation of Carl Boberg’s “O Great God”. It was also during missionary work in these countries that Mr. Hine composed songs and verses, including the additional and optional verses he wrote for “O Great God”.

Hine first thought of translating the hymn from Russian to English while ministering in the Carpathian Mountains. Like Boberg, Hine found himself in the midst of a storm, lightning flashing and thunder rolling across the mountains. It had to be very beautiful and majestic and there Hine began writing those English verses in his mind, verses that were suggested by the Russian translation of “O Great God”.

Next came the second stanza. When Hine crossed the mountain borderline into Romania and into Bukovina, together with some young people, through the woods and forest glades he wandered, and heard the birds sing sweetly in the trees. This obviously prompted him to write the second verse.

Hine’s addition of the second, third, fourth, and other optional stanzas were more of his own writing rather than mere translations, that’s why people call How Great Thou Art a paraphrase hymn. According to Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service, "Hine and his wife, Edith, learned the Russian translation, and started using it in their evangelistic services. Hine also started re-writing some of the verses – and writing new verses (all in Russian) – as events inspired him."

The current third and fourth verses are my personal favorite part of the song. It’s, like, the part that I always abruptly sing, y’know when I’m in my room or in the bathroom. It goes:

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.

Sorry, I couldn’t help it. We have an explanatory story about the third verse from Michael Ireland:

“It was typical of the Hines to inquire as to the existence of any Christians in the villages they visited. In one case, they found out that the only Christians that their host knew about were a man named Dmitri and his wife Lyudmila. Dmitri's wife knew how to read -- evidently a fairly rare thing at that time and in that place. She taught herself how to read because a Russian soldier had left a Bible behind several years earlier, and she started slowly learning by reading that Bible. When the Hines arrived in the village and approached Dmitri's house, they heard a strange and wonderful sound: Dmitri's wife was reading from the gospel of John about the crucifixion of Christ to a houseful of guests, and those visitors were in the very act of repenting. In Ukraine (as I know first hand!), this act of repenting is done very much out loud. So the Hines heard people calling out to God, saying how unbelievable it was that Christ would die for their own sins, and praising Him for His love and mercy. They just couldn't barge in and disrupt this obvious work of the Holy Spirit, so they stayed outside and listened. Stuart wrote down the phrases he heard the Repenters use, and (even though this was all in Russian), it became the third verse that we know today..."

When World War II started in 1939, Hine returned to England. There, after the war ended, he added stanza four. Throughout that time, Hine continued sharing the gospel in England. He worked among the exiled Polish refugee community. 1948, Hine visited a camp in Sussex, England, where displaced Russians were being held. Only two were professing Christians. The testimony of one of these refugees and his anticipation of the second coming of Christ inspired Hine to write the fourth and final stanza of his English version of the hymn.

Again, according to Ireland:

One man to whom they were ministering told them an amazing story: he had been separated from his wife at the very end of the war, and had not seen her since. At the time they were separated, his wife was a Christian, but he was not, but he had since been converted. His deep desire was to find his wife so they could at last share their faith together. But he told the Hines that he did not think he would ever see his wife on earth again. Instead he was longing for the day when they would meet in heaven, and could share in the Life Eternal there. These words again inspired Hine, and they became the basis for his fourth and final verse to 'How Great Thou Art': "When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation to take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then we shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim, My God How Great Thou Art!

In 1949, the year after writing the final verse, Hine printed the hymn in a Russian gospel magazine and then printed it in leaflet form. One of the leaflets was given to George Beverley Shea during the Billy Graham Crusade in 1954. Shea helped introduce the song in the meetings of the Toronto Crusade in 1955, and it was only the beginning of the long and ongoing history of the song How Great Thou Art. Yes, how great Yahweh is.

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.

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.

O when I see ungrateful man defiling This bounteous earth, God's gifts so good and great; In foolish pride, God's holy Name reviling, And yet, in grace, His wrath and judgment wait.

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'.

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!

MESSAGE

While lookin’ around Booksale, I saw this book about the outer space. It showed a bunch of pictures taken with, I think that was the Hubbard or Hubble telescope? Yeah, so it showed a bunch of HD pictures of the nebulas and comets and stars and stuff. The pictures were amazing. I showed the book to my brother and he was like are these pictures even real? They looked computer manipulated, but they were not. The pictures showed what those heavenly bodies really look like. And they definitely looked amazing. They were works of art. What’s amazing about the book is all throughout it keeps on reminding the reader the One who created the universe, and that is no other than Yahweh. “The heavens declare the glory of El; the skies proclaim the work of his hands,” Psalm 19:1.

How great Yahweh is, that’s our theme for tonight. Mosheh (or Moses) asks in Exodus 15:11, Who is like Thee among the gods, O LORD? (the all-caps LORD stands for the Tetragrammaton, Yod-He-Waw-He, which is no other than the name of the Creator, Yahweh.) Who is like Thee, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?”

From the previous verses, 7-10, we read about the mighty power of Yahweh. How He has total control over the elements, which He uses to destroy His enemies. Mosheh here talks about the blast of Yahweh’s nostrils (verse 8) and Yahweh’s blowing with His breath (verse 10). These are poetic anthromorphism or poetic use of attribution of human characteristics or behavior to Yahweh to better grasp the idea. He destroyed those arrogant Egyptians at the Red Sea. They were so confident of themselves, that they would win, proudly charging against Yisra’el, but what happens? Do they prevail? At the moment Yahweh showed His power, at His tiniest “expense of divine energy”, He annihilated each one of them. So Mosheh was, like, “Who is like You, O Yahweh?” Who among the gods is like You? Those deities that the heathens call gods, are they anything like Yahweh?

Let’s take a look at Psalm 86:8. Look at the psalm. David said, “There is no one like You among the gods, O Adonai…” So David says, no way! Yahweh has this remarkable greatness. He is unique! There is no one like Him. “Nor are there any works like Yours.” No deeds can even be compared with Yahweh’s. Those other so-called gods are dead. Even Dios is dead. Dios, a.k.a. Zeus, supreme god of the Greeks, Hercules’ dad, ring a bell? The guy with the thunder bolt, whom Disney gave orange skin and pinkish-purple toga? Why do we Filipinos even refer to Yahweh as Dios? Is Dios-slash-Zeus like Yahweh? Can he split the red sea? Fire up Eliyah’s sacrifice? Well, no, ‘cause he’s dead. Paul is on my side on that one. But Yahweh is alive! And He is so great!

 “Many, O Yahweh my El, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare,” Psalm 40:5.

“He has caused his wonders to be remembered; Yahweh is gracious and compassionate,” Psalm 111:4.

 “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what El has done from beginning to end,” Ecclesiastes 3:11.

“You are the El who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples,” Psalm 77:14.

“How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; his dominion endures from generation to generation,” Daniel 4:3.

“I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke,” Joel 2:30.

“Yahweh said to Moses, ‘When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do,’” Exodus 4:21.

Of all the miracles shown to His people in the Old Testament, probably the most unforgettable ones are the ones shown from the time Yisra’el was held captive by the Egyptians, to their deliverance in the Red sea, to the provision in the wilderness. How many wonders and miracles were shown to them? They’d seen the petrifying plagues; they’d seen the Red sea divided into two and form a dry path for them to cross, and they’d seen it return to drown the Egyptians; they’d seen and eaten manna that fell from the sky, and drank water from a rock.  And still they would come a time that they would disobey.

But that shows even more just how great Yahweh really is. Even so, Yahweh is their merciful Creator – our merciful Creator – the merciful Creator. Despite our shortcomings we are forgiven because we are precious in His sight.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well,” Psalm 139:14.

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” Psalm 8:3.

We may never understand, but He does care for us. And He proved just that by sending Y’shua the Messiah to die instead of us sinners, so that by faith alone in Christ alone we might be saved. The greatest greatness of Yahweh is that while we were yet still sinners, the Messiah died for us. 1 John 4:10 says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” How great His love is. Truly, how great Yahweh is.

Let’s pray…

Dear Father,

When I recall and see the wonders and miracles You’ve done for those who belong to You, when I see Your beautiful creation, when I remember what the Messiah has done on the Cross in my place, I know then that there really is a Creator and that it is You, Yahweh. It is You. And You are great and awesome. You’ve given me an imperishable life. My mind can’t comprehend why You would do that, but the important thing is that You did it, because You love me, and I believe. Thank You, Father. Hallelu-Yah… You deserve all the praise, honor and glory.

In the Name of Y’shua the Messiah,

Amein