A recent BBC TV programme featured the Top Ten Hymns chosen by thousands of viewers who put, How Great Thou Art at the top. Aled Jones then introduced the singing of this magnificent hymn by 6000 voices in the Royal Albert Hall. This popular hymn was written about 1885 by Rev. Carl Boberg and set to a Swedish folk melody. The hymn reached Russia where Mr and Mrs Stuart Hinds, some English missionaries, translated it into English in 1927 and published it in a hymn book in 1949.
Carl Boberg was inspired to write this hymn during a thunderstorm. Awesome flashes of fork lightning were followed by brilliant sunshine, then a rainbow and the singing of birds. Totally overcome Carl fell to his knees in humble adoration of his mighty God and wrote,
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.