| Psalm 68:6- “For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; He also is to be feared above all gods.” |
Many of you remember a specific songbook in church
E. L. Jorgenson put out a songbook that most referred to as the blue book due to its cover.
I don’t know when it was first published but it was almost 25 years of my life before I saw a different one. The book was “Great Songs of the Church.” I still have a copy and will probably keep it as a momento of time gone by.
The problem with songbooks, as we recognized is that you had the songs and no more. You could not add, even a good one. But I remember, we solved that. problem. We found a song, 1 song, worthy of being pasted inside the back cover.
That song was written by a Swede named Carl Boberg. In 1886, he visited a beautiful country estate when he was caught in a thunderstorm while walking. Lightning flashed, thunder rumbled and rain came down.
As soon as it started, it seemed it was over. And when it passed, it left a clearing sky with brilliant sunshine. Birds returned to branches to resume their choral practice.
He was awestruck. He sank to his knees and composed a verse. He took it back to his congregation and they started singing it and it caught on in Sweden. They put it with a folk tune to make the song singable.
But most don’t know Swedish but it was translated into German and Russian. Yet, for English speakers, it remained remote until S. K. Hine. Hine was a missionary to Ukraine. He heard it and decided to translate it into his native English language. But there it stayed.
In 1939, as war exploded in Europe, he was forced to return to England. He brought with him some sheaves of paper with the translated song. He then added a fourth verse.
So this song, given birth in a thunderstorm, was printed in sheets and with copious amounts of Elmer’s glue, found it into songbooks, including Great Songs of the Church.
It was the last song, sharing a number with the final one with a letter A to distinguish it.
I know you have heard it…listen to the words that Boberg wrote in that field:
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 pow’r thruout the universe displayed!
When thru 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.
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!
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!
-Robert G. Taylor-
robertgtaylor.com
