How Great Is God

Article written by Albert Brown

May 5th 2020

I was on the porch this morning while a thunderstorm rolled through the area. My wife, Julie, and I like to sit on the porch and witness this powerful display of God’s creation. She had not come out yet and while I was there waiting for her the wind was picking up and the thunder was rolling in the distance. With that going on I began to sing the hymn “How Great Thou Art” to the best of my memory and ability.

Neither of those is always all that good normally, but I do know the words of that song fairly well. The first two verses deal with the wonder of God’s creation from the sounds of a babbling brook to the sounds of thunder and the wonder of the stars in the sky. To think of God’s incredible power and foresight and understanding displayed in His creation is awe inspiring. Then the third verse will bring tears to my eyes, “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.” The idea that the Creator of the universe, the very One that I sinned against, would come to earth as a man and pay the price for what I have done against Him is unfathomable to me. I shudder to think what I would have done in His place if I were Him and He were me. But I guess I can look over my past and see what I have done to Him with far less reason than to inflict punishment for something that deserved punishment and thus get an idea of what I might have done in His place. It is because of that and much more that I love the words of the fourth verse, “When Christ shall come, in shout of acclamation, and take me home what Joy shall fill my heart. And I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim, ‘My God how great Thou Art’”.