Meaning Of How Great Thou Art
“Oh Lord my God.” Four words that stop me in my tracks every time I sing them. Or better yet, every time I hear them beautifully sung. Because they echo the four words that frame our entire reality: “In the beginning, God.” These two phrases really spell out the meaning of How Great Thou Art.
The parallel is unmistakable. They are both declarations of absolute sovereignty that demand our response. One opens Scripture with God’s creative authority; the other opens our hearts to His redemptive power.
The resurrection is the breath in every beautiful thing. If you’ve ever sung ‘How Great Thou Art’ and felt a swell of emotion you couldn’t quite name, this is why.
And how do we see this God? We see Him first in the simple, breathtaking beauty that nearly everyone recognizes. We see Him in a newborn baby or in a glimpse of a scentless fawn with all the white dots of youth. It’s present while watching a butterfly dancing from flower to flower, while the sun lights up the smile on your face.
There Are Beautiful Things All Around Us
We see Him in the majesty of magnificent waterfalls that never stop falling and never stop captivating. I can imagine Him playfully arranging the colors of sunrise, when the entirety of earth somehow becomes a ‘never the same twice’ backlit stage just for us if we are present to see it. No turbulence is felt in the contrasts and smoothing of the wrinkles as clouds turn orange, red, pink, then purple before melting into the absence of light at sunset.
We see Him in the impossible green of grass emerging through some miracle after months of snow and ice. Then one night you are stopped, in a breath fumbling moment as you take in the moon, so massive one night you feel you can touch it, while just a sliver like a distant star days later.
The Next Slide in the Presentation
For me, these moments are like the next slide in a presentation waiting to play. My soul is always looking for it, anticipating that reveal. You’re on a drive, winding through the forest, and it’s beautiful. But then you come through the trees, and all of a sudden, there are green meadows for miles and a mountain range distant. The tops lit up in last night’s snow whites as the sun plays hide and seek with the fog and the clouds. As the grays try to decide whether to stay with the peaks or take off to return another day.
The Hard Line: The Resurrection Is the Breath in Every Beautiful Thing
And here is the hard line. The LAN connection.
That feeling you get when you hold a newborn baby? That overwhelming, protective, fierce love that swells in your chest? That is a direct echo of the love that fueled the resurrection. It is the same force. God looked at His newborn creation, us, broken and dying and felt that same overwhelming love. The meaning of How Great Thou Art is that He acted on it. The resurrection is the ultimate act of a Creator’s fierce, protective love for His own.
That feeling you get when you see the cutest little baby fox, all helpless, falling, tumbling and precious? That instinct to shield it, to care for it? That is a microscopic reflection of the power that raised Christ from the dead. It is God’s ‘I will not let this be the end’ instinct, written into your very DNA. The resurrection is God declaring, ‘This precious thing, humanity, is not consumable.’ It is redeemable.
The Beauty Is the Promise, the Resurrection Is Why It Exists
The beauty of this world is not just a pretty picture. It is a promise. The awe you feel when you see that mountain range is your spirit recognizing the power that can move mountains. The wonder you feel at a sunrise is your soul witnessing the power that conquers the darkness of the grave. Every beautiful thing is a physical, tangible guarantee of the resurrection’s power.
The beauty is the feeling. The resurrection is why the feeling exists. The beauty is the promise written in light and life. The resurrection is the promise kept, sealed in the blood and triumph of Christ.
Humble Adoration
He is God. I am not. I don’t know how to measure up. So, I bow. And I pray. Tears fall as my heart races in humble adoration while in communion with my Savior.
But I know this: The same power that makes you gasp at a sunset is the power that rolled away the stone. The same love that makes you weep at a newborn’s cry is the love that conquered death for you. The breath that is constantly taken away by the beauty of Creation is our direct connection to all that was breathed into existence.
Listen to the hymn that moved me
Visit my “Resurrection Hymns” page to hear “How Great Thou Art” and other songs from this playlist:
More reflections coming soon
This is number five in a series of posts about these powerful hymns. Check back in the coming days as I share how other songs from the Resurrection Of A King playlist impacted me. Set in motion from that Easter Sunday playlist that followed me all through northern New England the next day.
Watch my video reflection on this hymn: My YouTube Short Video on this