Ever Heard of Carl Boberg?
Our family is in the habit of having a daily
worship time together, and one of the important parts of our worship time is to
sing a hymn together. Each Sunday night
we sing a hymn and read about the story behind the song. In a world filled with modern worship music, where
a song from ten years ago can be deemed as “old”, it is refreshing to sing songs
that have been around for so many years, and in some cases centuries. The stories of how these songs came to us are
amazing and often exciting.
For example, did you know that the song “I
Know Whom I Have Believed” was written by a Union soldier during the Civil War,
who was held as a prisoner of war and became a believer while praying for
a dying soldier?
Or that the prolific hymn writer Fanny
Crosby (over 8,000 hymns!) was blind from infancy, yet was able to memorize the
first five books of the Bible, the four Gospels, the Proverbs, and most of the
Psalms?
Which brings us to Carl Boberg.
Carl Boberg had recently quit his work as a
sailor and was working as a lay-minister in his native Sweden (he would later
go on to be a newspaper editor and a member of Swedish Parliament). In 1885, he was inspired by the sound of church
bells ringing during a wild thunderstorm, and penned the poem “O Great God”.
Although it was published, Boberg’s nine-verse
poem didn’t really catch on, and it seemed destined to be all but forgotten. However, someone out there liked it enough to
match it with a traditional Swedish melody in 1888, and when Boberg found out,
he published the poem and the music in his own newspaper in 1891.
Fast forward to the 1930’s - English
missionary Stuart Hine heard the song being sang (in Russian) while in Poland. Deeply moved by the song, he translated it
into English, changed the musical arrangement, some of the wording, and took it
home with him to England. In English, the
song was called “How Great Thou Art”.
On to the 1940’s - Evangelist Dr. Edwin Orr
heard this new version of the song being sung by native tribal people in Assam,
India, and inspired by it, he brought the song back to the States.
In 1954 the song found its way into the
hands of George Beverly Shea, who sang the song nearly 100 times during Billy
Graham’s 1957 New York crusade. In 1959 it became the theme song for Billy
Graham’s weekly radio broadcast, bringing “How Great Thou Art” into the national
consciousness.
In 1978, the performing rights organization
ASCAP named the song as “The All-Time Outstanding Gospel Song” in America. It has consistently been listed as one of
the greatest hymns ever written, usually falling at #2 (right behind Amazing
Grace).
How astonishing that this song, recorded over
1,700 times in the last 50 years, had its origins as a poem in a small town in
Sweden and somehow wound its way around the globe. Carl Boberg would never know the influence of
his song. He died in 1940 – over a
decade before “How Great Thou Art” became famous in New York City. Like Carl, we also may never know which of
our words or actions will influence the next century. But we can bet in some way, large or small,
they will.
Such are the stories of hymns.
In our increasingly myopic world, songs
like these and the stories behind them are an inspiration. The lives of those
who penned them, how they penned them, and the reasons why help to build a bond
of legacy with those who have gone before us, and those to come. These songs now cease to be “old and boring”,
but become suddenly relevant and filled with life; meaningful expressions of
worship written by real people that we can relate to, understand, and
appreciate.
At least that’s the way I see it . . .
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