How Great Thou Art
I love the beach. The landscape, the waves, and the sounds are breathtaking. During my break I spent a lot of time enjoying the beach, often silently thanking God for his beautiful creation and the blessing of being able to enjoy it with my family and friends. God’s creation is truly breathtaking, and rightly moves us to awe and gratitude.
The lyrics of the well-known song ‘How Great Thou Art’ were actually inspired by God’s beautiful creation. The writer’s awe-filled response to the ‘the stars, the rolling thunder, the woods and forest glades, the birds sweet singing and lofty mountain grandeur’ were glory and thanks to God: ‘Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee; how great Thou art’. The song lyrics move from God’s creation to God’s great love for us; that He sent His Son to the cross to bear our burden and take away our sin. Finally, the song speaks of humble adoration, of Christ’s return to take us ‘home’, what joy shall fill our heart!
God’s amazing creation and the revelation of His great love for us gives us reason to sing, doesn’t it? I have been looking forward to singing this song (and many others) with you all, friends. Singing this song in personal time is heartening. But singing it together is even more powerful. In fact, I was talking to a friend this week about this very thing. He said me something along the lines of; when we sing together at church, we are united and become actively involved in the worship service. Amen to that!
I love what authors Keith and Kristyn Getty write about singing together: “Encourage others with what you are singing, and expect to be encouraged by the fact that there are others singing with you and to you. All our individual stories meet at the cross-section of the worship service. We are reminded that we are not alone – we are members of a multi-generational, multi-ethnic, multi-everything family. We are reminded that we are not self-sufficient, for we need a Saviour. We are reminded that we need not despair, for we have His Spirit within us. We are reminded that we are not the center of the universe, but just one voice and heart among the great worldwide throng of people praising the One who is. And we remind each other all this as we sing together.”
I am looking forward to Sunday, where we will join our voice and hearts in song to our great God!
Blessings,
Emma
‘… be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Eph. 5:18-20).
