Carl Gustav Boberg, a 26-year old pastor in Sweden. penned the words of, "How Great Thou Art". As the story goes, on his way home from church one Sunday evening, Boberg was caught in a thunderstorm and watched as bolts of lightning and massive claps of thunder hurtled through the meadows, the grain fields, and across the countryside with the reverberating sound of its majestic power. The brief storm quickly subsided surrendering to a peaceful calm. The tumultuous storm gave way to a rainbow spread across the sky, birds singing, and distant church bells softy tolling. Carl was overwhelmed by God’s power and majesty. The result was an outpouring of adoration and worship in the writing of the song, O Store Gud. The song made a circuit of translations, German, Russian, and English, and picked up a stanza from an English missionary Stuart K. Hine in 1949. Now, sung by millions of Christians in dozens of languages, all praying the same heartfelt prayer of “humble adoration, “My God, how great Thou art!”

In 1954 the song found its way into the hands of George Beverly Shea, who sang it 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. This poem, turned to song, is truly a prayer, a plea, and a declaration of God’s infinite greatness.