Hymns: How Great is Our God

In this series, I take a brief glance at some of the very modern worship songs. I spent many years ignoring these. Back around 2017, I started familiarizing myself with some new songs – but these were songs from the 1990s. I’m finally catching up with the 21st Century songs 😄.

How Great is Our God is one of the first new worship songs that I became familiar with when I started attending a new church after the COVID lockdown. As it happens, it’s not very new. It goes all the way back to 2004. But I only heard it in 2022. It has many YouTube versions. The first one here featured in the memorial for Charlie Kirk, who was murdered back in September of this year (2025).

You can see the lyrics in the second video, or at Unlimited Worship.org. The lyrics are quite simple. I like variety in hymns. Some are very poetic and rich in theology, others are simple, and that’s fine too. If you want an older hymn about God’s greatness, listen to How Great Thou Art. You can even watch Elvis singing it. I love the lyrics and because it’s old, you can quote them without the risk of breaching copyright😄.

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed

Chorus
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze

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

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"

If you go back a long way (like me), you might remember the older How Great is Our God, which was one of the new choruses when I became a Christian back in 1980.

I wonder how many versions of it are on YouTube? Here are two interesting ones, one performed in Hebrew and Arabic at the garden tomb in Jerusalem and an Indian version.

And here’s a reggae version and a Korean version:

1 Chronicles 29:11
“Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.”

Here are some more versions:

• Japanese
• French
• Russian
• Malay
• Arabic sung by Korean
• German
• Multi-language
• Polish
• Nigeria
• English, Spanish, Chinese
• Turkish
• Israelis and Iranians Worship in a Bomb Shelter