A new version of the Christian anthem How Great Thou Art has been released by 16 of the world’s biggest worship artists to raise money for humanitarian relief in Eastern Europe due to the war in Ukraine. Titled How Great Thou Art Until That Day, it features Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, Matt Maher and Jenn Johnson among others and celebrates 75 years since the hymn was translated into English.
The hymn was originally written in Swedish by Carl Oberg about a thunderstorm in 1885 before being translated into other languages including Russian. That version was heard by British missionary Stuart K Hine when he was distributing Bibles and preaching in the Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe. He was inspired to translate it into English in 1949 due to the faith of the Ukrainian refugees he’d ministered to in the region.
The song gained popularity when it was televised in the US being performed by George Beverly Shea in collaboration with a Billy Graham crusade. He sang the hymn nearly 100 times throughout the 16-week crusade which had a crowd average of 19,000 per night. It was later performed by Elvis Presley and became a big hit for Carrie Underwood.
Grammy award-winning Christian singer-songwriter Matt Redman was approached by British charity the Stuart Hine Trust which is named after the original English writer and owns the copyright to the song, to write and perform an updated version for the 75th anniversary and help the people of Ukraine. The British musician then teamed up with Australian worship leader and songwriter Mitch Wong to write an extra final verse with a slightly different beat, which focused on hope in a “warring world”.
“Worship isn’t meant to have an escapist mentality, where we ignore what’s going on around us in this fragile, fallen world. Instead, we can engage with these things, pray for, and acknowledge God’s ultimate kingdom rule and reign in the midst of them,” Matt Redman explained.
He told Billboard: “Normally, you can’t adapt a hymn. But with How Great Thou Art, the Stuart Hine Trust is still the publisher and normally they would deny anyone who tried to mess with it. So I was quite surprised when they approached and said, ‘Would you like to write a new section?’”
Matt Redman first sang and played the hymn as a teenage guitar player in an Anglican church in the English village of Chorleywood because its chord structure was easier to manage than other hymns.
His new stanza of the hymn reads:
Until that day
When heaven bids us welcome
And as we walk this broken warring world,
Your kingdom come,
Deliver us from evil,
And we’ll proclaim our God how great You are!
With hope we’ll sing our God how great You are!
Matt then brought together the 16 Christian and country artists to produce the new version. Some recorded their parts in California and others in Tennessee at Nashville’s RCA Studio B where Elvis Presley once recorded the song. This latest version of the hymn has been played nearly three million times on digital streaming platforms since its release in late January
It has been gifted to the Stuart Hine Trust so that mission organisation benefits from the royalties with proceeds to be used for humanitarian aid and rebuilding efforts in Ukraine.
Image: Facebook Screenshot – Matt Redman
