The Hymn "How Great Thou Art" is one of the most interesting we can find. In common currency is the fact that is it an ancient Russian Hymn. – Which it isn’t. However you can still find it in books like Mission praise marked as a Russian Hymn.

Its history is convoluted but is now clearly known.

Firstly thought he Bible verse that inspired this hymn:

Psalm 8:1-9

For the director of music. According to gittith. A psalm of David.

O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory

above the heavens.

[2] From the lips of children and infants

you have ordained praise

because of your enemies,

to silence the foe and the avenger.

[3] When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

[4] what is man that you are mindful of him,

the son of man that you care for him?

[5] You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

and crowned him with glory and honor.

[6] You made him ruler over the works of your hands;

you put everything under his feet:

[7] all flocks and herds,

and the beasts of the field,

[8] the birds of the air,

and the fish of the sea,

all that swim the paths of the seas.

[9] O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Romans 5:9-11

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! [10] For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! [11] Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

1 Thes. 4:16-17

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. [17] After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

This hymn was first made universally popular when sung as a duet by Cliff Barrows and George Beverly Shea at the London Haringay Crusade.

Let’s listen to Sheila Walsh sing it at the Billy Graham Mission in 1991 at Celtic Park.

Now let’s go to the Southeast cost of Sweden. The year is 1886. The Rev Carl Boberg is on holiday. He is out walking and relaxing and enjoying the beautiful countryside. Suddenly he is caught in a midday summer storm with violent rumblings, bright flashes of lightning followed by brilliant sunshine. As the storm abated, the air became calm and the birds began to sing.

He was overwhelmed the experience and his heart filled with adoration and love for God. He wrote a nine-verse poem, which began if we translate it directly into English as "O mighty God, When I behold the wonder".

A number of years later he was attending a conference and to his surprise he heard his poem sung to an old Swedish folk melody.

NOW it all gets interesting and complicated.

The new hymn was translated into German and then in 1925 into English, in America, as "O mighty God, when I behold the wonder." This hymn disappeared from sight!

However in 1927 a Russian man S Prokhanoff came upon the German version and translated it into Russian.

In 1933 The Rev Stuart Hine and his wife were in the Ukraine as missionaries. There they heard the song "O store Gud". They naturally thought it was an old Russian hymn. Later they left the Ukraine and crossed into sub Carpathian Russia. They were struck by the awesome wonder of the mountains and so it was that verses 1&2 (read) came to be partly written, partly translated. As they went from village to village sharing the good news and giving out copies of the Gospels verse 3 came into being. (Read)

War broke out and the Hines returned to England for the duration of the war. But it wasn’t until after the war was over the verse 4 was written down. (Read)

His words were copyrighted in 1953 and so began its spread.

From it introduction in Britain in 1954 it was in 1974 named as the number 1 hymn in America.