LYRICS

1. Oh you can’t get to heaven (oh you can’t get to heaven)
On roller skates (on roller skates)
‘Cause you’d roll right by (‘cause you’d roll right by)
Those pearly gates (those pearly gates).
Oh you can’t get to heaven on roller skates,
‘Cause you’d roll right by those pearly gates.
I ain’t gonna grieve my Lord no more.

Chorus:
I ain’t gonna grieve my Lord no more.
I ain’t gonna grieve my Lord no more. I ain’t gonna grieve my Lord no more.

2. Oh you can’t get to heaven (oh you can’t get to heaven)
In a rocking chair (in a rocking chair)
‘Cause the rocking chair (‘Cause the rocking chair)
Won’t get you there (won’t get you there).
Oh you can’t get to heaven in a rocking chair 
‘Cause the rocking chair won’t get you there.  
I ain’t gonna grieve my Lord no more. 

Chorus

3. Oh you can’t get to heaven (oh you can’t get to heaven)
In a limousine (in a limousine)
‘Cause the Lord don’t sell (‘cause the Lord don’t sell)
No gasoline (no gasoline)
Oh you  can’t get to heaven in a limousine
‘Cause the Lord don’t sell no gasoline.
I ain’t gonna grieve my Lord no more.

Chorus

4. If you get there (if you get there) 
Before I do (before I do)
Just tell my friends (just tell my friends)
I’m coming too (I’m coming too).
If you get there before I do just tell my friends I’m coming too.
I ain’t gonna grieve my Lord no more.

Chorus

How Great Thou Art
(1885)

Hymn Background:

“There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides across the heavens 
to help you and on the clouds in his majesty.”
Deuteronomy 33:26

This hymn is based on a Swedish traditional melody and a poem containing 9 verses written by Carl Boberg in Monsteras, Sweden in 1885.  It was translated into German and then into Russian. It was translated into English from the Russian by English missionary Stuart K. Hine, who added two original verses of his own.

The inspiration for the poem came when Boberg was walking home from church near Kronoback, Sweden, and listening to church bells.  J. Irving Erickson described the scene: “A thundercloud appeared on the horizon, and soon lightning flashed across the sky.  Strong winds swept over the meadows and billowing fields of grain. The thunder pealed in loud claps.  Then rain came in cool fresh showers.  In a little while the storm was over, and a rainbow appeared.  When Boberg arrived home, he opened the window and saw the bay of Monsteras like a mirror before him… From the woods on the other side of the bay, he heard the song of a thrush…the church bells were tolling in the quiet evening. It was that time of year when everything seemed to be in its richest colouring. It was this series of sights, sounds, and experiences that inspired the writing of this hymn”. That evening this hymn was created.

According to Boberg’s great-nephew Bud Boberg, “My dad’s story of its origin was that it was a paraphrase of Psalm 8 and was used in the ‘underground church’ in Sweden in the late 1800s when the Baptists and Mission Friends were persecuted.

It was popularised by George Beverly Shea and Cliff Barrows during the Billy Graham crusades. It was voted the United Kingdom’s favorite hymn. The beautiful hymn was ranked second (after “Amazing Grace”) on a list of the favorite hymns of all time in a survey by Christianity Today magazine in 2001. 

Over the years additional verses have been created and modified.  Shown below are some:
O mighty God, when I behold the wonder of nature’s beauty, wrought by words of thine,
And how thou leadest all from realms up yonder, sustaining earthly life with love benign.

Refrain:
With rapture filled, my soul thy name would laud. O mighty God! O mighty God! 
When I behold the heavens in their vastness, where golden ships in azure issue forth.
Where sun and moon keep watch upon the fastness of changing seasons and of time on earth.
When crushed by guilt of sin before thee kneeling, I plead for mercy and for grace and peace.
I feel thy balm and all my bruises healing.  My soul is filled, my heart is set at ease.
And when at last the mists of time have vanished, and I in truth my faith confirmed shall see,
Upon the shores where earthly ills are banished I’ll enter Lord, to dwell in peace with thee.
O when I see ungrateful man defiling this bounteous earth, God’s gifts so good and great;
In foolish pride, God’s holy name reviling. And yet, in grace, His wrath and judgment wait.
When burdens press, and seem beyond endurance, bowed down with grief, to Him I lift my face;
And then in love He brings me sweet assurance: ‘My child! for thee sufficient is my grace’.

How Great Thou Art

LYRICS:

1. 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.

Refrain:
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee;
How great thou art,  how great thou art!
(repeat refrain)

2. 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 hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Refrain

3. 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.

Refrain

4. When Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God how great thou art!

Refrain

I Am Thine O Lord