How Great Thou Art

Avalon's recording of "How Great Thou Art" keeps Stuart K. Hine's full set of verses, moving from creation ("I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder") to the cross and finally to Christ's return, so the song's sense of God's greatness is never left as abstract wonder at nature alone. The pivotal verse states the cost plainly: "And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in." That line draws directly on Romans 8:32, where Paul describes a God "who his own Son not sparing, but delivered him for us all," using the same unsparing language to describe the same event.

The final verse turns forward, picturing Christ's return "with shout of acclamation" and the singer brought home to bow "in humble adoration." That image matches 1 Thessalonians 4:16, which describes the Lord descending "with a shout" at His coming. The hymn's structure mirrors this arc deliberately: wonder at creation gives way to grief and gratitude at the cross, which gives way to anticipation of a homecoming still to come, so that "great" ends up meaning something far more specific than scenic beauty.