O Store Gud (O Great God)

How Great Thou Art is a Christian hymn based on a nine-verse Swedish poem O Store Gud (O Great God) by Carl Gustav Boberg (1859–1940) in Sweden in 1885. The poem became matched to an old Swedish folk tune.

The more popular English translation of O Store Gud was by Stuart K. Hine (1949 version). The first literal and more accurate English translation was by E. Gustav Johnson (1925 version). Below is 1925 translation of verses 1, 2, 7, and 9.

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! (repeat)

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.

P.S. I am now learning the Bokmål translation.

in reference to: How Great Thou Art (hymn) in Wikipedia