This page is provided so that you can hear the tunes of items which we use in church. Mostly they are written by the vicar. Please note that they are copyright - we are very happy to give permission to you to use them, but we would like to hear about it. Please include any use on your Christian Copyright Licence returns.
Down this page:
- the words,
- the story,
- the sheet music,
- media player.
How great is God
How great is God, the Lord Almighty
How great is God, the Lord Almighty, who has made all things well!
How great is Jesus Christ the Saviour, who rescues us from hell!
How great is God the Holy Spirit, who makes us want to tell!
We've a great and mighty three-in-one: his praises we will yell!
Before I met the Saviour Jesus, my life was full of holes:
I couldn't do the good I wanted, I couldn't score my goals,
My field was open to attackers, the enemy got through -
But when Jesus came to be my Lord, he made my life all new.
Oh, won't you join the winning captain, and serve him with your life?
You'll find he keeps the team in training, and helps you deal with strife.
He takes the penalties of sinning, and gives you victory,
and his power will help your weakness, and you'll win eternity!
Copyright © John Hartley 2005.
There's a line of accompaniment between each verse, and the last line of the last verse is sung twice.
Story behind the song
This song was written for the 2002 World Cup championship in which the England football team (soccer) was drawn to play first on a Sunday morning. Several local churches wondered how to mark the event, and Paul, a neighbouring local clergyman, asked if anyone remembered the old Christian song which had been written to the tune of "Match of the Day"? "Never heard of it," I replied, "but how's this for a start ..." and I wrote the first verse. (It had actually been in my mind for nearly 20 years, ever since the days of "Psalm Praise" when quite a lot of Christian words were set to secular tunes.)
"That's great," replied Paul, "but could I have another two verses or so, with references to penalties and goals and other footballing things?" And so the song was born. Later, when it seemed that several of our own congregation would want to watch the match live, we decided to change the time of our Sunday service, make a feature of it, and get the hymn into the news ... the rest is history.
I think this song, more than any other, opened my eyes to the potential of setting Christian words to well-known tunes, and it set me off along a path of lyric-writing.
John Hartley
The original tune has no "introduction" or break between the repeats of the tune, but for congregational singing we recommend that the "introduction" line is also used as a break between verses to enable the singers to catch their breath. We also suggest the last line of the last verse might be repeated.
Windows Media Player. When you click the left-hand "play" button your computer should have started to play the tune. If it didn't, you might be able to get the tune by clicking here, or by right-clicking the link, choosing "save target as", saving it onto your computer, and then opening it with a music-playing program.
Please remember that a midi file of a tune isn't supposed to be a state-of-the-art musical arrangement - it is only supposed to give a basic idea of how the tune goes. Any reasonable organist / keyboard player / music group could make it sound far better.