The story behind the hymn
Fanny Crosby wrote To God Be the Glory around 1875, but for decades it languished unsung in America while catching fire in Britain. It came home the long way: Billy Graham's team discovered it during the 1954 London crusade and brought it back across the Atlantic, where it became one of the best-loved praise hymns of the century.
The hymn's engine is the openness of the gospel — the vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives. Crosby, blind from infancy, had every reason to praise a God whose salvation depended on nothing she could see or do, and the refrain simply cannot contain itself: praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear His voice!
It is a hymn about the size of what God has done and the smallness of the price he asks: great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done, and great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son. The glory, every stanza insists, goes one direction only — to God be the glory, great things He hath done.
The lyrics
To God be the glory, great things He hath done!So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,Who yielded His life an atonement for sin,And opened the life-gate that all may go in.
Refrain
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear His voice!Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice!O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,And give Him the glory, great things He hath done!
O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,To every believer the promise of God;The vilest offender who truly believes,That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done,And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;But purer, and higher, and greater will beOur wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.
Public domain. Free to sing, copy, print, and share.
The Scripture behind it
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
So loved He the world — the first stanza sings the verse directly.
The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.
The LORD hath done great things — the hymn's refrain, in the psalmist's words.