LYRICS

1. He made the forest and the trees. He made the oceans and the seas.
He made the skies above. It was a work of love. 
He did it all for you and me. 

2. He put the foam upon the waves. And to each one a song He gave.
He made the rivers run, He wanted joy and fun.
He did it all for you and me.

3. He put the shine into each star. He put the scent into each flower.
He made the earth so good. He planned as no one could.
He did it all for you and me.

4. He gave the butterfly its wings. He made a million lovely things.
He made the day and night. He made the dark and light.
He did it all for you and me. 
He did it all for you and me.

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O Beautiful for Spacious Skies
(1893)

Hymn Background:

“The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours;
The world and all its fullness, You have founded them.“
Psalm 89:11

In 1892, the United States observed the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.  As part of the celebration, the city of Chicago sponsored a World’s Fair, which carried over to the next year.  It was in the early summer of 1893, that a group of professors from Wellesley College (Massachusetts) visited the Exposition on their way to teach summer school in Colorado. The women later compared the wonders of the man-made Fair with the glory of God’s handiwork in the Rockies.

At the close of the summer school, the teachers decided to visit Pike’s Peak, elevation 14,000 feet.  One of them, Katharine Lee Bates, later wrote, “ We hired a prairie wagon for the journey.  Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules.  I was very tired.  But when I saw the view, I felt great joy.  All the wonders of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse . . . 

It was then and there, as I was looking out over the sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under those ample skies, that the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind.  When we left Colorado Springs the four stanzas were penciled in my notebook . . .  The Wellesley work soon absorbed my time and attention again, the notebook was laid aside, and I do not remember paying heed to these verses until the following summer when I copied them out and sent them to The Congregationalist,  where they first appeared in print July 4, 1895.  The hymn attracted an unexpected amount of attention . . .  In 1904, I rewrote it, trying to make the phraseology more simple and direct.  The new version first appeared in the Boston Evening Transcript, November 19,1904.

There are two stories about the melody, MATERNA, which was written by Samuel A. Ward, originally for a hymn entitled, “O Mother Dear, Jerusalem.”  Ward’s son-in-law said that the tune was composed in memory of Ward’s oldest daughter.  One of the employees at Ward’s music store in Newark insisted that he composed the tune in 1882 while crossing New York harbor after spending the day at Coney Island. The notes came to him so quickly he jotted them on a cuff of his shirt.  Perhaps both stories are true.

O Beautiful for Spacious Skies
LYRICS:

1. O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain!
America!  America! God shed full grace on thee,
And crown thy good with servanthood from sea to shining sea.

2. O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!
America!  America! May God thy gold refine.
Till all success be nobleness and every gain divine.

3. O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years.
Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God mend thine every flaw.
Confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law.

When You Do This Remember Me