"Great Is the Lord" is a popular Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 praise song

Praise song

Contemporary worship music is a loosely defined genre of Christian music used in contemporary worship. It has developed over the past sixty years and is stylistically similar to pop music. The songs are frequently referred to as "praise songs" or "worship songs" and are typically led by a "worship...

 written in 1982 by Debbie and Michael W. Smith

Michael W. Smith

Michael Whitaker Smith is a Billboard top ten Billboard Hot 100 recording artist and Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. He is one of the best-selling and most influential artists in Contemporary Christian music. Smith also has achieved a considerable amount of...

. The couple were at the time active members of Belmont Church on Music Row

Music Row

Music Row is an area just to the southwest of Downtown Nashville, Tennessee that is home to hundreds of businesses related to the country music, gospel music, and Contemporary Christian music industries...

 in Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

 and were seeking to augment the music. Today the song is sung in churches of many denominations and is included in many hymnal supplements.

The inspiration for the lyrics were drawn from Psalm 145:3, "Great is the Lord and most worthy of Praise."

Source

• Great Is the Lord, a modern-day psalm for worship, Today's Christian, May/June 2000 (article includes lyrics)