The Composition
Andrae Crouch composed 'My Tribute (To God Be the Glory)' in 1971 during a period of intense creative productivity that also produced 'Soon and Very Soon' and several other songs that would define the contemporary gospel genre. Crouch described the song as emerging from a personal conviction about the purpose of his musical gifts: everything he had accomplished in music was a gift from God, and the proper response to that gift was to return it to its source in praise. The song's opening question - 'How can I say thanks for the things you have done for me?' - echoes Psalm 116:12 and expresses this gratitude-theology with direct simplicity.
The song was recorded on Crouch's album Keep On Singing (1971) and quickly became one of the most widely performed gospel anthems in both Black and white evangelical contexts. Its combination of a singable melody, simple but theologically substantive text, and adaptability to multiple musical settings made it ideal for choral arrangements and congregational singing alike.
Biblical Text
The theological center is Romans 11:33-36, Paul's great doxology concluding his exposition of God's sovereign purposes in salvation history: 'Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them? For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.' The three prepositions of verse 36 - from him (source), through him (sustainer), for him (goal) - capture the comprehensive divine sovereignty that the song's 'my tribute' acknowledges.
Ephesians 3:20-21 - 'Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen' - provides the doxological parallel. The hymn's implicit argument is that no human achievement is self-generated: God's power working within the believer is the source of everything that deserves praise.
Psalm 116:12 - 'What shall I return to the LORD for all his goodness to me?' - is the question that the song inhabits from the first word to the last. The psalmist's rhetorical question is answered by the song itself: the proper return for divine goodness is praise that acknowledges its divine origin.
Andrae Crouch
Andrae Crouch (1942-2015) was born in Los Angeles to a Pentecostal minister and showed musical gifts from childhood, reportedly playing the piano by ear at age nine despite no formal training. He founded the singing group The Disciples in the 1960s, which became the primary vehicle for his gospel songs during his most productive decade. His albums of the 1970s established him as the defining figure of contemporary gospel music.
Crouch was the first gospel songwriter to achieve significant mainstream crossover success, performing on secular television programs and at venues like Carnegie Hall. His songs were recorded by artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon, and Michael Jackson. He was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1998.
Legacy
'My Tribute' has been recorded hundreds of times and translated into dozens of languages. Its use in contemporary worship settings, gospel choirs, and denominational hymnals across the full spectrum of Protestantism testifies to its ecumenical reach. The song demonstrates Crouch's particular gift: translating complex Pauline theology (the comprehensive sovereignty of God as source, sustainer, and goal of all things) into a singable, emotionally accessible form that does not sacrifice theological precision for simplicity. The title's deliberate choice of 'my tribute' - a personal offering rather than an abstract doctrinal statement - locates the song in the tradition of first-person doxology that runs from the Psalms through Paul's doxologies to the great hymns of the Christian tradition.
The song's title - "My Tribute" with the parenthetical "(To God Be the Glory)" - is itself theologically significant. A tribute is a payment rendered to a superior, an acknowledgment of indebtedness and subordination. In the ancient world, tributum was paid by a conquered people to the conquering power. Crouch inverts this: the tribute he offers is not the payment of the defeated but the grateful offering of the liberated. Romans 11:35 - "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?" - establishes that this tribute is not an exchange but a free act of worship: God owes nothing to the one who offers praise, and the one who offers praise received everything from God in the first place.
The song's ecumenical reception across racial and denominational lines reflects a broader truth about doxology: genuine praise transcends the cultural categories that divide Christians in other contexts. When a congregation sings "to God be the glory, great things he hath done," they are, for that moment, united by what they are celebrating rather than divided by what they disagree about. Crouch's achievement was to write doxological music of sufficient theological weight and musical accessibility that it could serve as a common language for Christians of enormously varied backgrounds.
His later career included producing Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" and arranging music for Madonna, activities that seemed paradoxical to some observers but that Crouch understood as extensions of his conviction that music itself is a gift from God, to be used in whatever context it serves human flourishing. His Grammy awards, his induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, and the global reach of his compositions mark him as one of the most significant American sacred musicians of the twentieth century.