Cheesy Verse of a Great Hymn?

We all know this great hymn:

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
consider all the works thy hand hath made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
thy power throughout the universe displayed:

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God; to thee,
How great thou art, how great thou art!

When through the woods and forest glades I wander,
and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
and hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze;

Then sings...

But when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
sent him to die-I scarce can take it in
that on the cross, our burden gladly bearing,
he bled and died to take away our sin;

Then sings...

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
and take me home-what joy shall fill my heart!
Then shall I bow in humble adoration,
and there proclaim: My God, how great thou art!

Then sings...

Russian hymn
tr. Stuart K. Hine (1899-1989) altd.

But I have to confess that vs 2 has always struck me as the weakest. A bit cheesy, a slight embarrassment, to be honest... Until today, that is!

Because it is all about Christ. I've no idea if that's deliberate or coincidental - a great example of coincidence being when God decides to remain anonymous.

Going line by line:

• When a Christian sees woods, they (presumably) might remember the great tree in which all birds will seek refuge.
• And who is like a bird, protecting chicks under wing-coverings? To whose glory do birds sing? What song does the whole creation sing?
• Lofty mountains isn't a difficult one to someone writing a long dissertation on the Psalms.
• And rivers are not unheard of in the Bible, speaking of Spirit-blessing.

But you can push all this, can't you? I wish that I knew the Bible better, and understood Jim Jordan's stuff, but I'm sure we can probably say something like this:

• Tree of tragedy, exaltation and enthronement.
• Bird of Spirit-life-breath.
• All on a mountain-tabernacle, where we see the great eternal Tabernacle.
• Dying for that river of Spirit-blessing to flow, purchasing and guaranteeing that eternal river-garden-mountain-city...

Not such a bad verse now, is it!