The earliest recorded use of the phrase was as the title of a poem about New Zealand written by Thomas Bracken sometime in the 1880s. It was published in a book of his poems in 1890, and then again in 1893 in a book containing a selection of his works, entitled Lays and Lyrics: God’s Own Country and Other Poems.

God’s Own Country as a phrase was often used and popularised by New Zealand’s longest serving prime minister, Richard John Seddon. He last used it on June 10, 1906 when he sent a telegram to the Victorian premier, Thomas Bent, the day before leaving Sydney to return home to New Zealand. "Just leaving for God's own country," he wrote. He never made it, dying the next day on the ship Oswestry Grange.

Bracken’s God’s Own Country is less well known internationally than God Defend New Zealand which he published in 1876. It was declared the country's second national anthem in 1940, and was given equal status to God Save The Queen in 1977.