The theme of God’s love is one of the most prominent and beautiful in all of scripture. There is not an event, a person, a book, or a page in which we cannot see His love revealed and chronicled. Countless sermons have been preached on God’s love, hundreds of books have been written about Gods love, and dozens of hymns have been written about God’s love. It is a love that has no comparison among human relationships, even those of the highest purity. It is a love that is tied to all of God’s attributes, so that His love is holy, it is eternal, it is compassionate, it is gracious, it is wise, it is powerful, it is patient, it is kind, it is merciful … it is all of these and vastly more.
A concordance will take us to a seemingly unending list of verses that speak of God’s love. It is a theme often prominent in the ministries of the greatest evangelists in history, men like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Stott, and Billy Graham. It is a subject often given major treatment by theologians such as J. I. Packer, John Piper, R.C. Sproul, and Al Mohler. Entire sermon series and conferences have been published and promoted, dealing with the many-faceted dimensions of the love of God.
The love of God is not infrequently misrepresented and cheapened by describing it in shallow sentimental terms that convey the idea of a god who is just like a nice old grandfather at the beginning stages of dementia, who really doesn’t know much about what’s going on around him, but is just always smiling and nice to everyone and perpetually in a good mood. Such a god is not the biblical God! 1 John 4:7 tells us that “God is love,” at the same time that Hebrews 12:29 tells us that “God is a consuming fire!”
We know God’s love primarily through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose work on the cross was motivated by an inestimably great love for the Father and an equally awesome love for us, His sheep, His bride, His elect. The Bible doesn’t just tell us that He loves us; it proves it by His willingly, and even joyfully(!) giving Himself for us. It was Jesus who told the disciples (and us) that He calls us not merely His servants, but His friends.
We are quick to maintain the great attributes of God’s majesty, His sovereignty, His power and authority. And we ought to be reverentially amazed that this God loves us with a richer love than we could ever know in any other relationship. Nineteenth century evangelical pastor Octavius Winslow (a contemporary of Charles Spurgeon and J. C. Ryle) wrote this about the love of Jesus.
The love of Christ is the love of a friend. How touchingly and pointedly He delighted to speak of this: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants … but I have called you friends” (John 15:13-15). God has created in the human heart the desire for friendship.
Jesus meets this holy yearning of our renewed nature; He reveals Himself as our friend, the friend who loved us from eternity, who shed His blood for us, sacrificed His life for us, paid our great debt, delivered us from captivity, and has given us the title, freedom, and wealth of a heavenly citizenship, henceforth calling us friends. Oh, what a friend is Jesus. Cultivate Christ’s friendship, love Him as your friend, consult Him as your friend, be faithful to him as your friend.
We have no lack of texts about the love of God in our hymnals, and more specifically about the love of Jesus, not just our love for the Lord, but of His love for us. Some are classic hymns, others brief choruses, and still others are simple children’s songs. The concept will be found in many hymns dealing with the kindness, mercy, and grace of God. But here are some where His love is expressed in more direct terms.
- Love Lifted Me
- The Love of God Is Greater Far
- Oh, How He Loves You and Me
- Jesus Loves Me, This I Know
- O Love of God, How Strong and True
- What a Friend We Have in Jesus
- I’ve Found a Friend, O Such a Friend
One of those is the focus of this study, the 1875 hymn by Samuel Trevor Francis (1834-1925), “O the Deep, Love of Jesus.” He was born in Chestnut, a village north of London, and became a merchant. As a child, Samuel enjoyed poetry and even compiled a handwritten volume of his own work. He also developed a love for music and joined a church choir at age nine. However, throughout his youth, religion was primarily a matter of tradition for him. He had a spiritual turning point as a teenager, at one point even contemplating suicide. Lonely, walking home after work, he was asking God to have mercy on him. He was walking along the Thames River and came to the Hungerford Bridge to cross. He reportedly paused for a moment on the bridge, and looked over the side into the dark waters of the Thames River. He heard a voice inside his head saying, “Make an end to all this misery!!” Refusing to give into these dark voices, he asked himself, “Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?” He answered and proclaimed, “I do believe with my whole heart.”
Someone soon after invited him to come “see a man buried alive.” It was actually a baptismal service held by Andrew Jukes, an English theologian who greatly influenced Hudson Taylor (1832-1905), the famous English missionary to China. It was Taylor whose work led to the China Inland Mission (which is today the Overseas Missionary Fellowship – OMF). Samuel was moved by the service and was introduced to people that spoke passionately about the gospel. In time, Samuel made the decision to surrender his life to the Lord.
Soon thereafter, Francis began open-air preaching, and during the English Revival of 1859 (when Francis was in his 20s), his preaching led many people to the Lord. Francis was not only a gifted preacher, but he was a talented singer and hymn writer. When American evangelists, Dwight L. Moody and Ira Sankey came to London in 1873-1874, Francis served as one of the chief assistants to their outreaches. Sankey typically led the singing before Moody preached, and in some meetings, Samuel substituted for Sankey. Francis went on to serve in many evangelistic campaigns around the world, including Canada, Australia, and the Middle East. He had the privilege of hearing his songs sung wherever he went, in both English and other languages. Faithfully, Francis continued preaching and writing until his death at age 92.
A collection of his poems which had appeared in a variety of Christian publications were gathered into a work titled “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus.” One friend wrote of Francis: “All his poetical work, as well as his spoken word, was permeated by a realization of the love of Christ, and with a heart desire to see the Savior’s face.” Biographer H. Pickering concludes of Francis’ life, “Now he realizes what he so sweetly penned: ‘At Home with the Lord, what joy is this; to gaze on His face is infinite bliss.’”
In this hymn, based clearly on the prayer and benediction in Ephesians 3:17-19, the love of Jesus is described as being cube-shaped, perfect on all its sides, infinite in all its dimensions—long, high, wide, and deep. There, Paul wrote these loving words to the church in that city.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Francis’ hymn was first published in 1898 in London in “Whence-Whither and Other Poems” in eight stanzas of eight lines, without music. In his preface, Francis included this explanation:
Many of these poems have appeared in various religious and semi-religious papers and magazines. The author has collected them together and with others which have never before seen the light, launches them forth on their message. If he has touched upon the sorrows and the dark side of human life, he has endeavored to show how light, hope, and joy may be found. He trusts that those poems that are hymn-like will not be altered to suit the whims or theology of hymn-book compilers. This book is not written in the interests of any sect, denomination, or party, but for all who “love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth.”
The lyrics have generally today been reduced to three stanzas. The complete hymn text appeared in Francis’ 1926 posthumous collection, “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus and Other Sacred Poems.” The hymn is rich in oceanic language, a suitable image for the concepts of depth and size, but the metaphor also describes movement and direction, of water “rolling . . . underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love.” In the second stanza, the author sees the manifestation of this love in the sacrificial death of Christ. The proper response to this love is to “spread his praise from shore to shore.” The author is also amazed how such love could be offered to one who is “polluted, sinful, wretched.” This idea is echoed in Romans 5:8, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Of the additional seldom-heard stanzas, one finds that the last four stanzas point upward to heavenly realms, where worshipers will be “standing by His side.” The “great inheritance” in stanza six is described in Ephesians 1:18. The final stanza refers to the Bridegroom and His “spotless bride,” another concept found in Ephesians (5:25–27).
As each stanza begins by referring to “the deep, deep love of Jesus,” the overall impression is that of the immensity of the love of Jesus. We know more today about just how deep the oceans are than was known when Francis penned these words. At its deepest in the Marianas Trench, the bottom is seven miles below the surface. But even that is nothing compared to the immeasurable depth of the love of Jesus that Paul wrote about so eloquently in Romans 8:38-39.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Stanza 1 pictures a believer immersed in the ocean, with its waves rolling above, the soul suspended in a bottomless sea, and a strong current flowing past. That ocean is the love of God, with a strong current surrounding us on all sides, carrying us “homeward to Thy glorious rest above.”
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free,
rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me.
Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love;
leading onward, leading homeward to Thy glorious rest above.
Stanza 2 pictures a believer engaged in a glorious work in the midst of that vast ocean. Our joyful task assigned by the Lord is to “spread His praise from shore to shore.” And our praise is based on His loving, unchanging watchfulness over each for whom He died.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, nevermore!
How He watcheth o’er His loved ones, died to call them all His own;
how for them He intercedeth, watcheth o’er them from the throne.
Stanza 3 pictures a believer basking in the wonderful blessings of such a vast, calm ocean of divine love. It is a place to find the best kind of love, “a haven sweet of rest,” an appetizing sense of heaven, one that “lifts me up to glory,” lifting the soul into the very presence of Jesus.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of every love the best;
’tis an ocean vast of blessing, ’tis a haven sweet of rest.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, ’tis a heav’n of heav’ns to me;
and it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee.
The music most often used for the text is the tune EBENEZER, published in 1890 by the Welshman Thomas John Williams (1869-1944). He studied music under David Evans, a well-known professor of music who edited the “Church Hymnary,” used in many English-speaking Presbyterian churches around the world. Throughout his life, and right up to his death, Williams served as an organist and choir director at churches in Wales. His tune EBENEZER was originally associated with his Welsh anthem “Goleu yn y Glyn” (Light in the Valley). The tune is also known by the name TON-Y-BOTEL, a name given to it by a young English singer who told the romantic, but fictional, story of the “tune-in-a-bottle” which had been washed ashore on the coast of Wales.
The tune was named after Ebenezer Chapel in Rhos, Pontardawe, Wales, a church Williams had attended as a boy. The original structure still stands behind a newer chapel built in 1904. The tune’s first appearance in a hymnal was in 1900 in Wales in “The Baptist Book of Praise.” It was set to the hymn “With my pilgrim staff I wander” by William Edwards. The tune was also commonly printed in program booklets for music festivals, including a festival at Noddfa Chapel, Treorchy, in 1900. It was presented at a large festival held at the National Eisteddfod Pavilion, Merthyr, in 1901, conducted by Dan Davies, with 17,000 people in attendance. The tune became very popular and spread quickly, often without people knowing who composed it. EBENEZER is also frequently printed with the hymn “Once to Every Man and Nation” by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891).
As a fine example of Welsh hymnody, it brings to mind the history of the gospel in that portion of the British Isles. Here is a reflection about it from the Welsh-born American preacher, Derek Thomas, who before coming to American was a pastor in Belfast for 18 years.
I think, although this is somewhat simplistic, but in 1904 there was a revival in Wales in which hundreds of thousands of people were converted in the space of six to eight months. And if you go to Wales today, you’ll see these large chapels in relatively small little towns. And there’ll be four or five of these chapels, each of them holding 600 to 1,000 to 1,500 people. And they were built–If you look at them, they were built at the turn of the century because of these large crowds of people that had come to faith and wanted to go to church.
Now these days, of course, they are empty, and some of them have been sold, and they are used as commercial property, and they’ve been converted into houses and so on. But you still see them, and my grandfather’s generation, in say the 1910’s, the 1920’s, the 1930’s, grew up to go to chapel. And Welsh people–at least the folklore is that Welsh people to this day love to sing, and the Welsh male-voice choir phenomenon that you find in Philadelphia among the Welsh immigrants of the 19th century. And the coal-mining industry in Philadelphia–There’s a famous Philadelphia male-voice choir–a Welsh male-voice choir. So at rugby matches–I mean I remember as a boy going to rugby matches and singing “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus!” The same words but translated into Welsh. And folk who have never darkened the door of a church will at least know the first stanza.
He goes on to note that the hymn is written in the key of F minor, which tends to be a rather sober and dark key.
I think what it evokes is a powerful emotional connotation that is not negative in any way but deep. And I think that the very language “O the deep, deep love of Jesus!” is served very well by both the minor key and the rigor of the song. Because, as you said, those thirds…you feel like you are out there somewhere in the north Atlantic, and those north Atlantic waves are rolling over you.
There’s a subtext here that isn’t on the surface, but the longing for home, the reassurance of God’s wings spread around you…I mean the subtext is that life here can be hard and difficult and trying; and he’s not focusing–the text isn’t focusing on the trials. It’s focusing on the deep, deep love of Jesus that enables us to overcome the trials. But we mustn’t miss the subtext of the trial of the pilgrimage of this life and the longing for home which is why the tune is in the minor key.
There was a time when the hymnbook, the church’s hymnbook, would have been beside your bed at night. It would have been the devotional, along with the Bible, of course. But the hymnbook was an important source of devotion. And the kind of things that you find here, especially these closing words “’tis a heav’n of heav’ns to me; and it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee.” One cannot but sing that or read those words, and that not be turned into prayer of thankfulness and gratitude and expressions of trust.
Here is a beautiful anthem based on the hymn, complete with visuals of such an ocean. Notice how appropriately it concludes with the final chord in the major key.