The Love of God
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue
or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The
guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He
reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
When years of time shall pass away,
And earthly
thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men, who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains
call,
God�s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace
to Adam�s race�
The saints� and angels� song.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies
of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To
write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the
whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Chorus:
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and
strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints� and angels� song.
BIBLE
REFERENCE:
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love
wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,
(by grace ye are saved); And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:4-6
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he
loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:10
But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the
love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
1 John 2:5
The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Jeremiah 31:3
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39
Frederick Martin Lehman -
Lyrics & Composer
1868-1953
Born: August 7, 1868, Mecklenburg, Schwerin, Germany.
Died: February 20, 1953, Pasadena, California.
Buried: Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale, California.
HYMN HISTORY:
This beloved gospel hymn has its roots in a Jewish
poem, written in Germany in the eleventh century, Frederick M. Lehman, the twentieth-century author
and composer, wrote a pamphlet, in 1948, entitled �History of the Song, The Love of God.�
Portions of Mr. Lehman�s account are as follows:
While at campmeeting in a mid-western state,
some fifty years ago in our early ministry, an evangelist climaxed his message by quoting the last
stanza of this song. The profound depths of the lines moved us to preserve the words for
future generations.
Not until we had come to California did this urge find fulfillment, and that at a time when
circumstances forced us to hard manual labor. One day, during short intervals of inattention
to our work, we picked up a scrap of paper and, seated upon an empty lemon box pushed against the
wall, with a stub pencil, added the (first) two stanzas and chorus of the song.
sdahymnalcomplete.web.app
...Since the lines (3rd stanza from the Jewish poem) had been found penciled on the wall of a
patient�s room in an insane asylum after he had been carried to his grave, the general opinion was
that this inmate had written the epic in moments of sanity.
The key-stanza (Third verse) under question as to its authorship was written nearly one thousand
years ago by a Jewish songwriter, and put on the scorepage by F. M. Lehman, a Gentile songwriter, in
1917.
The Jewish poem, Hadamut, in the Aramaic
language, has ninety couplets. The poem is in form of an acrostic, with the author�s name
woven into the concluding verses. It was composed, in the year 1096, by Rabbi Mayer, son of
Isaac Nehorai, who was a cantor in the city of Worms, Germany.
The poem may be broken down into two parts. In the first section, the poet praises God
as the ruler of the world, the One who created all things, including the angels, to serve Him.
The poet also includes the creation of the children of Israel as God�s special portion.
In the second section, the writer describes the polemic between the nations of the world and
the chosen Jewish people.
He describes how these people have been persecuted and even killed, throughout the ages, for
the sanctity of God�s Holy Name. The poem tells how the nations of the world have attempted to
influence the Jewish people to leave their religion and to cooperate with the non-Jewish majority.
This the Jews have refused to do, however believing with conviction, that though this world
may be one of hatred and destruction, the world to come will vindicate them, and then all the
nations of the world will know that God has chosen Israel for His eternal glory.
The Hadamut poem also speaks of a certain miracle, which happened, about which the poet comments.
There are three opinions as to the contents of this miracle. The first opinion is that
the miracle was the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.
Incidentally, it is for this reason that the poem is still read on the first day of the Feast
of Shavuot (Fall Harvest-Festival of Weeks, begun seven weeks after Passover) before the reading of
the Ten Commandments.
The second opinion simply states that we really cannot know with certainty, from the references,
what the actual miracle was. The third opinion believes that the miracle took place in the
city of Worms, home of the rabbi-poet. It is thought that there was a medieval, German priest
who once spoke evil of the Jewish community.
The king called upon the Jews of the city to produce a representative to argue and defend
themselves against the priest. If the Jewish spokesman was successful, then the Jewish
community would be spared mass genocide. But if the anti-Jewish priest proved successful, then
all of the Jewish community of Worms would be put to death.
The story has a happy ending, as the Jewish representative was successful in the defense of
their faith, and the community of Worms was spared.
Throughout the poem, the theme of God�s eternal love and concern for His people is evident.
One section of this poem, from which the present third stanza of �The Love of God� was
evidently adapted, reads as follows:
Were the sky of parchment
made,
A quill each reed, each twig and blade,
Could we with ink the oceans fill,
Were
every man a scribe of skill,
The marvelous story
Of God�s great glory
Would still
remain untold;
For He, most high
The earth and sky
Created alone of old.
Frederick Martin Lehman pastored Nazarene
churches, throughout his ministry in Indiana and Illinois, before moving to Kansas City, in 1911,
where he became involved in starting the Nazarene Publishing House. His later years were lived
in California, where he died at Pasadena in 1953. Throughout his ministry, Frederick Lehman
wrote numerous poems and songs, including the publishing of five volumes of Songs That Are
Different. �The Love of God� first appeared in Volume Two of that series, in 1919, although
the copyright was obtained two years earlier. The harmonization of this gospel hymn was
accomplished by Mr. Lehman�s daughter, Claudia (Mrs. W. W. Mays, 1892-1973), who also was associated
with the Nazarene Publishing House as its secretary for a period of time.
�The Love of God� has been widely used during the past several decades as a special number by
numerous gospel musicians. It is presently being included in many of the newer evangelical
hymnals as a worthy congregational hymn.
GOD THOU ART LOVE
�If I forget,
Yet God remembers! If these hands of mine
Cease from their clinging, yet the
hands divine
Hold me so firmly that I cannot fall;
And if sometimes I am too tired to
call
For Him to help me, then He reads the prayer
Unspoken in my heart, and lifts my
care.
�God, Thou art love! I build my faith on that.
I know Thee who has kept my path, and
made
Light for me in the darkness, tempering sorrow
So that it reached me like a solemn
joy;
It were too strange that I should doubt Thy love.�
Robert
Browning
Dear Brothers and Sisters in
Christ,
The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Jeremiah 31:3
The thunders of the law and the terrors of judgment are
all used to bring us to Christ; but the final victory is effected by lovingkindness.
The prodigal set out to his father's house from a sense of need; but his father saw him a great way
off, and ran to meet him; so that the last steps he took towards his father's house were with the
kiss still warm upon his cheek, and the welcome still musical in his ears.
The thunders of the law and the terrors of judgment are all used to bring us to Christ; but the
final victory is effected by lovingkindness. The prodigal set out to his father's house from a sense
of need; but his father saw him a great way off, and ran to meet him; so that the last steps he took
towards his father's house were with the kiss still warm upon his cheek, and the welcome still
musical in his ears.
"Law and terrors do but
harden
All the while they work alone;
But a sense of blood-bought pardon
Will dissolve a
heart of stone."
The Master came one night to the
door, and knocked with the iron hand of the law; the door shook and trembled upon its hinges; but
the man piled every piece of furniture which he could find against the door, for he said, "I will
not admit the man."
The Master turned away, but by-and-bye He came back, and with His own soft hand, using most that
part where the nail had penetrated, He knocked again--oh, so softly and tenderly.
This time the door did not shake, but, strange to say, it opened, and there upon his knees the once
unwilling man was found rejoicing to receive his guest. "Come in, come in; thou hast so knocked that
my bowels are moved for thee.
I could not think of thy pierced hand leaving its blood-mark on my door, and of thy going away
houseless, 'Thy head filled with dew, and thy locks with the drops of the night.' I yield, I yield,
Thy love has won my heart." So in every case: lovingkindness wins the day.
What Moses with the tablets of stone could never do, Christ does with His pierced hand.
Such is the doctrine of effectual calling. Do I understand it experimentally? Can I say, "He drew
me, and I followed on, glad to confess the voice divine?"
If so, may He continue to draw me, till at last I shall sit down at the marriage supper of the
Lamb.
Charles
Spurgeon