That
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in
love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and
length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth
knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. (Eph 3:17-19)
DEEP
CALLETH UNTO DEEP at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy
billows are gone over me. 8 Yet the LORD will command
his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me,
and my prayer unto the God of my life. (Psalm
42:7-8)
Except
that it be God Himself, the author of this ancient hymn is unknown. There are
at least four different tunes to which this hymn is sung: Deo
Gracias, The Agincourt Song, 1415:
Alternate tunes: Canonbury, Robert
A. Schumann, 1839; Eisenach, Johann
H. Schein, 1628; and Melcombe, Samuel
Webbe, Sr.; 1782. My favorite, and
I believe the more common, is Eisenbach.
O Love, How Deep
O love, how deep, how broad, how
high,
It fills the heart with ecstasy,
That God, the Son of God, should
take
Our mortal form for mortals’
sake!
He sent no angel to our race
Of higher or of lower place,
But wore the robe of human frame
Himself, and to this lost world
came.
For us baptized, for us He bore
His holy fast and hungered sore,
For us temptation sharp He knew;
For us the tempter overthrew.
For us He prayed; for us He
taught;
For us His daily works He
wrought;
By words and signs and actions
thus
Still seeking not Himself, but
us.
For us to wicked men betrayed,
Scourged, mocked, in purple robe
arrayed,
He bore the shameful cross and
death,
For us gave up His dying breath.
For us He rose from death again;
For us He went on high to reign;
For us He sent His Spirit here,
To guide, to strengthen, and to
cheer.
To Him Whose boundless love has
won
Salvation for us through His Son,
To God the Father, glory be
Both now and through eternity.
O love, how deep, how broad, how
high, It fills the heart with ecstasy, That God, the Son of God, should take
Our mortal form for mortals’ sake!
It was not for His own sake that the Lord came down to be scorned, rejected,
and tortured; but for the sake of His Elect. That LOVE which describes Him
fully is beyond our comprehension. It is higher than the heavens, deeper than
the depths of Hell, and wider than the ocean. It certainly does more than fill
the heart, but rather turns the heart into an over-flowing fountain of love.
In the human equation, a paid servant would have been sent
to perform the dirty work of the master of the house, but not so in the Kingdom
of God. God sent His very best! He sent no angel to our race Of higher or
of lower place, But wore the robe of human frame Himself, and to this lost
world came. He left the mansions of His Father to take upon
Himself the very frame of those He came to save; but not the bloodline. His was
the bloodline of His Father. Ours is the sin-tainted blood of our ancient
father, Adam.
For us baptized, for us He bore His holy fast and hungered sore, For us
temptation sharp He knew; For us the tempter overthrew. He came
under the Law, and was baptized under the Law. He fasted under the Law, and was
tempted under the Law; but He defeated death, Hell and Satan in the
satisfaction of the Law for us sinners.
For us He prayed; for us He taught; For us His daily works He wrought; By
words and signs and actions thus Still seeking not Himself, but us. He
both prayed and fasted for us. Though you will not find it in your modern
bibles of fable, Matthew 17:21 tells us how He healed and cast out demons: Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
(Matt 17:21)
The dry, dusty roads of Samaria, of Tyre, of Galilee, and of Bethany He trod
daily – most often without a single full night of sleep – for us. He proved His
Sonship by His miracles, His Parables, and His Words; but more powerfully by
His LOVE!
For us to wicked men betrayed,
Scourged, mocked, in purple robe arrayed, He bore the shameful cross and death,
For us gave up His dying breath.
On that day, two thousand years ago, we were called to the bench of justice to
pay for our many sins. We met Barabbas there, too, who was arraigned for the
same sentence of a cruel death. But Barabbas, and we, were pardoned while
another of finer frame and character – blameless and innocent – took our place
there on the pillar of beating. He considered it not a burden to bear our cross
for us, and to be nailed thereupon in our stead. His eyes were filled with the
blood streaming down his loving brow from the crown of thorns; and His back was
crimson with blood from the gashes made by the Roman cat-of-nine-tails (whip
with embedded glass and rocks in its tips). He never hesitated to
complete the sacrifice, but bore His cross steadily onward on the Via Dolorosa
for you and me. There He died the death we should have died.
For us He rose from death again;
For us He went on high to reign; For us He sent His Spirit here, To guide, to
strengthen, and to cheer.
Thank our God that the Tomb of Christ was borrowed because it was only needed
for a time. Because of His borrowed Tomb, our tombs shall also be
borrowed for a short time. He rose from the Tomb so that we, too, may
have that privilege to rise in Him. He was received into Heaven by a cloud –
perhaps the same that covered His countenance on the Mount of Transfiguration,
or that cloud which concealed his countenance and followed the Children in the
Wilderness. He sent the Comforter in His stead to be at all places and at all
times to comfort, encourage, strengthen, and succor His Elect.
To Him Whose boundless love has
won Salvation for us through His Son, To God the Father, glory be Both now and
through eternity.
The love of our Lord surpasses all understanding. No one else would die for us
when we lay bleeding in our filth and sin. That Love is a saving love. But do
not discount the Love of the Father, either. He sent His most cherished
possession down among thieves, rascals, enemies, and sinners to redeem them. He
loved us enough to send His Son to die on the cross – a terrible thing for the
Father to behold. It was the Will of the Father, and the Son obeyed. How little
do we obey. Not nearly so much is required of us. God would not demand the
death of any man’s only begotten son as a remission of sin – even Isaac of
Abraham! But Isaac was a shadow of the Son that God would send instead. And
Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am
I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for
a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for
a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. (Gen
22:7-8) Yes,
Abraham and Isaac went on together to what Abraham believed would be a
sacrifice of his only begotten son; but his had was kept from the sacrifice,
for God the Father and God the son would both go together to the place of
sacrifice at Calvary in the fullness of time.
