This hymn describes and honors the love of our Heavenly Father and His beloved Son, Jesus. Mr. Lehman assures us that God’s love will “forevermore endure” and be with us!Â
Verse:
Romans 8:39 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.
Author: Frederick M Lehman
Born: August 7, 1868
Died: February 20, 1953, Pasadena, California.
Hymn History:
Frederick Lehman was born in Mecklenburg, Schwerin, Germany on August 7, 1868. Lehman emigrated to America with his family at age four, settling in Iowa, where he lived most of childhood. He came to Christ at age 11.
Lehman studied for the ministry at Northwestern College in Naperville, Illinois, and pastored at Audubon, Iowa; New London, Indiana; and Kansas City, Missouri. The majority of his life was devoted to writing sacred songs; his first was written while a pastor in Kingsley, Iowa, in 1898. He wrote and published hundreds of songs, and compiled five song books. In 1911, he moved to Kansas City, where he helped found the Nazarene Publishing House.
“The Love of God,” like so many of our beloved hymns, was born out of hardship. Frederick Lehman (1868–1953), who composed the song alongside his daughter, was forced to load crates of oranges and lemons in Pasadena, California, to make ends meet after his once-profitable business failed.
Mr. Lehman was a Christian who celebrated his salvation. He couldn’t sleep as a result of a Sunday evening message on God’s love that had impacted him deeply. The pleasure of the previous evening remained with him the next morning. As he drove to the packing house, the ideas for a song began to form in his thoughts, with God’s love serving as the theme.
The hymn’s most memorable lines were words found in an insane asylum a century ago, which held profound meaning for Lehman.
In 1948, Mr. Lehman produced a pamphlet titled “History of the Song ‘The Love of God'” (copyright registered on September 15, 1948). This yielded a brief account of how Lehman came to write the song:
While at camp meeting 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 two stanzas and chorus of the song.
[3] Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made;
were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill,
and ev’ryone 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.
We should thank God for people like Frederick Lehman, who help us grasp and feel things that we may never fully comprehend. We should also praise God for the original Aramaic words that have remained in our hearts for millennia. We should petition God for new words to enable people to feel love beyond words, and begin by writing beautiful lines.
Lyrics:
1. 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 wand’ring child is reconciled
by God’s beloved Son.
The aching soul again made whole,
and priceless pardon won.
Refrain:
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
the saints’ and angels’ song.
2 When ancient time shall pass away,
and human thrones and kingdoms fall;
when those who here refuse to pray
on rocks and hills and mountains call;
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
all measureless and strong;
grace will resound the whole earth round—
the saints’ and angels’ song. [Refrain]
3 Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made;
were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill,
and ev’ryone 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. [Refrain]
Listen to the Hymn:
Enjoy this rendition of The Love of God…
References:
https://hymnary.org/person/Lehman_FM
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/love-beyond-telling
https://www.hymnologyarchive.com/the-love-of-god
