Greetings and peace, friends and family in Christ Jesus.  

Today, we are grateful to God in thanksgiving for the myriad of blessings he bestows upon us, to know life and death, to have air to breathe, water to drink, and food to eat.  It is in thanksgiving we are challenged to complete some tasks during difficult and seemingly impossible circumstances.  Greater still are the privilege, joy, and awesome wonder of being in relationship with the Almighty.  

In the midst of tumultuous and changing times, the one constant that never changes is God’s love for his creation, all of it including mankind.  So it is, that today I want to share something on the love of God.  

One of the songs my bass singing uncle, Clyde Walter “Sonny” Maher, loved to sing was “The Love of God”.  I’ve heard him sing it numerous times as a solo.  My mother, Lucille Hinds, has told hymn stories to the delight of many throughout the years.  So, for today, I thought I would put these three things together, my mother’s hymn storytelling, a favorite song of my uncle, and thoughts on the love of God.  But before we share the hymn story, let’s enjoy the lyrics of the song, “The Love of God”.  After the hymn story we will share a few Bible verses about the love of God.

The Love of God 

By Frederick Lehman

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 guilty pair, bowed down with care,
   God gave His Son to win;
   His erring child He reconciled,
   And pardoned from his sin. 

1. • Refrain:
     Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
     How measureless and strong!
     It shall forevermore endure—
     The saints’ and angels’ song.

1. When hoary 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.

1. 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.

Frederick Lehman tells us that verse 3 “had been found penciled on the wall of a patient’s room in an insane asylum after he had been carried to his grave.” While it is only supposition that he was the one who adapted the Jewish author’s poem to leave us these well-known lines, if the account is true it shows in any case that he highly esteemed the message.

The following story was found on the Internet giving credit to a Jewish author who penned the words to the third verse in the year 1050 and which poem/song was used during Pentecost celebrations by the Jews.

Home>Archives>1950>September>The Story of “The Love of God”*

Down through the tedious ages of time man’s heart has been cheered at the thought of the boundless love of God, and in his soul there has often been touched a responsive chord to that wonderful love.  So compelling is this love that it is often felt by the most unfortunate and seemingly hopeless of mortals.  Some years ago after the patient in a certain room in one of the mental institutions of our land had found release from his pathetic earthly sojourn, and his room was being readied for another unfortunate occupant, the attendants found scrawled on the walls of the room the following profound lines:

“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.”

In his saner moments this poor, troubled soul had poured out his simple heart of love to his God. 

In the ensuing years, these lines were often quoted, and many hearts were touched.  Early in the twentieth century an additional two stanzas and chorus, with a simple melody, were written by F. M. Lehman, using the foregoing as a climax in the third stanza. The melody was harmonized by his daughter, Mrs. W. W. Mays.  It was nearly twenty years later that the song first “caught fire,” and people in all walks of life began singing it.

But always there were inquiries about “that third stanza,” and though the story of its origin never failed to make a solemn and heart-stir ring impression, many continued to feel that the language of those lines indicated a source even beyond that, perhaps somewhere in the dim and hoary past.  They felt that the lines had only been quoted by the inmate in the story.

After endless searching in libraries someone decided to ask a Jewish rabbi—perhaps he would have a clue. The rabbi listened intently to the words, and quietly replied, “Yes, I can tell you who the author of those lines is.  Rabbi Hertz, chief rabbi in the British Empire at one time, wrote a book entitled A Book of Jewish Thought.  Go to a Jewish bookstore, and on page 213 you will find that this poem was writ ten in A.D. 1050 by a Jewish poet, Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai.”  It is in the hymnology of the synagogue used for the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost).

We can imagine this poet standing on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, contemplating the great love of his Jehovah.  His heart is moved by the fires of inspiration.  As the love of God sweeps over Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai’s soul, his imagination fills the ocean with ink, the arching skies seem to magnify the scope of this all-compelling love, and the papyrus marsh comes to life with countless scribes writing ceaselessly and tirelessly about the measureless love of God. 

Nehorai’s love epic lay dormant through succeeding centuries.  But Providence watched over and preserved these memorable lines.  Yes, the third stanza of “The Love of God” was written by a Jewish poet in A.D. 1050.  Time passed, then God put it into the heart of a Gentile song writer, F. M. Lehman, whose heart also responded to God’s love, to add the two stanzas and chorus in our own day, in Pasadena, California, in 1917.

* Some time ago, just after I had recorded this song for phonograph use, I visited the author, F. _M. Lehman, now eighty-one years old and residing in Pasadena, California, and received this unusual story from him. I have found that it always touches hearts when told this way in an evangelistic meeting just before the song is sung.

The above account was found on the Internet at: https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1950/09/the-story-of-the-love-of-god

What does the Bible say about God’s Love?  The Love of God is frequently mentioned in the Bible through stories and proverbs as divine, true and everlasting.  Scripture gives us the importance and meaning of God’s Love so that we may believe and trust in Him.

John 3:16 NIV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

1 John 4:7-8 NIV

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 

1 John 4:9-11 NIV

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 

1 John 4:16 NIV

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 

Romans 8:37-39 NIV

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,Or “nor heavenly rulers” neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Isaiah 54:10 NIV

Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. 

Romans 5:8 NIV

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

Galatians 2:20 NIV

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 

Psalm 136:26 NIV

Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever. 

Ephesians 2:4-5 NIV

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved. 

Psalm 86:15 NIV

But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. 

Zephaniah 3:17 NIV

The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” 

1 John 3:1 NIV

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 

John 15:13 NIV

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 

Deuteronomy 7:9 NIV

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

Focus on Jesus and Follow His Plan.

His plan includes love from him, love from you, love for him, love for you, and love for everyone in the whole world.  Indeed, “God is love.”

Blessings and peace to you, dear friend.  May you ever be found in thanksgiving to God, basking in his great love.