O the Deep Deep Love of Jesus
A man who loved the ocean wrote a beautiful hymn describing the vastness of God’s love - was it a miraculous work of God, saving him from death, that inspired it?
Welcome back to Friday Classic Hymns. I haven't done one for a while, but this is one that has been requested by people on my channel - "O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus." Not one that I knew well, but as I looked it up and read the story and learned the song, I just really fell in love with it.
What a beautiful hymn. Do you know it? If you have any memories of it or any thoughts about the words as we work through it, share them in the comments below. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thank you for subscribing - those of you who haven't, please would you consider it? It's one way to try and get these videos out to more people. Check out the previous episodes of this Friday Classic Hymns series - I've done more than 100, and all your favourite hymns are probably in there somewhere. If you have a suggestion for one, put it in the comments below.
The Story Behind "O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus"
It was a man named Samuel Trevor Francis who wrote this one, born in 1834 in Hertfordshire, north of London. His father was a businessman and also an artist who moved his family to the sea early on in Samuel's life. As a child, Samuel enjoyed poetry and actually compiled his own little handwritten book of his own verse.
He also became a musician and sang in the local church choir at a young age. As a teenager, though, he started to struggle a little bit with his spirituality, and he sensed that not all was well with his soul. He joined the Plymouth Brethren in 1873, and this seemed to really turn him around, as he worked with great men like D.L. Moody and Ira Sankey and others who were part of the evangelistic movement of that day.
There is a legend behind the writing of this hymn, and nobody's quite sure if it's true. Francis himself told of how one day as a young man, he was walking along the River Thames considering throwing himself off the Hungerford Bridge. He was in such a bad way. But as he walked there, planning to do this, God met him and he had a great encounter with God, and he decided not to go through with it.
His life seemed to turn around then, and many people believe that he went and wrote this hymn after that experience. Others deny it and say there's no real proof that that is the case. But he did seem to tell the story about that experience, so whether or not it inspired the hymn, his sense of God's love is so strong that perhaps that incident was influential in how he understood the love of God.
He wrote more hymns and ended up doing a lot of open-air preaching for the Plymouth Brethren, publishing a lot of his work in various hymnals. He travelled widely for the Brethren as well, often boarding ocean liners and going overseas as he preached and shared the good news. He died a faithful Christian man in his 90s, and this is the one work of his that is still truly well loved today.
What Do the Lyrics of "O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus" Mean?
Verse 1
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free.
What a great description of the love of Christ. Those adjectives are stunning, and the picture they paint is obviously huge. Think about this - Francis grew up at the ocean, and he spent much of his life travelling on boats to go and preach. I think he was picturing the ocean here.
In fact, he must have been, because look at how the words go on:
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me.
He thinks about the love of Jesus and he thinks about the ocean. I can almost picture him on a boat, looking out and just seeing water everywhere, thinking the love of Jesus is like this - vast and unmeasured and deep and free, rolling over me.
He now pictures himself almost inside the ocean:
Underneath me, all around me is the current of Thy love.
He is immersed, enveloped and overwhelmed by this love, and he says there's a current leading him on:
Leading onward, leading homeward to my glorious rest above.
As he basks in the ocean of God's love, it leads him and guides him. What a great description of the love of Jesus. It reminds me of Paul in Ephesians, talking about how high and how wide and how deep is the love of Jesus. Do you know that vast love? I hope so.
Verse 2
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,Spread His praise from shore to shore.
I think this is a picture of what Francis himself did as he travelled about on boats to different lands to preach:
How He loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, never more.
He realises that this love is constant, and that he can always rely on it:
How He watches o'er His loved ones, died to call them all His own.
Two aspects of the love of Christ there - how He watches over His people with love, and how He actually gave His life on the cross for us. 1 John talks about how real love is not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to atone for our sins. Real love is Jesus on the cross, and Jesus now watching over His loved ones.
How for them He intercedeth, watcheth o'er them from the throne.
Scripture talks about how Jesus isn't just at rest in heaven, but is actually praying for His people. What a picture of His love - He prays because He loves us. Anyone prays for the ones they love, and so Christ prays for us in His love. Awesome words.
Verse 3
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,Love of every love the best.
No matter what love you know in your life, the love of Jesus is greater still. It reminds me of Wesley's hymn Love Divine, All Loves Excelling - it's the greatest love of all, the love of Jesus for His people. Thank You, Lord, that we can know the best love of all.
'Tis an ocean vast of blessing, 'tis a haven sweet of rest.
There is a vast blessing in the love of God that just overwhelms us, but it is also a haven - almost like a harbour. The love of God leads us to a place of rest. The ocean is often thought of as a wild and choppy, stormy environment, but here Francis reminds us that the love of Jesus is a haven of rest. It's a sweet and wonderful, restful place.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,'Tis a heaven of heavens to me.
He brings up that phrase again - the deep, deep love of Jesus - and now he calls it the heaven of heavens. Right now, with the love of Jesus, I have heaven in my soul. Isn't that beautiful?
And it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee.
There is a present reality where our souls are lifted and we are close to God, but I think there is also an eternal angle here - that one day we will be in glory with Him, and we will know His love in an even more powerful way.
Oh, what beautiful words. Is there anything that spoke to you here? Share it in the comments - how God spoke to you as we worked through these lines.
Conclusion
We're going to sing it now to the famous tune that was written for it by a Welsh composer named Thomas John Williams. There's a legend, in fact, that this tune was found written on a piece of paper inside a bottle that washed up on a shore. Not sure if that's the truth, but nonetheless, it's a beautiful Welsh melody - a minor key, typical Welsh minor key melody. It has been called by some as one of the greatest hymn tunes ever written. You're going to enjoy singing it, I'm sure.
Before we do, just thank you for supporting my channel. Thank you to those who donate to me on PayPal and on my Patreon, where I send out all my music for free - or for whatever you decide to support with. I really appreciate your support for me and my young family. Come, let's sing the song together, and may you get a sense of the great, vast, ocean-like love of Jesus.
References
The Center for Church Music, Songs and Hymns - Samuel Francis biography
