Thursday, July 29, 2010

Lyrics to the Hymn 'The Love of God'

I got home a little while ago from a live recording service at my church (we are doing a week of recordings to put together our 2nd and 3rd albums. I was there videoing the service. I'll be playing keys tomorrow.) and I want to share a song with you that we just finished recording.

The song is called The Love of God' and was written in the early 20th century by Frederick Lehman. The lyrics are beautifully crafted and have a strong poetic flow to them that I really find powerful. When I first heard the song a couple months ago in a recording preparation practice session I was absolutely blown away by how beautiful this song was. (Apparently, according to google, the song is based of a Jewish poem known as the Haddamut. And the 3rd verse was originally something found written on the wall of a deceased patient at an asylum. I guess, before he went nuts, he was quite the poet...? Strangely, that verse is what I would call the best part!).

Verse 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.

Chorus:
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.




Verse 2:
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.



Verse 3:
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.


Is that stunning or what? Man, I wish I had written that!


** To answer any questions, YES! the album will eventually be available. Itunes and what not. For right now, check out our last album, In Our Day on itunes.
Disclaimer: it isn't all hymns. This is actually the only hymn we are putting in there. We will be recording a bunch of songs written by my worship pastor and other talented members of CLG, as well as some Hillsong, Hillsong United, Chris Tomlin, Cory Asbury, Kari Jobe, and other well known people in the worship industry. We also have the amazing KENT HENRY (if you don't know who he is, check out his music or something. He is just wayyyy too awesome to miss out on. A personal favorite...)  visiting from MI and joining us in the recording process!!!

See our website: www.clgonline.net. Or follow along with the recording process on my worship pastor's blog. Thanks!**

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read that third verse somewhere...
that's an awesome song! soooo, are the
cd's for sale by any chance?? just wonderin'. :)

Ellie

Amie said...

Usually--and I hope this doesn't offend anyone--I'm not a real big fan of church hymns. The message and the purpose is great, but usually there is a lack of creativity there.

This one, though, is pretty cool. And the fact that the last verse was written by a guy losing his mind, makes you wonder if he was actually losing his mind... maybe he was prophesying? or speaking in tongues?

Isabella Kiss said...

Ellie, yes. The CD will be available...eventually. It will take us a little bit to get all the stuff pulled together. But at some point if will be available on itunes. And this is the only hymn on there. Lots of stuff covering what we do at our church. Also some songs that were written in our church by worship leading people. Pretty excited I must say... For right now, check out our last live album "In Our Day" (Church of the Living God. Mike Kim. Eric Peoples. Etc...)

And Amie, there are a lot of hymns that I do like and there are a lot that I...don't like as much... I am in no way offended. This one just happens to be a creative masterpiece!

...longest comment ever!

chelsea rebecca said...

oh wow! this is so awesome.
i love the third verse!

Anonymous said...

thanks for the info!

Ellie

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