I’ve been exploring some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. But now, I’ve decided to alternate between very modern hymns, old hymns, and in-between hymns, namely the worship songs from the 60s to the 90s that feature in hymnbooks such as Mission Praise. Today it’s the turn of the old hymns.
Today’s song is My Song is Love Unknown.
The lyrics were written by Puritan minister, Samuel Crossman, back in 1664, initially as a poem. It’s most popular tune was written in 1925, by John Ireland, who isn’t from Ireland. He was an Englishman.
My personal memory of it goes back to 1990. I was leading a Baptist Youth Evangelism (BYE) team in Limerick, and we sang it every day during our devotional time in the morning. I don’t know which of us introduced it. I might have heard it in Wales earlier that year. I don’t remember it being widely sung in Ireland. The Welsh have a great love for old hymns, and I developed that same love when I did some theological training there. I lost interest in modern songs for the next 25 years, but now I can enjoy all Christian music. Yet, I still love these old hymns.
This one expresses deep love for Christ. What is meant by “love unknown”? It just means that we have never and will never know love that’s in anyway close to the love of Jesus. It’s a 17th Century poem, so it shouldn’t surprise us if some of the lyrics are difficult to grasp, but it’s essentially the story of Jesus; his incarnation and death on the cross to earn a place in heaven for us. My favourite verse is the final verse.
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
7 Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine!
Never was love, dear King,
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my friend,
In whose sweet praise
I all my days
Could gladly spend
Here are some other versions of the hymn.
Hibernia Gospel 