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 in-between hymns.
Today’s song is How Deep the Father’s Love for Us from 1995.
The title reminds me a little of the Bee Gee’s How Deep in Your Love from 1977, when I was still having teenaged crushes. How deep were they? 😀
It’s not that I didn’t take an interest in spiritual things back then, but as time goes on, I’ve come to appreciate the deep love of God for us. This one is about the deep love of the father.
There’s also an older hymn about the deep love of Jesus.
Today’s 1995 hymn was one of the few 1990s hymns that we used to sing in my previous fellowship in Tipperary. We were into old hymns and pre-1990s modern hymns. We were never into the modern Hillsong stuff, though I do remember singing Shout to the Lord towards the end of my time there. Now many of these modern 1990s hymns aren’t sung anymore, but I love to discover them all. And this is among the best in my opinion.
This hymn is very much about the cross, when Jesus took the punishment for the sins of all those who would believe in Him. Jesus Himself felt abandoned as He took our punishment:
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away,
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory.
Mark 15:34
And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Some modern evangelical theologians express unease about the notion of the Father punishing the Son. But whatever side of the debate you’re on about what precisely happened on the cross, it’s clear that God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit loves us and planned the cross as the means of our salvation.
1 Peter 3:18
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
When I was a teenager, it felt very magical if a girl looked at me lovingly. Maybe they didn’t look at me lovingly. Maybe they wondered how they might cope if they were as ugly as me 😀. I’d love to think that some did had crushes on me, but what does it matter now? All these magical earthly joys are only a little foretaste of what’s to come.
What does matter is that God loves me and will bring me to be with Him and with all the saints and angels in heaven for all eternity. And I’ve done nothing to merit that. It’s all His grace. Jesus paid the price for all my sins; past, present, and future. If I was the only person in the world, and if I had only committed one sin, the price would still need to be paid because God is just and holy. And it would either be Jesus paying or me paying. And one sin is like one link in a chain. It’s enough to break God’s law and pay the eternal penalty in hell, which is what I would have to do if Jesus didn’t die for me.
Here are some other versions of today’s hymn and its story:
Hibernia Gospel 