How Deep the Father's Love for Us

The Crucifixion (1622) by Simon Vouet

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. ~ Isaiah 53:4-5

     
Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday and culminating in Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, is the climax of the Christian year.  In this one short period are celebrated (among other events) Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem; the Last Supper; the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane; Christ's arrest, trial, crucifixion, and death in atonement for our sins; and His resurrection from the dead on the third day thereafter. These events fulfilled divine promises and the visions of prophets declared many centuries before they actually happened. Nothing else written or imagined by man is so compelling a story; no other event in history is as important. It fixed the purpose of life and the destiny of man, the Earth, and all Creation.

The atonement, death, and resurrection of Jesus have inspired countless works of art, poetry, and music down through the centuries. The vastness of the subject might seem to make futile any attempt to capture it in a single work. But its essence, for man, is breathtakingly simple. As summed up in one popular hymn published in 1891, "I need no other argument, I need no other plea; It is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me." (My Faith Has Found a Resting Place, by Eliza E. Hewitt).

And composers continue celebrating that simple, powerful message today.  Among the best examples is a song by Stuart Townend, an English Christian worship leader and writer of hymns and contemporary worship music. It's called How Deep the Father's Love for Us. This simple, three-stanza work embraces the salient events and greatest truths of Christ's passion, death on the Cross, and resurrection--especially, our redemption through them. The tune is likewise simple and graceful, and easy to sing--very much as with Christendom's most beloved traditional hymns.

How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure,
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure.
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.

Behold the man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders;
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished;
His dying breath has brought me life -
I know that it is finished.

I will not boast in anything,
No gifts, no power, no wisdom;
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death and resurrection.
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer;
But this I know with all my heart -
His wounds have paid my ransom.

How Deep the Father's Love for Us is very similar in theme and approach to My Song is Love Unknown, which was featured here a few weeks ago. Both hymns reflect the singer's sense of unworthiness and remorse, and of personal responsibility for the sin that brought about Jesus' suffering and death ("My sin upon His shoulders" . . . ", "It was my sin that held Him there"). The line referring to the singer's hearing his own "mocking voice/call out among the scoffers" brings powerfully home our own guilt, and brings stark immediacy to that awful scene of mob vengeance in Jerusalem almost 2000 years ago.

Another telling theme in this hymn is the unfathomable love of a Father who would sacrifice His only son to save someone who in no way deserved or had earned such a blessing, and the unutterable loneliness that Jesus must have endured as His Father "turned His face away" as His wounds earned salvation for all of us.

The third stanza of Townend's hymn testifies movingly to the redemptive, transforming power of Christ's sacrifice: "this I know with all my heart--His wounds have paid my ransom". It is a very anthem of that "blessed assurance" that the believer knows!  The precious work that secured it for us, and the glory rightfully attending it, are Christ's alone.

The Scripture student may notice is how this hymn echoes the main themes of Isaiah 53, in which Jesus' suffering and death in atonement for our sins was prophesied more than 700 years before it occurred.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

. . . [By] his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

It's rare indeed to be able to hear from a composer's own lips how he came to write a hymn, but here is a short interview with Stuart Townend himself about the spiritual and musical processes behind How Deep the Father's Love for Us:

[NOTE: If you subscribe to these posts by email, the videos may not appear; in that case you can see them at the Songs of Praises web site.]

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Although How Deep the Father's Love for Us has now been published in at least eight hymnals, including the Baptist Hymnal and the hymnal used by the Church of Ireland, there seem to be no videos currently available featuring the hymn being such in a congregational setting. But there are several good solo and small group renditions, especially this one by Stuart Townend himself. Be sure to see how the lyrics echo passages from both the Old and New Testaments concerning the sacrifice of our Lord and its meaning:



Another fine solo performance is rendered by Christian artist and worship leader Fernando Ortega.

Here is a fine small group performance by contemporary Christian music trio Phillips, Craig and Dean (warning: the video contains some scenes from the film The Passion of the Christ, which may be as violent and hard to watch as they are accurate in depicting Jesus' terrible suffering):

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 May you come to know and embrace the miraculous salvation that Jesus Christ
purchased for YOU with His precious blood on the Cross!
God bless you and your family abundantly.

For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things,
in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through sufferings. ~ Hebrews 2:10

Be Thou My Vision

 Statue of St. Patrick atop the Hill of Slane

 [B]e not conformed to this world:
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what [is] that
good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

~  Romans 12:2

If you've ever known someone whose entire life was devoted to God--every day and hour, in thought and in acts small and great--you've known something not only beautiful, but all too rare. Burdened with daily obligations to family and employers, as well as the myriad temptations and distractions today's world puts in our way, a single-minded devotion to our Lord might seem all but unattainable to the average person. Yet, this is the standard He has set: "[W]hat doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?" (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)  Christ Himself reiterated this truth and expanded on it:  "[T]hou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."  (Mark 12:30-31)

These admonitions call us to a life of utmost devotion to our Heavenly Father and all His children.  As author Charles E. Orr observed, "[d]evotion to God implies ardent affection for Him—a yielding of the heart to Him with reverence, faith, and piety in every act . . ."  Moreover, "[e]very devoted Christian desires to be more devoted to his God. . . . It is pleasant to feel in our hearts an ardent desire to love God more." This is a very natural and commendable desire, but one the World treats with contempt and resists fiercely.

This desire, and the challenges thrown against it, are beautifully expressed in the hymn Be Thou My Vision (Irish: Bí Thusa 'mo Shúile). With its text and melody both springing from the green hills of Ireland, it's fitting to explore it here in the month of March, when we celebrate the feast (March 17) of her patron Saint Patrick.

Dallán Forgaill

St. Patrick

Be Thou My Vision is based on an Old Irish text called Rop tú mo Baile, which is often attributed to 6th-century Christian Irish poet Dallán Forgaill (ca. 530–598). This poem is said to have been written in tribute to the missionary zeal of St. Patrick, as exemplified in an event that occurred in 433 A.D. when St. Patrick came to the Hill of Slane in County Meath, Ireland, during his work to convert that then-pagan country to Christianity. It was the night before Easter, as well as the beginning of the Druids' festival of Bealtine and of the spring equinox. The pagan High King Lóegaire mac Néill had issued a decree that no fires were to be lit until the lighting of a blaze atop the nearby Hill of Tara, which would mark the spring equinox. The first fire was not King Lóegaire's, however, but a flame (either a bonfire or candles) lit by St. Patrick to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. According to legend, the King was so impressed by St. Patrick's courage that instead of putting him to death, he allowed Patrick to continue with his missionary work throughout Ireland. As one observer has noted,"the lighting of a fire seems trivial to us, but at the time it was equivalent to declaring war on the Druids and their pagan beliefs and war against the King of Ireland. That small act of starting a fire was a turning point in St. Patrick's life and in the history of Ireland."

Rop tú mo Baile remained a part of Irish monastic tradition for centuries. Finally, in 1905, it received a literal translation from Old Irish into English prose by Irish linguist Mary E. Byrne (1880-1931). In 1912 the text was first versified by Irish scholar Eleanor H. Hull (1860-1935) and published in her work Poem Book of the Gael.

The tune most widely association with Be Thou My Vision is called, appropriately, Slane.  It is an old Irish folk melody, named for the Hill of Slane, where occurred the confrontation between St. Patrick and King Lóegaire that supposedly inspired Dallán Forgaill's poem. Though centuries old, the melody was first published by Irish historian and music collector Patrick Weston Joyce (1827-1914) in his 1909 collection, Old Irish Folk Music and Songs, under the title "By the Banks of the Bann."  Not until 1919 was this melody coupled with Eleanor Hull's versified text of Be Thou My Vision, by Leopold Dix (1861-1935) in the Irish Church Hymnal.

Here are the text and music to this beautiful hymn of devotion:

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

[Click here to hear the original Old Irish text of Rop tú mo Baile sung to the tune Slane.]

As observed by the Center for Church Music, "[the hymn's] prominent theme encourages single-hearted focus and devotion to Christ. In the hymn lyrics, the poet expresses his adoration of God through the many titles he gives him: Vision, Wisdom, Word, Great Father, Power, Inheritance, High King of heaven, Treasure, bright heaven's Sun, Ruler of all. Today, we continue to sing the words of this hymn, echoing the poet's response to God's many titles. 'Thou my best thought, Thy presence my light.'"

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There are many good renditions of Be Thou My Vision available for viewing and listening on the Internet, and that makes it hard to select just a handful to present here.  I thought the four below were strong in musical and video quality, and capture the consuming devotional spirit of the hymn. [NOTE: If you subscribe to these posts by email, the videos may not appear; in that case you can see them at the Songs of Praises web site.]

The first is a beautiful choral presentation by the George Fox University Concert Choir and String Ensemble, with a video showing scenes of the students' missionary and outreach work--just what it means to let God "be your vision"!



The next choral arrangement, by Lisa Campagnoli Bloom and performed by her as soloist with South Bend, Indiana's Vesper Chorale, is just a little more inventive--and just as moving:



Here is an excellent contemporary performance by the Christian group 4Him, featuring Irish instrumentation as well as lovely artwork and photography:



The live performance below, by Irish Christian singer and songwriter Robin Mark, pairs the hymn with an inspiring pictorial review of some of history's greatest Christian evangelists:

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True devotion to the Lord is a formidable challenge in an age of godlessness and social depravity. Nevertheless, Scripture and history are replete with examples of people, many otherwise unremarkable, who lived God-centered lives in the midst of such conditions. It's done by countless people everywhere, even today. Our God would not lay upon us an expectation that we could not fulfill. Every person has within him- or herself the capacity to walk steadily hand-in-hand with the Lord. Doing so only requires that we develop the inner discipline, patience, and courage that spring from and nourish the defining qualities of the true believer: faith, hope, and selfless love. Let us strive to make Christ our Vision every moment of every day.

 

I am crucified with Christ:
nevertheless I live; yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me:
and the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me,
and gave himself for me.
~ Galatians 2:20