Oh the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus | Song Analysis
The inspired word of God was written thousands of years ago, yet the truths embedded within the pages have withstood the test of time. The sin that plagued our ancestors Adam and Eve, is the very same sin we struggle with today.
Occasionally, as I’m reading the scriptures, I think about how many eyes have taken in the very words that I am reading - how many voices have read aloud Genesis 1. The Bible connects us to Christians past and present.
In a world full of division, the Bible unifies. In a world full of confusion, the Bible clarifies.
When we gather on Sunday mornings we read from God’s word, and we sing biblical truths. We seek to worship in spirit and truth, as the book of Romans commands.
Truth is truth – yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
When hymn writers of the 1800s paired theology with melody, music was created that can still be sung by church congregations today. In fact, we did this as a church recently when we sang for the first time, Oh the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus, a song originally published in 1875.
Written by Samuel Trevor Francis, a merchant in London, he wrote numerous hymns during his 91-year lifespan.
In 2011, Sovereign Grace Music released a version of Francis’s hymn, adding a short chorus, some alternate lyrics, and simple instrumentation.
The song is about the vastness of God’s love for us. A love that is hard for our finite human brains to fully grasp. A love that is not dependent on our actions but based solely on the actions of Jesus Christ – the sacrificial, perfect lamb, slain for an undeserving and imperfect people.
Imagery of the ocean is used throughout each verse of the song to depict how great and large God’s love is for us with lyrics such as:
Verse 1
Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me
Verse 2
Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus
Spread His praise from shore to shore
Verse 3
Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus
Far surpassing all the rest
It's an ocean full of blessing
In the midst of every test
However, unlike an ocean, God’s love has no boundaries. There is nothing boxing God in and keeping his will from being done on Earth today. He is all-powerful and all-knowing.
HE CREATED THE OCEAN!
In Genesis we read in the very first two verses of the Bible:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” – Genesis 1:1-2
The same Spirit of God that hovered over the waters, is the same Spirit of God that lives within each person that repents of their sin and puts their faith in Jesus Christ!
A scripture that is associated with this song (for obvious reasons, as you’ll see) is written as a prayer from Paul to the church in Ephesus. A prayer that can easily be directed toward our church in Wexford, PA, as a reminder of God’s love for us.
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” – Ephesians 3:16-19
By God’s grace and mercy, His love sustains us through this lifetime, carrying us to Him when he calls us home.
Confidently we can sing today, in 2023, the same hope-filled words that were originally written and sung by our Christian brothers and sisters in 1875.
Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me
Underneath me, all around me
Is the current of thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward
To thy glorious rest above
