Lyrics: Stuart Towend, 1995.
Music: Stuart Townend, 1995.
Theme:
Matt: “It struck me how utterly incapable we are of coming even remotely close to comprehending the infinite depth of God’s love for us.”
Mary Lynn: “I recently had a student sing this at school – I told her (before this survey) that this one would make my all-time-top-10 list.”
TheeEpiphany: “When I stop to remember His goodness, His patience with me, His everlasting love and promises, everything else seems so less worthy of my attention.”
Mark Moore: “I never thought about adoption as “paying a ransom”. It makes sense when you read passages in the New Testament that talk about us being “adopted” into God’s family. How did that happen? Jesus’ wounds paid our ransom!”
Stuart Townend: “I’d been meditating on the cross, and in particular what it cost the Father to give up his beloved Son to a torturous death on a cross. And what was my part in it? Not only was it my sin that put him there, but if I’d lived at that time, it would probably have been me in that crowd, shouting with everyone else ‘crucify him’. It just makes his sacrifice all the more personal, all the more amazing, and all the more humbling.
As I was thinking through this, I just began to sing the melody, and it flowed in the sort of way that makes you think you’ve pinched it from somewhere! So the melody was pretty instant, but the words took quite a bit of time, reworking things, trying to make every line as strong as I could.”
How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
And 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 the 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.
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.
Such a new song to be so very popular! Such an old theme!
Thank you so much for sharing these hymns…they are a blessing!
I love this hymn. I had no idea it was new. We started singing it at my church a few years ago when a new music minister came, but I thought he’d just dusted off an obscure old hymnthe . It’s nice to see that hymns are making a comeback!
Such beautiful theology set to a beautiful melody. How can I keep from singing?
So where is number 33????? This is 32, and the previous one is 34… ?????
It’s there. I just forgot to tag it properly. You should be able to find it now.
Thanks, Sherry! I hope you can finish the last 20 by October 17th! We’re having a hymn sing at Fremont Baptist (Seattle) where I would like to publicize your results including the #1 hymn!
We will be singing a program mainly of Shepherd hymns (plus a celebration of the 150th birth anniversaries of Katharine Lee Bates and Carl Gustav Boberg), which looks like it will end up comprising
My guess is nary a one is in your top 100, but the program will also have space for about ten requests from the audience, and my guess is half of those are likely to be top 100 hits…
Haruo
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I’m new at computors,but I sure would love it if you would email me a copy of How Deep The Father’s Love For Us to me?!