Hymn Exegesis: Here Is Love
Once a week I’m breaking down the lyrics to a hymn. My only criteria is lyrics that communicate deep truths about God. Let’s take a moment to examine the hymn, Here Is Love.
1. Here is love, vast as the ocean,
Loving-kindness as the flood,
When the Prince of Life, our Ransom,
Shed for us His precious blood.
Who His love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing His praise?
He can never be forgotten,
Throughout heav’n’s eternal days.
God demonstrates his appreciation for beauty in every sunrise and sunset, in the wings of butterflies, in the smiles of children. He created us to appreciate beauty as well. And so I think when hymn lyrics contain truth set like a jewel in a beautiful setting, it reaches us on a more intensive level.
Here Is Love was written by William Rees in Welsh originally and became a major feature of the Welsh revival of the early 1900’s. I think you can immediately get a sense of the sublime in the opening lyrics, “Here is love, vast as the ocean…” The hymn opens with a transcendent call to remember the overwhelming (by no means reckless) love of God, poured out for us like an ocean. Surely the only response to such love is endless praise.
2. On the mount of crucifixion,
Fountains opened deep and wide;
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy
Flowed a vast and gracious tide.
Grace and love, like mighty rivers,
Poured incessant from above,
And heav’n’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love.
Rees stays with the theme of God’s love flowing like a vast river. Jesus’ death opens up the floodgates of God’s mercy so that grace and love might roll over us like “mighty rivers”. This verse is a good reminder, though, that in the death of Christ we see not only God’s perfect love and mercy, but also his perfect justice. The final line of the verse hearkens back to Psalm 85:10 (ESV) “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.”
3. Let me, all Thy love accepting,
Love Thee, ever all my days;
Let me seek Thy kingdom only,
And my life be to Thy praise;
Thou alone shalt be my glory,
Nothing in the world I see;
Thou hast cleansed and sanctified me,
Thou Thyself hast set me free.
In verse three, William Williams added to the two verses written by Rees and translated the song into English as well. Here to focus shifts from predominantly on the work of Christ, to our response to that grace. It is an odd turn of phrase to our modern ears, “Let me,… love the ever all my days…” The hymn is a prayer that God would help us to accept God’s love, love God for our entire lives, seek his kingdom alone, and live all our lives to the glory of God. We may not be used to thinking in terms of asking God for the grace to love him. But we are truly dependent on that grace to continue serving God each day. God alone has set us free and sanctifies us.
4. In Thy truth Thou dost direct me
By Thy Spirit through Thy Word;
And Thy grace my need is meeting,
As I trust in Thee, my Lord.
Of Thy fullness Thou art pouring
Thy great love and pow’r on me,
Without measure, full and boundless,
Drawing out my heart to Thee.
The final verse comes from Williams as well. This verse is a statement of the author’s confident expectation that God will answer the prayers of verse three. God will direct me. How? Through his Word. God’s grace is meeting our needs through faith in God. God will continue to pour out his love and power “without measure, full and boundless” recalling descriptions of the vast ocean the hymn began with. The symmetry of the hymn coming back around to the ocean in the end is a mark of beauty as well. I recommend the version above for the full hymn. However, the video below contains only the two original verses and it is sung in Welsh and English.
