The Hymn We Sang and the Gospel We Missed

Rethinking "O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus" and the direction of the biblical story.

Recently my lectionary devotional app played a classic hymn - O, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus. (See lyrics below). I remember it well from my growing-up years. We sang it regularly at home and church. I could probably sing every part and most of the lyrics without a book. When I hear it today, those memories go deep.

But other thoughts arise after 40+ years of life experience, during which I have found a “good news” that is rooted in but distinctly different from that with which I grew up.

What strikes me immediately is that this hymn is very personal and “me” oriented. There is the part about “shore to shore” and “His loved ones”, but the whole focus is God’s love for “me”. The pronoun “me” appears 6 times in these 3 verses. God’s love, like a mighty ocean, carries me up to the glorious shores above.

Nowadays, when I hear/see texts like this about boundless oceans, currents, oceans vast of blessing, I think of these passages:

•      Justice rolls like an unstoppable river (Amos 5:24).

•      God’s glory fills the earth as waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14; Isaiah 11:9).

•      Peace flows like a river (Isaiah 66:12; 48:18).

•      Life-giving water flows from God’s presence to heal the nations (Ezekiel 47).

•      God’s Spirit is poured out like streams on dry ground (Isaiah 44:3).

The boundless oceans encompass so much more than “me” - they include justice, glory, and peace, covering the earth, reviving the parched deserts and healing the nations. In all these texts about the unmeasured ocean and life-giving water there is, in fact, not a single “me.”

The story culminates in Rev. 22:1-5, where the living stream flows from the throne of God outward for the healing of the nations, not "me."

I am aware of the historical and cultural moment in which this and hymns like this came to be. The Enlightenment - of which the Evangelical revivals in Europe and the American experiment were fruits - rightly gave the individual value, worth, and dignity that had been denied. The focus on the individual led to an overcorrection, I and many believe, in which the communal nature of the gospel was obscured.

The text of this hymn is striking in its contrast to the biblical narrative in another aspect. Its directional focus is “leading onward, leading upward”, “lifting up” to glory, lifting up to eternity.

I’m not sure exactly what the author himself meant by that, but what I understood as a boy was that this was a movement away from the earth to the heavenly glory and rest above - which is not the movement the above texts and the biblical narrative take. The direction is downward toward earth, and then horizontal, spreading out to cover and refresh every desert, and bring shalom to all peoples. The water of life refreshes the dry desert and heals the nations, bringing justice and peace (at-one-ment).

Many hymns of the 19th and 20th centuries teach either explicitly or subtly these two emphases: that it is about “me” and my leaving this world. “Farewell, poor world! I must be gone!” was a common theme in these hymns.

The implications of these emphases are enormous, yet they are so deeply embedded in our background, training, and theology that we hardly notice them. We are, today, reaping the harvest in a variety of ways: ecological neglect, inability to see systemic sin, consumer-oriented Christianity, loss of community, a triumphal and escapist solution to our world’s destruction.

The next time you hear or sing an old hymn, listen carefully to what it is actually saying. Allow it to move you deeply as it has for decades, and give it permission to change you in new ways.

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 His love—

Leading onward, leading homeward

To His glorious rest above.

Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus—

Spread His praise from shore to shore!

Praise His mercy, praise His goodness;

Praise His love forevermore.

How He watcheth o’er His loved ones,

Died to call them all His own;

How for them He intercedeth,

Watcheth o’er them from His throne.

Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus—

Love of ev’ry love the best—

’Tis an ocean vast of blessing;

’Tis a haven sweet of rest.

Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus—

’Tis a heav’n of heav’ns to me;

Source: Hymns: for home and church #1015