Jesus, Thy Boundless Love To Me (Part One)
Jesus, Thy boundless love to me
No thought can reach, no tongue declare;
Unite my thankful heart with Thee
And reign without a rival there.
To Thee alone, dear Lord, I live;
Myself to Thee, dear Lord, I give.
O, grant that nothing in my soul
May dwell but Thy pure love alone!
Oh, may Thy love possess me whole,
My joy, my treasure, and my crown!
All coldness from my heart remove;
My every act, word, thought, be love.
O love, how cheering is thy ray!
All pain before thy presence flies;
Care, anguish, sorrow, melt away
Wherever thy healing beams arise.
O Jesus, nothing may I see,
Nothing desire or seek, but Thee!
This love unwearied I pursue
And dauntlessly to Thee aspire.
Oh, may Thy love my hope renew
Burn in my soul like heavenly fire!
And day and night be all my care
To guard this sacred treasure there.
My Savior, Thou Thy love to me
In shame, in want, in pain, hast showed;
For me, on the accursed tree,
Thou pourest forth Thy guiltless blood;
Thy wounds upon my heart impress,
Nor aught shall the loved stamp efface.
Jesus, Thy Boundless love to me (or technically “O Jesu Christ, mein schönstes Licht” since the author was originally from Germany) was written by Paul Gerhardt, a Lutheran pastor, and it dates back to the 1600’s. This song was subsequently translated by John Wesley into English. You probably noticed in the title that I have broken this particular hymn into part one and part two. I found this in an old hymnal of mine, liked the lyrics, and looked it up on the internet to be able to cut and paste the words. The tune of the song is the same as “Faith of our Fathers” which may be more familiar to some of you. I discovered online that this hymn had 9 verses (5 more than I had in my hymnal). With the “meat” found in the 9 verses to this particular song, I probably could have broken it down into 3 or 4 different weeks. But I will do my best to cover it over the next two weeks.
Couple of comments on the lyrics:
- “Reign without a rival there” – When I think of rivals, I typically think of sports rivalries and the passion found in those rivalries. You know, Yankees/Red Sox, Lakers/Celtics, or the greatest rivalry of them all – Oklahoma/Texas. We tend to like good rivalries in sports, but when it comes to the devotion of our heart, we should not have any rivalries, but we should have a singular devotion. The beautiful thing about a singularly devoted love for Christ is that it means others around you feel and receive love too. It is impossible to love God wholeheartedly, and not impact the world around us. If we love Him, we will love others, and display this love with our actions.
- “My every act, word, thought, be love” – This phrase was convicting because it is all-encompassing. Maybe you are the kind of person that doesn’t utter too many unloving words or commit many unloving acts, but are all your thoughts sprinkled with love? Or, maybe you don’t commit unloving acts, but are your actions filled with indifference? I might not go out of my way to be mean to someone, but do I get my hands dirty in acts of kindness and compassion? The prayer to have my every act, every word, and every thought be love was and is both challenging and convicting.
- “Thy wounds upon my heart impress, Nor aught shall the loved stamp efface” – To be honest, I had to read this line a few times, and I am still not 100% sure I am grasping the author’s entire meaning. The picture that I get is a “branding” of the heart that comes from being purchased by Christ’s sacrifice. He impresses upon us, marks us, brands us, seals us, and since we have been “stamped” by that love, there is nothing that can “efface” it. Efface means to “rub out” or “erase.” What a wonderful promise to know that we have been purchased and sealed by His great love that can’t be erased!
I found four synonyms for the word “boundless” at dictionary.com – limitless, endless, unbounded, and inexhaustible. I think these words give us a glimpse of the width, the height, and the depth of God’s love for us. As Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:18, may we just have the power to grasp and comprehend that great and boundless love! This song from the 1600’s made me think about a modern song that many of you may be familiar with (and one that might even be called a hymn). I would like to close this week with the first verse from that song:
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.
That wretch is me and that wretch is you, but because of His deep, vast, limitless, endless, inexhaustible, boundless love, we are now His treasure, and we have become sons and daughters. Hallelujah!!