Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “How deep the Father’s love for us”. This is a contemporary hymn from 1995 with both words and music by Stuart Townend, but both words and music seem to hark back to an earlier age. In fact, to my ears the melody bears a close resemblance to yesterday’s 19th century hymn, “Here is love, vast as the ocean”. I would not be surprised if Townend had that one in mind when he wrote this.
Some of the images are shared by the two hymns: the vastness of God’s love in the title (‘vast’ is not a common word nowadays), the futility of worldly power when measured against God’s love, and Christ as our ransom. But the emphasis is different. Here it is less the extent of God’s grace and love that are praised (though they are) but the great pains Christ went through in order to deliver them.
The words here also look behind or above the cross (spatial words are of course meaningless in respect of God, but necessary for us as that’s the way we think) to the suffering of God the Father. He is no remote creator here, but a very present spirit with feelings for his now all-too-human Son. “The Father turns his face away, as wounds which mar the chosen one bring many souls to glory”.
My own part in Christ’s suffering has to be acknowledged here, too. “Ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers” and “It was my sin that held him there, until it was accomplished”. But at the end the singer of this hymn, as with yesterday’s, can declare “This I know with all my heart: his wounds have paid my ransom”.
I think this is a great hymn, and I am filled with admiration for (and, yes, I also admit to envy of) the writer. It has good descriptive passages of the events combined with personal reflection. Phrases like “ashamed I hear my mocking voice / call out …” are reminiscent of the “twas I – I crucified thee” in “Ah Holy Jesus how hast thou offended” (Johann Heerman, translated by Robert Bridges). And it sensibly admits that the cross is beyond explanation in words, by its “I cannot give and answer, but this I know …” at the end.
And I also very much admire the tune: the 5 minim beats per line are reminiscent of the best traditions of Dave Brubeck and his abilities to make odd time-signatures work. I suppose one of my disappointments about hymnals is that none of them actually have the courage to publish the music with an explicit 5/2 time-signature at the beginning, which would do so much to help pianists and organists unfamiliar with the music to see how it was conceived. I have had a few forays into the same kind of writing myself, but I do feel this one is a great example of what can be done.