Lord’s Day, Vol. 3 No. 4

The Love of God

– From the Wall of a Mental Institution

 

Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the skies the parchment made,

Were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill

And ev’ry man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry,

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Tho stretched from sky to sky.

 

This magnificent verse was part of a Jewish poem found pencilled on the wall of a patient’s room in an insane asylum. Composed in the year 1906 by Rabbi Mayer in Germany, it is believed the poem was written in moments of his sanity. The poem describes how the Jews had been persecuted throughout the ages for their faith. It resonates with the theme of God’s eternal love and concern for His people.

Frederick Martin Lehman, a Nazarene pastor, publisher, and songwriter, wrote two additional verses and set them to music and gave us one of the most eloquent hymns on the love of God.

The love of God is greater far

Than tongue or pen can ever tell,

It goes beyond the higher star

And reaches to the lowest hell;

The guilty pair, bowed down with care

God gave His Son to win;

His erring child He reconciled

And pardoned from his sin.

 

When years of time shall pass away

And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,

When men, who here refuse to pray,

On rocks and hills and mountains call,

God’s love so sure shall still endure,

All measureless and strong;

Redeeming grace to Adam’s race –

The saints’ and angels’ song.

 

The Incarnation – God becoming man – is the supreme articulation of God’s love for us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) In the words of another hymnodist: “Love so amazing, so divine. Demands my life, my soul, my all.” [Extracted and edited from Henry Gariepy’s Song’s in the Night]

What a wonderful hymn for our meditation. Dear reader, if you are not a Christian, realise that God loves you and God sent His Son to save you. God desires that you receive eternal life by faith. Do believe and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour today.

For believers, we marvel at how God gives us eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. We just want to thank Him and praise Him for all that He has done for us.

May God lead each one of us to be His ambassadors to our loved ones, to the people around us, that they may see Christ in us! Indeed, we are to be the good news to them, channels of blessings. May God use us, transform us for His glory.

Man has three problems he cannot solve. If you were to analyse the lives of Man and if you were to spend time in the study of Man and the make-up of Man and his troubles, you will find that Man’s unresolved issues bore down to these three: sin, sorrow and death.

Christianity is the only solution. In Christ, we have victory over sin, sorrow and death! We are the privileged people with the message of salvation.

God has opened our spiritual eyes. By His grace, through His Word and with the help of the Holy Spirit, God will open the eyes of others, as we go and tell the love of God, the gospel.

Yours lovingly in Christ,

Ps. Lek Aik Wee