Saturday Reflections
On Saturdays during our Lenten Devotional time we sill simply sit with an instrumental version of a well-known hymn or worship song. Our weeks are so full, so busy, so noisy…use these Saturdays to prepare your hearts for gathered worship by reflecting on lyrics and Scripture in a space of stillness and simplicity.
Today’s hymn was born out of a dramatic encounter with the love and grace of God. As a teenager, Samuel Taylor Francis struggled deeply with depression, and one night while walking on a bridge over the River Thames in London he thought for a moment of how the dark waters of the river could end his sorrows. At that moment he felt the presence of God, and he heard in his spirit the words of Jesus from John chapter 3: “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” He met Christ on that bridge and experienced in that encounter the truth of Jesus’ words.
How appropriate that during the season of Lent, which is rooted and grounded in the message of God’s love and saving grace, that we pause to read words that Samuel Taylor Francis would later write about the deep, deep love of God he met that night.
Scripture for Meditation:
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 1may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
—Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV)
Song: O The Deep Deep Love of Jesus (lyrics after video)
Lyrics for Reflection
Read through the lyrics of this hymn slowly and prayerfully. Read them more than once, and pay attention to the movement of your soul as you pray. What words or phrases grab your attention? Why? As you finish, sit in prayerful silence before God and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you something of your need and God’s provision that emerges from these words.
O 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 my glorious rest aboveO the deep deep love of Jesus
Spread His praise from shore to shore
How He loves us ever loves us
Changes never nevermore
Watches over all His loved ones
Whom He died to call His own
Ever for them interceding
At His heavenly Father's throneO the deep deep love of Jesus
Love of every love the best
Vast the ocean of His blessing
Sweet the haven of His rest
O the deep deep love of Jesus
Very heaven of heavens to me
And it lifts me up to glory
Evermore His face to see
Samuel Trevor Francis
Public Domain