December 5, 2012 (Wednesday)
The words and music of the song, “The Love of God,” were written in 1917 by a California pastor, Frederick M. Lehman. The third verse was a partial translation of the poem, “Haddamut”, a 90-stanza poem written in 1050 in Aramaic by a Jewish man, Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai, who was a cantor in Worms, Germany.* Lehman added the first two verses and chorus. This song has been translated into at least 18 languages.
My favorite singer of this song is George Beverly Shea, who never sang a song I didn’t like (ala Will Rogers). When I was a student at Baylor in the early 50’s, he came to the campus with the entire Billy Graham team for a chapel service. Memory fails me, but I’m guessing he sang, “I’d Rather Have Jesus,” which became, for me at least, his signature song. It was a poem he set to music at the age of 23. If any other song could also be called his signature song, it would be, “How Great Thou Art.” But somewhere in there among his favorites is “The Love of God.” It certainly is among those I love to hear him sing.
Bev Shea celebrated his 103rd birthday February 1, 2012. Last I heard, he is still singing beautifully.
If you would like to hear him sing right now, just go to “You Tube” and type in his name.
I loved to sing “The Love of God,” first of all because of its amazing message and second, because it was easy to sing, and easy to find in the key of “C,” probably the easiest to play, and for me usually the easiest to sing. Wanda played it for me so many times she did not need the sheet music. Whenever I was asked to sing on the spot, she was ready to accompany me on the piano as we presented, “The Love of God.”
The third verse, mentioned above, always speaks to my heart:
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
(Words of all the verses and chorus here).
* There is an associated story that the Jewish community in Worms was under threat of annihilation, but God protected them from their enemies — and “Haddamut” was the result. About 900 years later, the stanza quoted above was found written on the wall of the room of an insane asylum. It was thought that the patient had copied out the stanza in a time of sanity . . . and the story reached the ears of Frederick Lehman, a Christian minister who in 1917 wrote two more verses to go with the one from “Haddamut,” thus giving us “The Love of God.
(from http://www.squidoo.com/theloveofgodhymn#module94223911)