DEEPER AND DEEPER (TH)

TIMELESS HYMN - A special feature where I highlight some of my favorite hymns that I have previously featured in this blog.  These entries are revised and expanded and shared again for your encouragement and challenge. This hymn was originally shared here on October 2, 2011.

          This hymn is from the pen of a great evangelical preacher and missionary statesman, Oswald J. Smith (1889 - 1986). I have heard much about him, but I was surprised to learn that he actually composed more than 1200 hymns and religious verses. 

          In his book, "The Story of My Hymns", he gives the following account of the writing of this week's hymn. "Arriving in Woodstock, Ontario, one day in the year 1911, I was invited to preach one Sunday morning in the largest Methodist Church in that city. As I walked along the street on my way to the church, the melody of this hymn sang itself into my heart and with it the words, 'Into the heart of Jesus, deeper and deeper I go.' I can still recall the joy and buoyancy of youth, the bright sunshine overhead, and the thrill with which I looked forward to my service that Sunday morning, as again and again I hummed over the words. 

         I wondered if I could retain the music in my mind until the service was over, I was then just twenty-one years of age. After preaching, I returned to my rented room, and the first thing i did was write out the melody as God had given it to me. I had been able to remember it, and it has never changed form that day to this. 

         The verses were much more difficult, I worked on them at Belwood, Ontario. But it was three years later, in the First Presbyterian Church of South Chicago, of which I was pastor, that I completed them. It was then 1914, and I was twenty-four years of age. The writing of the hymn afforded me much joy, nor has it ever grown old. I still love it and always will, for it was the child of my youth. It proves conclusively that God can impart His deepest truths to the heart of the young, for I doubt if i have ever written anything more profound since. 

     There are five steps portrayed in 'Deeper and Deeper'- the heart, the will, the cross, joy and love. What an experience! But it is the note of triumph in the last verse that transports the soul to heights sublime." 

          And through eternal ages, Gratefully I shall sing, "O how He loved! O how He loved!  Jesus, my Lord and my King!"

         What more can I add to what the author has said about this hymn. Meditate on these words this week and ask the Lord to make this desire real in your life.

(1) Into the heart of Jesus, 

Deeper and deeper I go,

Seeking to know the reason, 

Why He should love me so,

Why He should stoop to lift me, 

Up from the miry clay,

Saving my soul, making me whole, 

Though I had wandered away.

(2) Into the will of Jesus, 

Deeper and deeper I go,

Praying for grace to follow, 

Seeking His way to know;

Bowing in full surrender, 

Low at His blessed feet,

Bidding Him take, break me and make, 

Till I am molded, complete.

(3) Into the cross of Jesus, 

Deeper and deeper I go,

Following through the garden, 

Facing the dreaded foe;

Drinking the cup of sorrow, 

Sobbing with broken heart,

"O Savior, help! Dear Savior, help! 

Grace for my weakness impart."

(4) Into the joy of Jesus, 

Deeper and deeper I go,

Rising, with soul enraptured, 

Far from the world below.

Joy in the place of sorrow, 

Peace in the midst of pain,

Jesus will give, Jesus will give; 

He will uphold and sustain.

(5) Into the love of Jesus, 

Deeper and deeper I go,

Praising the One Who brought me 

Out of my sin and woe;

And through eternal ages, 

Gratefully I shall sing,

"O how He loved! O how He loved! 

Jesus, my Lord and my King!"

Listen to it here.   LISTEN