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Lyrics and Music by Stuart Townend
Performed by John Edwards
© 1995 Thankyou Music
Youtube video uploaded by John Edwards
How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure,
That He should give His only Son To make a wretch His treasure.
How great the pain of searing loss –
The Father turns His face away,
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory.
Behold the man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders;
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished;
His dying breath has brought me life –
I know that it is finished.
I will not boast in anything,
No gifts, no power, no wisdom;
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death and resurrection.
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer;
But this I know with all my heart –
His wounds have paid my ransom.
What is the most deeply loving thing you have ever done for someone else?
What is the most deeply loving thing someone else has done for you?
Stuart Townend, son of a Church of England vicar in Halifax, has attended and regularly leads worship at the Church of Christ the King in Brighton. One area in which Stuart is making a significant contribution to the life of the church is in his songwriting, including such worship songs as In Christ Alone and How Deep the Father’s Love.
Stuart did not start writing music until he was 22 years old. “I had a project to complete, and I had left it late. I picked the topic of worship and started to write. I had what I can only call a revelation and this led to my realizing there was a call on my life to write and lead worship. Until that moment, it had never crossed my mind.” A great many worshipers are now very glad his homework was late.
Regarding How Deep the Father’s Love, Stuart Townend shares the following on his website:
“Writing this song was an unusual experience for me. I’d already written quite a few songs for worship, but all in a more contemporary worship style, drawing from my own musical background. But I distinctly remember getting this feeling one day that I was going to write a hymn! Now, like most people, I am familiar with hymns – they form part of my church background, and I love the truth contained in many of them. But I don’t go home at the end of a busy day and put on a hymns album! So I don’t think of hymns as where I’m at musically at all!
Nevertheless, I’d been meditating on the cross, and in particular what it cost the Father to give up his beloved Son to a torturous death on a cross. And what was my part in it? Not only was it my sin that put him there, but if I’d lived at that time, it would probably have been me in that crowd, shouting with everyone else ‘crucify him’. It just makes his sacrifice all the more personal, all the more amazing, and all the more humbling.
As I was thinking through this, I just began to sing the melody, and it flowed in the sort of way that makes you think you’ve pinched it from somewhere! So the melody was pretty instant, but the words took quite a bit of time, reworking things, trying to make every line as strong as I could.
Now I’m finding it gets used all over the world, by all sorts of churches; it seems to be as accessible to a traditional church as it is to a house church, and I’m excited by that. But it has perhaps branded me as an old man before my time. It was fed back to me that at a conference a couple who loved the song were surprised to hear I was still alive…”