Lehman emigrated to America with his family at age four, settling in Iowa, where he lived most of his childhood. He came to Christ at age 11, as he relates:
“One glad morning about eleven o’clock while walking up the country lane, skirted by a wild crab-apple grove on the right, and a fence with an old white-elm gate in a gap at the left, suddenly Heaven let a cornucopia of glory descend on the eleven-year-old lad. The wild crab-apple grove assumed a heavenly glow. That old white-elm gate with its sun-warped boards gleamed and glowed like silver bars to shut out the world and shut him in with the ’form of the fourth,’ just come into his heart. The weight of conviction was gone, and a song of joy and praise fell from his lips.”
Lehman studied for the ministry at Northwestern College in Naperville, Illinois, and pastored at Audubon, Iowa; New London, Indiana; and Kansas City, Missouri. The majority of his life was devoted to writing sacred songs; his first was written while a pastor in Kingsley, Iowa, in 1898. He wrote and published hundreds of songs and compiled five songbooks. In 1911, he moved to Kansas City, where he helped found the Nazarene Publishing House."
Lehman tells this story of the writing of the hymn: “While at camp meeting in a mid-western state, some fifty years ago in our early ministry, an evangelist climaxed his message by quoting the last stanza of this song. The profound depths of the lines moved us to preserve the words for future generations.” This hymn came after a challenging time in the life of the author. He had just lost his business after some of his business deals had gone sour.
Continuing, Lehman wrote: “Not until we had come to California did this urge find fulfillment, and that at a time when circumstances forced us to hard manual labor. One day, during short intervals of inattention to our work, we picked up a scrap of paper and, seated upon an empty lemon box pushed against the wall, with a stub pencil, added the first two stanzas and chorus of the song. The lyrics flowed through his heart. Before their paint brushes had obliterated them, one of the men jotted them down and thus they were preserved."
The third verse was found on the wall of a prison cell but was actually written nearly one thousand years ago by a Jewish songwriter named Rabbi Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai.
Rabbi Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai wrote a lengthy poem, “Hadamut,” which extolled God. Later that same year the crusaders invaded the city and murdered all the Jewish people. While we don’t know for sure about the rabbi, he was probably one of their victims as well.
George Beverly Shea wrote: “It never ceases to amaze how God uses people from all walks of life and from different circumstances to bring the message of His love to the world. Lehman and the writer of the third stanza never knew each other. They lived in different times and under different circumstances. Yet they had one consuming message—God’s love—which is found in this wonderful hymn."
Rev. Lehman, a German gentile, died in Pasadena, California in 1953. He had written hundreds of gospel songs over the course of his life.
“The Love of God” remains for all who are willing to accept it and the song lingers for future generations to discover and love. Many hymnals carry the song within their pages.
Biblehub.com, Benson Commentary: The gospel ministry, offering reconciliation and peace with God to all mankind, and ensuring these privileges to all the truly penitent that believe in Jesus . . . Freely forgiving all their sins.
Biblehub.com, Barnes’ Notes on the Bible: The word "us" here includes, doubtless, all who were Christians - whether Jews or Gentiles, or whatever was their rank. They had all been brought into a state of reconciliation, or agreement with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Studylight.com, Bridgeway Commentary: Before he became a Christian, Paul had judged Jesus by the standards of the ordinary person of the world, and in so doing had judged him wrongly. Now he no longer judges Jesus, or anyone else, from a merely human standpoint, because in Christ he sees everything in a new light . . . This changing from the old to the new is done by God through Jesus Christ. It is part of the total work that God does as he reconciles people to Himself and turns sinners into His friends. Having reconciled them, God then sends them out to preach the message of reconciliation to others, so that other sinners might be brought to God.
Biblehub.com, Barnes’ Notes on the Bible: Endureth forever - Is unmoved, fixed, permanent. Amidst all the revolutions on earth, the fading glories of natural objects, and the wasting strength of man, His truth remains unaffected. Its beauty never fades; its power is never made weak. The gospel system is as lovely now as it was when it was first revealed to man, and it has as much power to save as it had when first applied to a human heart. We see the grass wither at the coming on of autumn; we see the flower of the field decay; we see man, though confident in his strength, and rejoicing in the rigor of his frame, cut down in an instant; we see cities decline, and kingdoms lose their power: but the Word of God is the same now that it was at first, and, amidst all the changes which may ever occur on the earth, that will remain the same.
Pbnradio.com: We can imagine this poet [the Rabbi who wrote the third verse] standing on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, contemplating the great love of his Jehovah. His heart is moved by the fires of inspiration. As the love of God sweeps over Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai's soul, his imagination fills the ocean with ink, the arching skies seem to magnify the scope of this all-compelling love, and the papyrus marsh comes to life with countless scribes writing ceaselessly and tirelessly about the measureless love of God.
Enduringword.com, David Guzik: David looked to the heavens – not the spiritual heaven where God is enthroned, but the heavens of the blue sky and the night sky – and he clearly saw the glory of God declared . . . He could see it in the blue sky, with the glory of the sun and clouds and the beauty of sunrises and sunsets . . . He could see it in the night sky, with the brightness of the moon, the awe of the starry sky and the cloudy spread of the distant galaxies . . . These together – with their size, their awe, their grandeur – shouted to David and all who would see, “The God who created all this is glorious, and this is evidence of His glory . . . He is glorious in His size, having created something so big . . . He is glorious in His engineering, having created something that works together so well . . . He is glorious in His artistry, having created something so beautiful . . . · He is glorious in His goodness and kindness, having created something for all humanity to see.”
Studylight.org, Clarke’s Commentary: The love of God is the grand motive and principle of obedience; this must occupy your hearts: the heart is irregular in all its workings; God alone, by His Spirit, can direct it into His love, and keep it right; give a proper direction to all its passions, and keep them in order, regularity and purity.
Studylight.org, Dr. Constable's Expository Notes: He prayed that God would give these brothers and sisters a greater appreciation of God’s love for them and of Christ’s steadfastness in the midst of His earthly afflictions. He wanted this so their love and patient endurance might increase.
DesiringGod.org, John Piper: What is the love of God? What is it to be loved by God? The answer is: God sustains and exalts His holiness for your enjoyment forever. That’s the love of God. The love of God is His passion to sustain and uphold and exalt His holiness and His Son for your everlasting enjoyment.
A Scripture verse to remember” “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
