"O Love, How Deep"

Last month, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from the 10th.  The hymn was "O Love, How Deep," and I noticed a few features to write about.  The hymn is sung to the tune "Deo gracias."  Here's the second musical phrase:

In the second verse, the text here is "Of higher or of lower place" (it continues the sense from the previous line:  "He sent no angel to our race").  "Higher" is sung with a melisma (C Bb G), giving something of a sense of its nature as a comparative adjective (more notes for a greater degree).  Additionally, the musical phrase illustrates the relative positions of "higher" (sung to higher notes) and "lower" (sung to lower notes).

In the seventh verse, the text is "For love so deep, so high, so broad" (stating the reason for giving "All glory to our Lord and God").  "Deep" and the second "so" are both sung with melismas (F G and F C, respectively), providing a sense of degree.  The words "so broad" are sung to half notes, and because these stand in contrast to the shorter quarter or eighth notes that precede them, there's a sense of the degree of "so" and the meaning of "broad."

LSB #544 "O Love, How Deep"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Ephesians 3:17b-21; Philippians 2:6-9; Hebrews 2:9-10, 14-18; John 1:14

Ephesians 3:17b-21:  "that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

"20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.  Amen."

Philippians 2:6-9:  "6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name"

Hebrews 2:9-10:  "9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

"10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering."

Hebrews 2:14-18:  "14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.  16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.  17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.  18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."

John 1:14:  "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

+++

The text is public domain:

O love, how deep, how broad, how high,
Beyond all thought and fantasy,
That God, the Son of God, should take
Our mortal form for mortals' sake!

He sent no angel to our race,
Of higher or of lower place,
But wore the robe of human frame,
And to this world Himself He came.

For us baptized, for us He bore
His holy fast and hungered sore;
For us temptation sharp he knew;
For us the tempter overthrew.

For us He prayed; for us He taught;
For us His daily works He wrought,
By words and signs and actions thus
Still seeking not Himself but us.

For us by wickedness betrayed,
For us, in crown of thorns arrayed,
He bore the shameful cross and death;
For us He gave His dying breath.

For us He rose from death again;
For us He went on high to reign;
For us He sent His Spirit here
To guide, to strengthen, and to cheer.

All glory to our Lord and God
For love so deep, so high, so broad;
The Trinity whom we adore
Forever and forevermore.

+++

The text from Ephesians 3 appears in the first and last verses ("O love, how deep, how broad, how high, / Beyond all thought and fantasy" and "For love so deep, so high, so broad").

The second half of the first verse and all of the second verse seem to combine Philippians 2:6-9 (in the lines "That God, the Son of God, should take / Our mortal form for mortals' sake!"), Hebrews 2:9-10 (in "He sent no angel to our race, / Of higher or of lower place"), and John 1:14 (in "But wore the robe of human frame, / And to this world Himself He came").

Similarly, verses three through six seem to draw from Philippians 2:6-9 ("he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross"), Hebrews 2:9-10 ("For it was fitting that he... should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering"), and Hebrews 2:14-18 ("he himself likewise partook of the same things," "he had to be made like his brothers in every respect," and "because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted").

+++

The repeated "for us" is an example of anaphora, a rhetorical device.  Its function here is to illustrate the extent of what God has done for us.