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.

 

This poem, written in 1050 AD by a Jewish man, named Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai, a cantor (synagogue singer) in Worms, Germany, is called the Haddamut. In 1917 in America, it was found written on the wall of a man’s room in an asylum when he was carried to his grave. He obviously wrote it in a period of sanity. This inspired a California pastor, Frederick Lehman, to write two more verses and a refrain.

 

The Love of God

 

The love of God is greater far

Than tongue or pen can ever tell;

It goes beyond the highest star,

And reaches to the lowest hell;

The guilty pair, bowed down with care,

God gave His Son to win;

His erring child He reconciled,

And pardoned from his sin.

 

When years of time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men, who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song

 

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.

 

O love of God, how rich and pure!

How marvelous and strong!

It shall forevermore endure

The saints' and angels' song.