Love Divine Hymn Lyrics
Charles Wesley
1 Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heav’n, to earth come down,
fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art.
Visit us with thy salvation;
enter ev’ry trembling heart.
2 Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit
into ev’ry troubled breast.
Let us all in thee inherit,
let us find the promised rest.
Take away the love of sinning;
Alpha and Omega be.
End of faith, as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty.
3 Come, Almighty, to deliver,
let us all thy life receive.
Suddenly return, and never,
nevermore they temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray, and praise thee without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.
4 Finish, then, thy new creation;
true and spotless let us be.
Let us see thy great salvation
perfectly restored in thee.
Changed from glory into glory,
till in heav’n we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love and praise.
Love Divine All Love Excelling Hymn History
Love Divine, All Love Excelling hymn is yet another hymn from the pen of Charles Wesley who composed thousands of hymns in his lifetime. This hymn was composed in 1747.
The tune used for this hymn is from a secular song composed by Henry Purcell and Poet Laureate John Dryden.
It was a patriotic song which was part of the opera King Arthur in seventeenth century England.
The song paid homage to pagan Gods, Venus, Jove and Cupid. Below is one of the verses of this secular song.
Fairest Isle, all Isles excelling,
Seat of pleasures and loves,
Venus here will choose her dwelling
And forsake her Cyprian groves….
While use of pagan or secular tunes is frowned upon nowadays, there are several Christian songs that used popular secular tunes of their times.
This is especially true of the compositions of the pioneers of the Protestant reformation such as Martin Luther and others.
These pioneers would take pagan tunes and add Christian words to them.
It was a sure way to make your song popular as the common man was already used to the tune.
At the end of the day all our talents are from our Maker whether we are aware of it or not. Secular people may not acknowledge him as the source of their talents but we know better.
So in the case of this opera song, it is said that Charles Wesley felt that this praise to pagan deities was not good at all. He therefore wrote to be sung to Purcell’s tune.
The song that he produced is our hymn today. Instead of Fairest Isle, all isles excelling, we now have “Love Divine, all loves excelling”.
Instead of praising pagan deities he focused all the praise to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Other hymns from Charles Wesley include: –
Hark the Herald Angels Sing Hymn and Lyrics Charles Wesley, 1707-1788
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling Hymn YouTube Video
Below is a video featuring this beautiful hymn from Charles Wesley, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.
Other hymns stories that you need to read include: –
Standing on the Promises Hymn History and Lyrics
