What Wondrous Love Is This

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What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul

Author: Anonymous
Tune: WONDROUS LOVE (Southern Harmony)
Published in 248 hymnals

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	What Wondrous Love Is This

Piano/Organ
	Simply Curry (Inspiring moments at the p…

Choral
	WONDROUS LOVE (A Tenebrae Service)

Representative Text

1 What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, that caused the Lord of bliss
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul.

2 When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
when I was sinking down, O my soul!
When I was sinking down beneath God's righteous frown,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul.

3 To God and to the Lamb I will sing, I will sing;
to God and to the Lamb, I will sing.
To God and to the Lamb who is the great "I AM,"
while millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing,
while millions join the theme, I will sing.

Source: Psalms and Hymns to the Living God #270

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Author: Anonymous

In some hymnals, the editors noted that a hymn's author is unknown to them, and so this artificial "person" entry is used to reflect that fact. Obviously, the hymns attributed to "Author Unknown" "Unknown" or "Anonymous" could have been written by many people over a span of many centuries. Go to person page >

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First Line:	What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul
Title:	What Wondrous Love Is This
Author:	Anonymous
Meter:	12.9.6.6.12.9
Source:	S. Mead's A General Selection, 1811; American folk hymn, ca. 1835
Place of Origin:	United States
Language:	English
Refrain First Line:	What wondrous love is this
Notes:	Spanish translation: See "Cuán admirable amor nos ofreces, Señor" by Clair E. Weldon
Copyright:	Public Domain

Year A, Lent, Ash Wednesday
This is recommended for Year A, Lent, Ash Wednesday by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #215 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #164.
Year A, Lent, Palm Sunday
Related to Philippians 2 and Matthew 26-27 (NPM)
Year A, Holy Week season, Good Friday
This is recommended for Year A, Holy Week season, Good Friday by 4 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #215 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #164.
Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 21 (26)
This is recommended for Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 21 (26) by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes.
Year B, Lent, Ash Wednesday
This is recommended for Year B, Lent, Ash Wednesday by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #215 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #164.
Year B, Lent, Fourth Sunday
This is recommended for Year B, Lent, Fourth Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes.
Year B, Holy Week season, Good Friday
This is recommended for Year B, Holy Week season, Good Friday by 4 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #215 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #164.
Year B, Easter season, Fourth Sunday
This is recommended for Year B, Easter season, Fourth Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #215 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #164.
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 28 (33)
This is recommended for Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 28 (33) by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #215.
Year C, Epiphany Season, Eighth Sunday
This is recommended for Year C, Epiphany Season, Eighth Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes.
Year C, Lent, Ash Wednesday
This is recommended for Year C, Lent, Ash Wednesday by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #215 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #164.
Year C, Holy Week season, Good Friday
This is recommended for Year C, Holy Week season, Good Friday by 4 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #215 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #164.
Year C, Easter season, Third Sunday
This is recommended for Year C, Easter season, Third Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes.
Year C, Easter season, Fourth Sunday
This is recommended for Year C, Easter season, Fourth Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #215 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #164.
Year C, Ordinary Time, Proper 6 (11)
This is recommended for Year C, Ordinary Time, Proper 6 (11) by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #164.

English

10 shown out of 159

French

Voices United: The Hymn and Worship Book of The United Church of Canada #147

Spanish

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Notes

Scripture References:
all st. = Rev. 5

Although various sources have attributed this text to a number of different writers, it remains anonymous. "What Wondrous Love" was first published in both Stith Mead's hymnal for Methodists, A General Selection of the Newest and Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1811), and in Starke Dupuy's hymnal for Baptists, Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1811).

Like 103 and 305, the text is addressed to the soul. It meditates on Christ's wonderful love (st. 1), which brought about our salvation (st. 2), a love to which we and the "millions" respond with eternal praise (st. 3-4).

Liturgical Use:
Lent; stanzas 1-3 for services of confession/forgiveness; funeral services (entire hymn); stanza 2 with preaching about Jonah; stanza 3 as a doxology.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

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Tune

WONDROUS LOVE (Southern Harmony)

WONDROUS LOVE was first set to this text in William Walker's (PsH 44) second edition of Southern Harmony (1840). Publication of the hymn in B. F. White's The Sacred Harp (1844) further promoted the combination of text and tune. The meter of "What Wondrous Love" derives from an old English ballad abo…

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For Leaders

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Hymns have a way of weaving themselves into our own life stories. Laura de Jong shares about a worship service in which "What Wondrous Love" took on a new, more urgent meaning in her life:

Each year Calvin College hosts a Tenebrae service for students and local churches. I’ve had the privilege of helping to lead a number of these, but there is one service in particular that I will never forget. This was the second year that we had used the first two lines of “What Wondrous Love” as a refrain sung throughout the service after each Scripture reading. As we heard and reflected on the last hours of Christ, each time we sang this refrain it was more and more powerful. Near the very end of the service, as we sang this refrain during the “Shadow of the Crucifixion,” an older visitor from down the road slumped against his wife, having just suffered a fatal heart attack. The congregation sat in tears and prayer as campus safety administered CPR and a defibrillator, to no avail. In the midst of this reflection on Christ’s suffering for our sake, this man had gone home to be with his Savior. As I left that place, the last stanza of the hymn came to mind: “And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing and joyful be, and through eternity I’ll sing on.” Indeed, what wondrous love this is, that frees us from the fear of death, and causes us to lift our voices in wonder at the love of the Lamb.

Text:

The author of this text remains anonymous, but it’s known as a traditional American folk song, first published in 1811. The text has remained basically untouched since it was first made popular by the Sacred Harp shape singers in 1844. Some hymnals leave out the stanza: “When I was sinking down,” and others include a verse that repeats the first verse with the last two lines “That Christ should lay aside his crown for my soul –What wondrous love is this, O my soul!”

Tune:

The tune WONDROUS LOVE was first set to this text in the second edition of Southern Harmony. Erik Routley describes this tune as “incomparably beautiful” (Psalter Hymnal Handbook). It hasn’t undergone many alterations since it first appeared, but there are some beautiful stylistic variations to look through:

For choirs there are arrangements of "What Wondrous Love Is This" by Howard Helvey or by Jack Schrader
For a Lenten service try "Angels Bore His Soul Away" which incorporates "What Wondrous Love" with an anthem by Douglas E. Wagner; "Wondrous Love (A Tenebrae Service)" which incorporates this hymn with other familiar hymns; or "Call to Lent", a two part anthem that also includes the hymn "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."

You may also want to listen to the following for other ideas of how to use the hymn:

Fernando Ortega’s version for piano and strings. What is particularly moving about this rendition is how the tonality changes to match the words – beginning very melancholy, the piece ends on a very hopeful note.
Chanticleer’s a cappella version – watch for the liberties taken of the tune, but they offer a fabulous example of how to sing the piece in a lilting, bright, almost medieval style.
Blue Highway sings an a cappella Bluegrass version that sounds like it came straight out of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" The harmonies are beautiful and tight.
Chelsea Moon and the Franz Brothers’ guitar led version is simple, but powerful.

When/Why/How:

This is a commonly sung hymn for Lent, and is especially powerful during Good Friday services. Many churches, whether they have a Good Friday service or a Tenebrae (Shadows) Service, will open with this hymn. Also during this service, the first two lines work as a refrain to be sung after each Scripture reading as the worshiper journeys through and reflects on the last days and hours of Christ.

Another possibility is to again use the first two lines as a refrain sung throughout a reading of Psalm 22, a common Lenten psalm. This is outlined and explained in Sing! A New Creation #142.

Laura de Jong,
Hymnary.org

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Timeline

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Arrangements

Store

Piano/Organ Simply Curry (Inspiring moments at the piano) Improvisations for the Lenten Season The Living Last Words (A Dramatic Musical Experience for Holy Week) More Piano/Organ...
Choral WONDROUS LOVE (A Tenebrae Service) The Living Last Words (A Dramatic Musical Experience for Holy Week) God's Wondrous Love More Choral...
Instrumental Trio on Wondrous Love Two Pieces for Violin and Piano Sunday Evening Jazz - Full Score and Instrumental Parts More Instrumental...
Handbells Alleluia, What Wondrous Love! (Eight Reproducible Hymn Settings for Lent and Easter) Alleluia, What Wondrous Love! (Eight Reproducible Hymn Settings for Lent and Easter) Wondrous Love More Handbells...
PowerPoint WHAT WONDROUS LOVE IS THIS (Hymnal for Worship & Celebration 177) WHAT WONDROUS LOVE IS THIS (Trinity Hymnal 261) WHAT WONDROUS LOVE IS THIS (Celebration Hymnal 314) More PowerPoint...