Recently, in the modern worship service at my church, we have introduced a “new” song – How He Loves Us, by John Mark McMillan. Since it was on the new David Crowder Band album, I was familiar with the song, itself, and the lyrics, and thought they were quite moving. Playing the song (I am the keyboardist in our worship band), I think the most difficult thing with How He Loves Us is that the picture it paints of God and the way the final crescendo focuses on His love and grace, I really want it to keep on going (and going), but (as a musician in a band) I’ve got to stay with the other guys and bring it to an end.

Somehow, in times like that, I think about Moses. Not the Moses, leading the children of Israel. The Moses leading a bunch of sheep in the desert, coming across a burning bush and discovering the presence of God – in direct communication with Him. In his talk with God, Moses sounds so tentative and reluctant to carry our his mission, coming up with all sorts of excuses to stay out in the wilderness. And I wonder – was it all reluctance to do what he was asked, or was it partially a reluctance to leave the direct presence and communion with God, there with that burning bush?

And I think about John – the “disciple Jesus loved”. John, a kid who was probably only 15 or 16 when Jesus was crucified. John, whose Gospel did not just seek to recount the events of Jesus’ life, but whose Gospel stands apart from the other three – an attempt to theologically explain Jesus through a lens of intense devotion and love. John – the only disciple to die of old age. How he must have longed for his short time on earth with Jesus to have never ended.

Yet Moses and John both carried out their God-given missions, and from what we can tell, lived their lives fully “in the moment” with those around them, and not just as a temporary waiting station before spending an eternity in an ocean whose drops they had tasted first-hand, and then described to the world.

Last week, I heard the story behind the How He Loves Us, and it added just a little bit more to it for me.

John Mark McMillan tells the story of his friend, Steven, a youth pastor who came one morning to a prayer meeting with him (JMM was one of his students), and he prayed “Lord, if it would shake the youth of this nation, I would give my life for that. I would give my life today if it would help you reach these youth.”

That night, Steven was killed in a car accident.

JMM took a tune that he had been working on, and finished the lyrics and music, based on conversations he’d had with Steven about the love of God, and with a desire to be part of God’s answer to Steven’s prayer. How He Loves Us is that song.

Here is the DCB version:

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

That He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves…

Oh, how He loves us…