HIS LOVING KINDNESS

Amazing Grace

Samuel Medley, 1738–1799

How priceless is Your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of Your wings. (Psalm 36:7)

A Christian should never lose his reason for singing about the Lord and His constant loving kindness. “His praise should continually be in our mouths” (Psalm 34:1). Loving kindness has been described as “love in action.” God’s loving kindness was the act of sending Christ to be our Redeemer “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8).

Samuel Medley, a Baptist minister, lived a dissipated life in the British Navy until he was severely wounded in a sea fight between the French and English in 1759, off Cape Lagos, Portugal. While convalescing, he read a sermon by Isaac Watts on Isaiah 42:6, 7. These verses ultimately led to Medley’s conversion and later to his becoming a minister of the gospel. “His Loving Kindness” was written as a personal testimony of thanksgiving to God. The text first appeared in published form in 1782. For 27 years Samuel Medley pastored the Baptist church in Liverpool with much success, especially as a preacher to the sailors. Medley wrote a large number of hymns but always stated in the preface of his books that his only purpose for writing was to “comfort Christians and to glorify Christ.” It has been said that the underlying purpose of Samuel Medley’s ministry, both in preaching and in hymn writing, was to “humble the pride of man, exalt the grace of God in his own salvation, and promote real holiness in the hearts and lives of believers.”

The sprightly music for this text is an American camp meeting melody in popular use throughout the South before its publication in the 19th century.

God’s loving kindness … “how free,” “how great,” “how good,”—a comfort in death and a source of eternal joy.

Awake, my soul, to joyful lays, and sing thy great Redeemer’s praise; He justly claims a song from thee, His loving kindness, oh, how free!

He saw me ruined by the fall, yet loved me not withstanding all; He saved me from my lost estate, His loving kindness, oh, how great!

When trouble, like a gloomy cloud, has gathered thick and thundered loud, He near my soul has always stood, His loving kindness, oh, how good!

Soon shall we mount and soar away to the bright realms of endless day, and sing, with rapture and surprise, His loving kindness, in the skies.

Refrain: Loving kindness, loving kindness, His loving kindness, oh how free!

For Today: 2 Samuel 22:3, 4; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 31:21; 36:5–10; 59:10; Isaiah 54:8, 10; Ephesians 2:4–7

Recount your salvation experience; reflect on God’s leading; anticipate the eternal joys of heaven—then sing as you go—

Osbeck, K. W.

• God is my strength, in him will I trust: my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge: my Savior, thou hast saved me from violence. I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be safe from mine enemies. 2 Samuel 22:3-4
• But refused to obey, and would not remember thy marvelous works that thou hadst done for them, but hardened their necks, and had in their heads to return to their bondage by their rebellion: but thou, O God of mercies, gracious and full of compassion, of long-suffering, and of great mercy, yet forsookest them not. Nehemiah 9:17
• Blesssed be the Lord: for he hath showed his marvelous kindness toward me in a strong city. Psalm 31:21
• Thy mercy, O Lord, reacheth unto the heavens, and thy faithfulness unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the mighty mountains: thy judgments are like a great deep: thou Lord, dost save man and beast. How excellent is thy mercy, O God! therefore the children of men trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be satisfied with the fatness of thine house, and thou shalt give them drink out of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the well of life, and in thy light shall we see light. Extend thy loving-kindness unto them that know thee, and thy righteousness unto them that are upright in heart. Psalm 36:5–10
• My merciful God will prevent me: God will let me see my desire upon mine enemies. Psalm 59:10
• For a moment in mine anger, I hid my face from thee for a little season, but with everlasting mercy have I had compassion on thee, saith the Lord thy redeemer. Isaiah 54:8
• For the mountains shall remove, and the hills shall fall down; but my mercy shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace fall away, saith the Lord, that hath compassion on thee. Isaiah 54:10
• But God which is rich in mercy, through his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead by sins, hath quickened us together in Christ, by whose grace ye are saved, And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, That he might show in the ages to come the exceeding riches of his grace through his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4–7