My Song is Love Unknown
My song is love unknown
My Song is Love Unknown is a hymn text by Samuel Crossman (1664) in 7.6.7.6 D meter. Found in CW21 397, CW93 110, ELH 303, ch95 208. Sung to LOVE UNKNOWN.
The hymn embodies Lutheran theology's emphasis on Christ as the substitutionary sacrifice for human sin, particularly through the lens of Isaiah's Suffering Servant passage. It reflects the Law-Gospel contrast central to Lutheran anthropology and soteriology, highlighting human unworthiness before God's mysterious and sacrificial love.
History & Background
Written by Samuel Crossman, an English divine, and first published in his devotional work 'The Young Man's Meditation' (1664). The text became widely used in Anglican and later Protestant hymnody, particularly during Lenten and Passion seasons.
Hymnal Appearances
- Christian Worship: Hymnal — 397
- Christian Worship — 110
- Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary — 303
- Chalice Hymnal — 208
- Evangelical Lutheran Worship — 631
- Glory to God — 209
- The Hymnal 1982 — 458
- Lutheran Book of Worship — 94
- Lutheran Service Book — 430
- Lift Up Your Hearts — 172
- Lutheran Worship — 91
- New Century Hymnal — 222
- Trinity Hymnal — 182
- Voices Together — 253
- With One Voice — 661
Bulletin Note
Samuel Crossman (1624–1683) crafted this meditation on Christ's passion for private devotion. The hymn's power lies in its unflinching witness to human sin alongside the staggering persistence of divine love—core to Lutheran understanding of grace.
Preaching Connection
This hymn amplifies the Law-Gospel tension by moving singers from recognition of human cruelty and sin to doxological amazement at God's substitutionary love, making it a powerful liturgical response to proclamation of both judgment and grace.
Stanza Arc
The narrative or theological arc traced by this tune's stanzas: From God's eternal love hidden before creation, through Christ's incarnation and atoning sacrifice, to the believer's joyful response in Christ
Background Research
LSB 430 (Hymn of the Day for Lent 5). Samuel Crossman, Anglican priest (dates differ: 1624–1683 in the LSB study, 1625–1684 in the Canterbury Dictionary). Not written as a hymn: it is one of nine poems in The Young Mans Meditation, or some few sacred poems upon select subjects, and scriptures, bound at the end of his conduct book for young men, The Young Mans Monitor (1664), and headed with Gal 6:14 ('God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross'). The study places it beside the devotional lyrics of George Herbert and John Donne: verse meant to lead the reader into meditation. Each stanza takes a moment of the Passion and ponders a love 'unknown', beyond understanding (Rom 5:6–11).
Sources: Canterbury Dictionary, 'My song is love unknown' (preview); LCMS Worship, The Word in Song: Hymn of the Day Studies (David R. Schmitt).
In the Church Year
Hymn of the Day (Lutheran Service Book) for: Lent 5
Suggested in the one-year series
- Lent 5 (7×)
- Holy Cross (1×)
- Holy Wednesday (1×)
Suggested in the three-year series
- Lent 5 (8×)
- Palm Sunday (4×)
- Easter 6 (1×)
- Holy Cross (1×)
- Lent 2 (1×)
- Proper 22 (1×)
From LCMS Worship's published hymn suggestions, 2014–2026. The count is how many of those yearly lists suggested this hymn for that day.
Overview
A meditation on the Passion in seven short stanzas, each built on a surprise. It begins with the deepest mystery, love shown to the loveless 'that they might lovely be', and then walks the singer through Palm Sunday, Good Friday and the borrowed tomb, asking at every turn why a sinless Lord should be treated so, and for whose sake. Its genius is the turn in the last four lines of each stanza, where narrative gives way to the singer's own response: 'Oh, who am I...?', 'my Friend indeed', 'Sweet injuries!', 'Heav'n was His home, but mine the tomb'. The Lenten Hymn of the Day for Lent 5, it leads the congregation to Holy Week by making each person stand in the story.
Central theme: Christ's love is 'unknown': unearned, unrecognised, and given to the loveless in order to make them lovely
Structure
Seven stanzas of 66 66 4444. Each falls into a four-line narrative and a four-line personal response in short lines. Sequence: the mystery of love (1), incarnation and rejection (2), Palm Sunday to 'Crucify' (3), the injustice of the charges (4), Barabbas and the willing sacrifice (5), homelessness and the borrowed grave (6), the singer's vow (7).
Law & Gospel Shape
The Law appears in the crowd: men 'made strange', hosannas turned to 'Crucify', a murderer preferred to the Prince of Life. The singer is not allowed to stand apart from them ('who am I?'). The Gospel is the reason for the whole story: for my sake, at my need, so that his foes might be freed, his tomb in place of mine.
Confessional Connections
The 'love to the loveless' that makes them 'lovely' is justification of the ungodly (Rom 4:5; Ap IV): God does not love us because we are lovely; his love makes us so. 'Frail flesh' confesses the true humanity of the Son (AC III). 'That He His foes from thence might free' is substitution: Christ dies for enemies (Rom 5:10). St. 6's exchange, 'Heav'n was His home but mine the tomb wherein He lay', is the 'happy exchange' Luther loved: he takes our grave and gives us his home.
Liturgical Use (Study Notes)
Lent 5 (Hymn of the Day in every series); Palm Sunday; Holy Week; Good Friday devotions; Lenten midweek services.
Historical Notes
Crossman published it in 1664 as one of nine poems in The Young Mans Meditation, bound with his conduct book for young men, The Young Mans Monitor, under the motto of Gal 6:14. It was not written as a hymn; John Ireland's tune LOVE UNKNOWN later carried it into wide use. The LCMS study (David R. Schmitt) sets it beside the devotional lyrics of George Herbert and John Donne, verse meant to lead the reader into meditation.
About the Tune
LOVE UNKNOWN by John Ireland (Hymnary lists '© John Ireland Trust' for the tune). The short 4-syllable lines at the end of each stanza are set to a rising phrase that gives each personal response its weight.
Scripture References
Rom 5:6-10 1 John 4:10, 19 John 1:10-11 Matt 21:8-9 Mark 15:13-14 Matt 11:5 Luke 23:18-25 Acts 3:14-15 Matt 8:20 Matt 27:57-60 Gal 6:14 Isa 53:3, 9
Stanza by Stanza
The singer's song is about a love beyond knowing: his Saviour's love shown to those who are not lovable, to make them lovable. Who am I that the Lord should take on frail flesh and die for me?
The first line is a pun with depth. Love 'unknown' means love beyond understanding (Eph 3:19), love that the world did not recognise (John 1:10), and love that the singer had never known before he met it in Christ. Line 3 states the heart of the Gospel in six words: 'love to the loveless shown'. God's love is not drawn out by its object; it is poured out on enemies (Rom 5:8, 10; 1 John 4:10). Line 4 gives its purpose: 'that they might lovely be'. Love creates what it loves. Then the question that echoes David before the promise (2 Sam 7:18) and the Psalmist before the stars (Ps 8:4): who am I? The answer is in the hymn's whole course: one for whose sake the Lord took 'frail flesh' and died.
- Scripture
- Eph 3:19, John 1:10, Rom 5:6-10, 1 John 4:10, 2 Sam 7:18, Ps 8:4, John 1:14, Heb 2:14
- Imagery & language
- Wordplay on love/loveless/lovely; the short-line question at the end becomes the pattern for every stanza.
- Law / Gospel
- Gospel: undeserved love that makes the unlovely lovely. Law implied: the singer is among the loveless.
- Connection to previous
- Opening stanza: states the theme of the meditation.
He came down from his throne to bring salvation, but people turned strange and would not know the Christ they had longed for. Yet he is my true friend, who spent his life for my need.
Stanza 2 is John 1:11 in miniature: he came to his own and his own did not receive him. 'Men made strange' is a strong phrase: alienation from God is not a neutral distance but a hostility that turns away from the very Christ they longed for. Against that refusal stands the singer's confession: 'my Friend indeed'. Jesus calls his disciples friends (John 15:13-15) and defines friendship by the cross: greater love has no one than to lay down his life. 'Who at my need His life did spend' turns the general story into a personal one; this is the pro me of Lutheran faith.
- Scripture
- Phil 2:6-7, John 1:11, Hag 2:7, John 15:13-15, Gal 2:20
- Imagery & language
- 'Friend indeed' plays on the proverb 'a friend in need is a friend indeed'.
- Law / Gospel
- Law: human refusal of the Christ. Gospel: the rejected one is still my friend and spends his life for me.
- Connection to previous
- Moves from the mystery of love to the story of its coming and refusal.
One day the crowds strew his road and sing hosannas all day long to their King; then all they can breathe is 'Crucify!', and they cry out for his death.
Palm Sunday and Good Friday are set side by side to expose the fickleness of the human heart. The same breath that sang 'Hosanna' cries 'Crucify'. The stanza does not let the singer point at 'them' for long, because Lent has taught that the crowd's voice is ours. Yet the hosannas were true even when the singers were not: Jesus is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, and he rides on to the cross knowing the cry that awaits him.
- Scripture
- Matt 21:8-9, John 12:12-13, Mark 15:13-14, Luke 23:21, Jer 17:9
- Imagery & language
- Sharp antithesis of praise and murder; 'thirst and cry' anticipates Christ's own thirst on the cross.
- Law / Gospel
- Law: the fickle and murderous human heart.
- Connection to previous
- Narrows the rejection of st. 2 to the events of Holy Week.
What has my Lord done to deserve this rage and spite? He made the lame run and the blind see. Sweet injuries! Yet these very mercies offend them and they rise against him.
This is Pilate's question (Mark 15:14, 'Why, what evil has he done?') taken into the singer's mouth. The list of charges is a list of mercies: the lame walk and the blind see, the signs of the Messiah (Matt 11:5; Isa 35:5-6). 'Sweet injuries!' is a bitter irony: the only 'injuries' Christ ever did were acts of healing. Sinful flesh takes offence at grace itself (John 10:32). The stanza teaches that Christ was condemned without cause, which is why his death can be for others' cause.
- Scripture
- Mark 15:14, Matt 11:5, Isa 35:5-6, John 10:32, Luke 23:4, 14-15, 1 Pet 2:22
- Imagery & language
- Ironic oxymoron 'sweet injuries'; courtroom questioning.
- Law / Gospel
- Law: hatred of grace. Gospel: the innocence of the one condemned, which makes his death a substitution.
- Connection to previous
- Turns from the crowd's cry to the question of why.
They rise up and insist that my Lord be done away with; they save a murderer and kill the Prince of Life. Yet he goes cheerfully to suffering so that he might free his foes.
Peter's sermon in Acts 3:14-15 supplies the antithesis: you asked for a murderer and killed the Author of life. Barabbas is the first sinner set free by Jesus' condemnation, a living picture of substitution. The stanza's turn is extraordinary: 'Yet cheerful He to suff'ring goes'. Hebrews 12:2 says that for the joy set before him he endured the cross. The joy is the freeing of 'His foes', and the singer has already confessed himself among them.
- Scripture
- Luke 23:18-25, Acts 3:14-15, Heb 12:2, Rom 5:10, Isa 53:12
- Imagery & language
- Antithesis of murderer and Prince of Life; 'cheerful' is a startling word for the Passion.
- Law / Gospel
- Law: the choice of Barabbas over Christ. Gospel: Christ suffers gladly to free his enemies.
- Connection to previous
- Carries the trial to its verdict and reveals Christ's purpose in it.
In his life my Lord had no house of his own, and in death no tomb but one a stranger gave. What can I say? Heaven was his home, but the tomb was mine, and he lay in it.
The Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head (Matt 8:20), and at his death Joseph of Arimathea gave a borrowed grave (Matt 27:57-60; Isa 53:9). Then Crossman makes the most profound move in the hymn. The tomb was not really a stranger's; it was 'mine'. Christ lay in the grave that belonged to the sinner. This is the happy exchange: he takes our death and our grave, and we receive his home, the Father's house of many rooms (John 14:2). The stanza is a sermon on Holy Saturday.
- Scripture
- Matt 8:20, Matt 27:57-60, Isa 53:9, John 14:2, 2 Cor 5:21, Rom 6:4
- Imagery & language
- House, home and tomb; the reversal 'Heav'n was His home, but mine the tomb'.
- Law / Gospel
- Gospel: Christ lies in the sinner's grave; the exchange of his home for our tomb.
- Connection to previous
- Moves from the death to the burial and draws the personal conclusion.
Here I could stay and sing forever; no story is so divine. Never was love, dear King, never was grief like yours. This is my Friend, and I could gladly spend all my days in his praise.
The meditation ends where it began, with 'song', but now the singer knows the love that was 'unknown'. 'Never was love... never was grief like Thine' echoes Lamentations 1:12, read in the Church as the voice of the suffering Christ: is any sorrow like my sorrow? The vow to spend 'all my days' in his praise answers st. 2's 'His life did spend': he spent his life for me, and I will spend mine in thanks. That is the shape of the Christian life (2 Cor 5:15).
- Scripture
- Lam 1:12, Gal 6:14, John 15:13, 2 Cor 5:15, Ps 104:33
- Imagery & language
- Returns to 'song' and 'friend' from sts. 1 and 2; 'spend' echoes st. 2.
- Law / Gospel
- Response of faith: praise for the love received.
- Connection to previous
- Closing stanza: gathers the meditation into a vow of praise and recalls the opening.
Themes
Christ's suffering and redemption God's incomprehensible love Human sinfulness and Christ's sacrifice The Passion of Christ