Alternate Title: Dyma gariad fel y moroedd
Lyrics: William Rees, translated from Welsh to English by William Williams, 1900.
Music: Robert Lowry.
Theme: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
I John 3:1
Shirley: ‘Here Is Love’ is the love song which came out of the Welsh Revival in 1904. The tune itself with the words stirs my heart like no other hymn.
Here is love vast as the ocean
Loving kindness as the flood
When the Prince of life, our ransom
Shed for us His precious blood
Who His love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing His praise?
He can never be forgotten
Throughout Heaven’s eternal days
On the Mount of Crucifixion
Fountains opened deep and wide
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy
Flowed a vast and gracious tide
Grace and love, like mighty rivers
Poured incessant from above
And Heaven’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love
Let us all His love accepting
Love Him ever all our days
Let us seek His Kingdom only
And our lives be to His praise
He alone shall be our glory
Nothing in the world we see
He has cleansed and sanctified us
He Himself has set us free
In His truth He does direct me
By His Spirit through His Word
And His grace my need is meeting
As I trust in Him, my Lord
All His fullness He is pouring
In His love and power in me
Without measure
Full and boundless
As I yield myself to Thee.
I like the old Welsh version above, but if you want here’s an updated version from Steve and VIcki Cook at Sovreign Grace Ministries. You can also listen to Matt Redman sing his souped-up rendition here.
Odd, how things serendipitously coincide. I had never heard of this hymn. However, on Saturday we had a sort of hymn sing/mime worship time at my church, and one of the songs we sang was Here Is Love Vast As the Ocean.
I have never sung this tune, and it’s not in any of my old hymnals (the only hymnal I have it in is the 2006 Christian Life Hymnal. The tune name is CYMRAEG (which is Welsh for “Welsh”), and Lowry apparently composed it in the 1870s, thus decades before its first English publication. Lowry was an American Baptist; how did he come to write a tune with a Welsh name that if it was used in his lifetime at all was used with a Welsh text? Or did he write it for another set of lyrics, now forgotten?
Leland aka Haruo
Wow! Thank you for introducing me to this wonderful hymn.
I happened upon this hymn recently sung by Huw Priday and it’s been haunting me ever since.We live in Quebec and I’d love to know if it’s been translated.My hub and I are starting a work here and we’d love to see a revival in this town like that in 1904…we’re the only Evangelical church here and I’d love to teach this hymn to the few we already are.
This is wonderful hymn. I listened to this hymn for the first time when I downloaded the youtube featuring the Welsh Church Choir. Since then I have been singing this several times daily. Today I have been able to download the sheet music for this hymn in jpg format from http://www.one-eternal-day.com/2009/01/is-love-vast-as-ocean.html.
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I direct a community choir and we have been asked to sing at a St. David’s Day service. Is there a website I can go to to download the music for this beautiful song or is there a place where I can order it?
I just received a beautiful piano solo arrangement of this hymn from http://www.pianopronto.com arranged by Lisa Shoemaker. It is one of my favorite pieces to play.
Does anyone know if this song is translated into Spanish?
If you know,please send me a link to casaministries17@gmail.com
God bless!
This tune by Robert Lowry is called “Dim Ond Iesu” in Wales (None but Jesus) and used for a different hymn by Ebenezer Thomas (“O! fy Iesu bendigedig, unig gwmni f’enaid gwan” – “O my wonderful Jesus, only companion of my soul”). He was a baptist minister who served in Pennsylvania, which has long Welsh connections going back to the 17th Century, including Cambria County and Bryn Mawr.
“Dyma gariad fel y moroedd” was traditionally sung to the tune “Ebeneser” by T.J. WIlliams, which in Wales is known as “Ton y botel” (tune in the bottle), due to a legend that it was found washed up on a beach on the Lleyn peninsula. The tune is better known now as used for “O the deep deep love of Jesus”.
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please, in what hymn book can I find this hymn?
Other sources have the translator’s name as William Edwards, not William Williams.
I hope Kevin has found it in a hymn book by now! It is in Mission Praise and I’m sure many other recent books too. It seems to have been revived in 1977 when it was paired with Lowry’s tune.
this hymn moved me to tears is so very beautiful