Here Is Love Vast As the Ocean (Welsh)

"Here is Love Vast as the Ocean" is a Welsh Protestant hymn written around 1870. It became a prominent hymn in the Welsh Revival of 1904 which was a spiritual movement that swept across the entire country. To see the hymn text, music settings, and to read about its authors go to Hymnary.org. To find out more about the Welsh Revival here. To learn how the hymn became known as "the love song of the Welsh Revival, and for links to other renditions of the song, go here.

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Sacred Harp 59: Holy Manna

Sacred Harp singing, preserved in Appalachia among Primitive Baptist Churches, is not like what is typically heard in mainline Protestant churches. This is one Sacred Harp tune, however, that did find its way into more traditional church hymnals.I grew up hearing "Brethren We Have Met to Worship" sung in staid Sunday morning settings. The "fa-sol-la" rhythm (fuguing) actually translated well in the more traditional church hymn format.

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Sacred Harp: "Thy Beauties Are Divine" (Isaac Watts)

Isaac Watts, the story goes, was absolutely dismayed by the dreary music he heard in the Church of England's Psalter. When he complained to his father, his father challenged him to do better if he thought he could improve on what King David wrote. Isaac Watts indeed went on to write over 600 hymns, many of which found widespread use in Anglican, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian hymnals. Most of those hymns were composed when he was between the ages of 20 and 22. Many hymns by Isaac Watts have found their way into the Sacred Harp hymnal. This one is a wonderful example of a hymn of adoration.

Tune: Raymond C. Hamrick, 1980

 Words: Isaac Watts, 1719

My Savior and my King,

Thy beauties are divine;

Thy lips with blessing overflow,

And ev’ry grace is Thine.

The smilings of Thy face,

How amiable they are;

’Tis heav’n to rest in Thine embrace,

And nowhere else but there.

Nor earth, nor all the sky,

Can one delight afford;

No, not a drop of Thy real joy,

Without Thy presence, Lord.

My Jesus I Love Thee

Here is a nice rendition of an old hymn by a local group at Red Mountain Church

 

Jesus Lover of My Soul (Ken Medema)

Beautiful arrangement of Charles Wesley's hymn, composed and performed by Ken Medema. How well I remember when I was a college student and Ken spent the week at Samford University for Christian Emphasis Week. Each day he not only offered special music for worship, but at the end of each chapel would go to the piano and sing whatever we had just heard in the chapel message. That has been one of Ken's trademark abilities.

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