From the highest of heights (Indescribable)

I often find myself singing this song while I'm riding my bike in the countryside.  It's a fantastic song of praise to God for his creation.  The final line makes it much more personal, though: you see the depths of my heart and you love me the same.  Wow!  It's great to be reminded of this amazing truth: that the Creator of the Universe loves each one of us personally, even though he can see right into the depths of our hearts!

This song became popular after Chris Tomlin recorded it for his 2004 album, Arriving.  But it wasn't written by Chris Tomlin, but by another American singer-songwriter, Laura Story.  She had previously recorded it herself for her own album, Indescribable, in 2002. 

Laura was a student at Columbia International University when she met Shane Williams in 1996.  They got talking and discovered that they were both involved with an American Christian youth organisation called YoungLife.  When Shane realised that Laura was a musician, he invited her to join his band, Silers Bald.  It was through this band that Laura discovered her talent, firstly as a vocalist (she joined as a bass player), and then as a songwriter.

Laura left Silers Bald in 2002.  Her manager suggested that she should record her own album of the songs she'd written with the band.  Laura wasn't convinced - she didn't have the confidence in her own ability as a vocalist, she didn't have enough songs for a whole album, and she was broke.  Recording started after God provided her with more songs and more money, but one more song was still needed.  According to worship.com, Laura trusted the Lord to provide that last song.  The story continues:

Soon after, she was driving down a mountain road, eyes fixed on the majesty of her Creator, when she started worshipping and singing, “Indescribable…uncontainable…You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name…”.  Story added verses on the piano and finished the song while reading God’s own description of His power and might in Job Chapter 38.  Her first record was now complete.  And considering the road Story had travelled to get to this place, “Indescribable” was the perfect title track.

It was a friend of Laura's, another YoungLifer called Ed Cash (co-author of The Splendour of the King, which is also included on Chris Tomlin's Arriving), who suggested that Chris Tomlin should record a cover of Indescribable as a single and for the album.  Laura is quoted in the article above as follows:

I remember saying, ‘That song will never work for corporate worship.  There’s no way congregations are going to sing that!’  But it’s humbling and amazing to see what the Lord has done.  When I was looking for it, I couldn’t find it.  When I just started worshipping, He blew me out of the water. 

As well as the worship.com link above, you can find out more about Laura Story here.

Laura included Indescribable on another of her albums, Great God Who Saves, and you can hear that recording here.

The image above: Monte Baldo: Indescribable by Holger Ejleby is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Dyma gariad fel y moroedd/Here is love vast as the ocean

As I currently live in Wales, it's high time I included a Welsh hymn in this blog, although as a non-Welsh-speaker, my knowledge is quite limited.  I must have learned this hymn in my student days, or soon afterwards, and it's always been a favourite - my husband and I chose it as one of the hymns for our wedding in 1997.

I had to search around for information about this hymn, and much of what follows is taken from an article by Chris Fenner in Hymnology Archive.

I'd always understood that Here is love was a Welsh Revival hymn, which I took to mean that it was written during the Welsh Revival of 1904-05.  But in fact, its author, William Rees, died in 1883.  Dyma gariad was first published in about 1847.  William Rees edited a collection of hymns by the great Welsh hymn writer, William Williams (1717 - 1791), and included Dyma gariad in an addendum:

There is a third verse which sometimes appears in Welsh hymn books, which was written by William Williams.  It's a verse of a hymn called Nid oes angel, nid oes seraph, and begins, 'O ddyfnderoedd o ddoethineb!' ('O depths of wisdom!').

Dyma gariad is known as 'the love song of the Welsh revival', because it was then that it became well known.  It was a favourite song of a young woman called Annie Davies of Maesteg.  In November or December of 1904, at a revival meeting in Pontycymer, she "sang, with tears on her face and victory in her voice, the mighty love-song of the revival - the hymn of Dr William Rees (Hiraethog): 'Dyma gariad fel y moroedd' . . . From that night she became an intimate helper and companion, her voice consecrated to the converting and uplifting of souls."  (H Elvet Lewis - this quote is from Chapter 4 - The First Journey).  The Welsh words were sung to the tune Cwynfan Prydain - you can listen to it here.  Another blog adds that when Dyma gariad was sung in North Wales during the 1904-05 revival, it was usually sung to the tune Hyfrydol (Alleluia, sing to Jesus; I will sing the wondrous story).

These days, the Welsh words are more often sung to the tune Ebenezer, but a friend of mine has pointed me to another wonderful tune, Pennant.

The English translation, Here is love, vast as the ocean was first published in The Baptist Book of Praise in 1900.  The translation was by William Edwards (1848 - 1929).  In some hymnbooks, two extra verses in English are included, beginning: 'Let me all thy love accepting' and 'In thy truth thou dost direct me'.  They first appeared in the Redemption Hymnal, published in 1951 by the Assemblies of God Publishing House, without mentioning their author.  More recently, Richard Bewes wrote two new verses, which you can read here.

The only tune to which I've ever sung Here is love vast as the ocean masquerades as a Welsh tune, because its usually called 'Dim ond Iesu', which means 'Jesus only', or 'None but Jesus'.  The composer was Robert Lowry (1826 - 1899), who was an American.  He was born in Philadelphia, and spent most of his life living and ministering in the United States.  Lowry called his tune Cymraeg, which means 'Welsh'.  It was first published in an American hymn book in 1877 with  a hymn called What tho' clouds are hov'ring o'er me (Jesus only).  Apparently, the first time this tune appeared with the words of Here is love was in Christian Hymns, published by the Evangelical Movement of Wales in 1977.   (It is very similar to a Welsh tune called Calon Lân, but I will write about that in a future post). 

These are the English words, as translated by William Edwards:

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.

There are lots of recordings of this hymn available.  You can listen to Robin Mark's version here.