What factors contribute to making any hymn or worship song a “timeless beauty?” In the case of "Here is Love Vast as the Ocean," its powerful lyrics, a haunting melody, and association with a historic revival make it a hymn with enduring power.
The poetry of the hymn is precise and stunning from the very opening lines.
“Here is love, vast as the ocean,
lovingkindness 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 heav'n's eternal days.”
Singers are immediately captured by the theme of Jesus’s love, so immense it must be compared to the ocean, so persistent the best metaphor is a flood. The writer refers to Jesus as “the Prince of Life, our Ransom.” These phrases open a doorway of imagination generally reserved for fantasies and fairy tales—royalty and rescued hostages—but this is the truest story ever told. It’s like stepping into a mesmerizing world we have only read about in storybooks, only to learn it actually exists. The writer knew how to evoke the wonder of Christ and God’s plan of salvation.
"Here is Love Vast as the Ocean" is theology married to art giving birth to spiritual awakening.
What is the History of the Hymn "Here is Love Vast as the Ocean"?
Roy Jenkins, journalist and Baptist minister, mentions the hymn in his article for the BBC about The Welsh Revival of 1904-1905. He opens his report with these words: “Just after eleven o'clock on a Wednesday evening in 1904, a solo voice rang out with the hymn ‘Here is love vast as the ocean.’” The solo voice is attributed by Hymnology Archive as Annie Davies of Maesteg, an eighteen-year-old raised in a Christian home who sang “with tears on her face and victory in her voice.” This would become the largest Welsh revival of the 20th century, and "Here is Love" would be its anthem.
According to Jenkins’ research, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Abertillery, Wales was filled with over one thousand people who had already been there for four hours when Annie sang this song. This was only one of many gatherings that involved hundreds of worshippers praying, singing, and spiritually awakening across Wales that night. As God changed countless men and women, they transformed their communities in practical and profound ways, all the while "Here is Love Vast as the Ocean" became “the love song of the revival.”
William Rees originally penned this hymn, published around 1847, in Gaelic, then known as “Dyma gariad fel y moroedd.” According to Simon Peter Sutherland, Rees produced a prolific amount of Gaelic verse in his time and, like the Bible’s most prolific psalmist, he worked on the family farm as a shepherd in his youth. Rees was raised a Calvinist Methodist. His older brother, Henry Rees, was a famous Methodist minister in their times but Rees eventually became a member of the Independent Church in Wales, eventually advocating for the disestablishment of the Welsh Church. It’s fair to say that William Rees had a “ministry of words.” Besides his poetry and hymns, he was known for his preaching, and he wielded political influence as editor and publisher of Yr Amserau (“The Times”) out of Liverpool.
While Rees penned the words to the first two stanzas, William Williams is credited with the third stanza. Often compared to the English hymnwriter, Isaac Watts, Williams’ hymns were equally popular in Wales as Watts’ were in England. Originally a Deacon in the Church of England, Williams eventually became a Calvinist Methodist and preached the gospel throughout Wales. The lyrics were translated into English by William Edwards. The tune, known as Cymraeg (kəmˈrīɡ), while composed by Robert Lowry in Philadelphia in 1876, has a definite Welsh flavor.
Some sources credit the Welsh revival with similar revivals in other countries such as France, India, Korea, and Madagascar. This revival’s impact on the Welsh communities where men and women came to Christ or deepened their commitment to Christ was intense and easily traceable for a time. By faith, we can imagine the impact of those affected rippling on through the generations. The ministry of the hymn remains active in modern times as contemporary renditions of Here is Love Vast as the Ocean continue to appear on popular music sites.
Diving into the Lyrics and Meaning of "Here Is Love"
As referenced earlier, the opening stanza of “Here is Love” invites singers to reflect on the greatness of God’s love as compared to the ocean and the prevalence of His lovingkindness, persistent as a flood. Rees reminds us that this love and kindness were demonstrated when the King of Heaven’s Son poured out his blood as a ransom for sinners. The lyricist cannot imagine how anyone could ever forget or neglect to praise Him for this eternal love.
In the second stanza, Rees builds on this theme.
“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 heav'n's peace and perfect justice
kissed a guilty world in love.”
It’s as if the writer created poetry from Romans 9:22-24 where Paul details God’s desire to “make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy” and to reveal that His great plan of salvation included not only the Jews but the whole world. The prophets referred to time when God would make the desert a place of fountains (Isaiah 41:18) and described God as a “fountain of living water” (Jeremiah 17:13). Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that anyone who drank of His water would find a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:13). For the souls in Wales who thirsted for salvation, this writer drew from these images to create a song that led many to the never-ending source of spiritual life, Jesus Christ.
In the final stanza, credited to Williams, this theme is continued but undergirded by the supports of the Word and the Holy Spirit.
“In Thy truth Thou dost direct me
by Thy Spirit through Thy word;
and Thy grace my need is meeting
as I trust in Thee, my Lord.
Of Thy fullness Thou art pouring
Thy great love and pow'r on me
without measure, full and boundless,
drawing out my heart to Thee.”
Williams draws the singer to God’s Word (Thy Truth, Thy Word) and the Holy Spirit as well as God’s grace for finding direction and provision for every need. Then, he completes the song with a beautiful image of God being so full that out of this fullness He is able to pour out His love and power on us. Williams bookends the hymn by concluding as Rees began with the immeasurable nature (vast as the ocean) of God’s love and its compelling force (like a flood) to draw us close to God.
What is the Theological Significance of "Here is Love" for Christians?
Hymns and worship songs do not create revival. Revivals are the work of God (Psalm 85:6), usually in response to repentance (Isaiah 57:15), right worship (Exodus 4:31), and prayer (Psalm 80). Music, however, has the power to move our spirits with words from God’s Word, to open us to right thinking about God and our own spiritual condition, and then help us express our repentance, worship, and prayers.
Because God designed us to respond so powerfully to music, it’s important to incorporate music in our worship that is full of biblical truth. Historically, one essential function of hymns has been to proclaim the truth about God revealed in His Word. Rees and Williams have clearly used biblical imagery about God’s Love, Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross, and boundless grace in a way that complemented and supported the work of the Spirit of God in their midst.
Scripture is full of stories that reflect the tension of God at work while also using the work of humans (Noah, Moses, Nehemiah, and Esther to name a few). Yes, God must initiate and God must act but He invites us to obey and to use our gifts which He incorporates into the work. Four gifted men had to reflect on God’s Word, yield their skills to God, and apply their gifts with excellence to create the lyrics, music, and translation of this hymn. Then, God used it in the service of His plan for revival in Wales. It’s a strong example of how God likes us to cooperate with one another, exercise our gifts, and submit our work to Him—work that He establishes.
Why "Here Is Love" Still Resonates Today
"Here is Love" has five timeless aspects:
- The lyrics are poetic, biblical, and speak to a core need of the human soul—love. Similar to the Psalms, the words speak unchanging truth to an emotional need we all experience. It answers a question most of us are secretly asking—can I find love? Beautifully, this answer is drawn from God’s Word so singers can trust the truth of it no matter the decade or century in which it is sung.
- The music is beautiful and grounded in the rich culture of a specific people. While composed in Philadelphia, it has a clearly Welsh feel and is titled in Welsh, Cymraeg. This composition adds art to lyrical truth and increases the opportunities for the song being appreciated by not only believers but also those who don’t know Christ but are students of culture, drawn to beauty and musical perfection.
- The original language, similar to the music, is lyrical and a source of pride for the people who speak it. As a complicated but poetic language, it is also the fascination of many who aren’t natives of Wales. There is a sense of preserving a work of cultural value in this hymn and including it in a type of spiritual folk history for future generations to own as their heritage.
- The historical connection of the hymn to a documented revival means it’s likely to be accessed by others seeking to support potential revivals in their congregations or communities. It secures the place of the hymn in the timeline of church history. The Welsh Revival is often listed with other notable revivals and has been mentioned in articles as recently as those reflecting on the contemporary question of revival in Asbury. Like this hymn’s association with the Welsh Revival, contemporary worship music is largely attributed to the Jesus Revolution of the 1970’s and 1980’s.
- The author/composer/translator collaboration across three countries in creating a work of theological truth and artistic beauty testifies to the potential inherent in the church. As the community of faith reflects on this cooperative work of worship, we can aspire to similarly reflect this in our own lives. Collaborative music-making was a marker in the Jesus Revolution and there are many hymns known as “revival hymns” that contemporary Christians access when praying for revival in their own community.
"Here is Love Vast as the Ocean" is truly a timeless hymn that may yet spark future revivals for Christians longing and praying for spiritual awakening in our times or a time to come.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Undefined
