This glorious Welsh hymn, Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah, is loved all over the world. Cwm Rhondda is its name in Welsh; and we also know it as Bread of Heaven.
The pictures suggest, to me, how deeply planted in Britain in the Christian faith. It may yet yield another harvest.
There’s nothing better for a hymn than a Welsh men’s choir. Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah, also known as Cwm Rhondda, is sort of an unofficial Welsh national anthem. Sung here by the Morriston Orpheus Choir, in English and in Welsh.
You can’t beat a Welsh choir for singing hymns; and you’ll soon understand why they call Sir Harry Secombe “the Welsh Pavarotti.” Here he is with the Treorchy Male Choir, and the hymn is the traditional Cwm Rhondda–which we also know (among other titles) as Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.
After bumming myself out on the nooze, and on comments by persons whose worldly wisdom moves them to surrender to the wicked and ungodly–and a thunder and hail storm, on top of it–this hymn marched into my mind and wouldn’t let up: and I had to have it.
Guide Us, O Thou Great Jehovah (Cwm Rhondda in Welsh), sung by choir and congregation at the Tabernacle Welsh Baptist Church–sing it loud, sing it loud!
For God is nigh.
There’s nothing better than a Welsh hymn, sung by a Welsh choir. This is Bread of Heaven, which we also know as Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah. Its Welsh name is Cwm Rhondda. Sung by the Morriston Orpheus Choir.
I must be in a mood for Welsh hymns; and I couldn’t resist the video of the journey–a country road in the Hudson River valley.
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah, sung at the 2012 Synod of the United Reformed Church: its Welsh name is Cwm Rhondda.
How that title, Cwm Rhondda, used to mystify me! Now I know it’s Welsh for “Rhondda Valley,” where I presume the melody originally came from. The actual title is Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah. This is the Morriston Orpheus Choir; and if they break into Welsh down the stretch–well, that’s enthusiasm.
Turn up the volume and sing along. Sometimes there’s nothing better for a hymn than a full orchestra playing it and a couple thousand people singing it. And I think they’re in the Royal Albert Hall, although I’m not 100% sure of that.
Anyway, this is the ancient Welsh hymn, Cwm Rhondda, in one of its English-language versions, Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer. I’ll be surprised if they don’t sing this one in Heaven.
This traditional Welsh melody, “Cwm Rhondda,” has found its way into many hymns world-wide. Here it powers Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah, sung to beat the band at the Tabernacle Welsh Baptist Church.
This is the hymn that surged to the front of the line this morning: in Welsh, Cwm Rhondda; in English, Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah; in any language, glorious. “Bread of Heaven, feed me now and evermore.”
No one out-sings a Welsh choir. This is the Morriston Orpheus Choir, singing both in Welsh and English. Turn it up!