Скачать или смотреть Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah (St Mark's Anglican Granville Hymnfest 2025: 03) - Dickson Chan

This was the third hymn sung in the St Mark's Granville Hymnfest, held on 18 October 2025. The hymns were sung in three languages.

The words were written by Wiliam Williams (1717-1791), who was known as the Isaac Watts of Wales and who spent half a century travelling Wales as a Calvinistic Methodist preacher. The hymn was published in Welsh in 1762 in 6 stanzas of 6 lines each.

The translation from Welsh to English was made by Peter Williams (1722-1796), an Independent Methodist preacher and published in 1771. The translation accounted for stanzas 1, 4 and 6 of the Welsh.

There were subsequently different versions, some of which might also have been translated by Peter Williams, although the position is unclear. Verse 2 of the original translation - a powerful verse, which appears below although it wasn't sung on the day - was dropped and replaced by translated versions of two other verses. Subsequently, verse 3 of the original translation was also dropped, leaving a standard three verse English version.

The tune Cwm Rhondda was one of just a handful of hymn tunes composed by John Hughes (1873-1932). It was written in 1905 during a church service for a Baptist song festival.

Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,
pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but thou art mighty;
hold me with thy powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me till I want no more.

Open now the crystal fountain
whence the healing stream doth flow;
let the fiery, cloudy pillar
lead me all my journey through.
Strong deliverer, strong deliverer,
be thou still my strength and shield.

[Lord, I trust thy mighty power,
wondrous are thy works of old;
thou deliver’st thine from thraldom,
who for naught themselves had sold.
Thou didst conquer, thou didst conquer
sin, and Satan and the grave.]

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside;
death of death and hell's destruction,
land me safe on Canaan's side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises
I will ever give to thee.