Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah/Redeemer for 26 July 2026

The Welsh text of this hymn,  Arglwydd, arwain trwy’r anialwch ("Lord, lead me through the wilderness") was written by William Williams (1717-1791), a leader of 18C Welsh Methodism and widely recognized as the greatest Welsh hymn writer.  It was originally titled Gweddi am Nerth i fyned trwy anialwch y Byd (Prayer for strength for the journey through the world's wilderness).  Williams, intending to take up medicine, studied at a Dissenting Academy near Talgarth in Brecon.  There he heard the Calvinistic Methodist preacher Howell Harris preach and turned his studies from medicine to theology.  Though born into a non-conformist family, Williams was ordained a deacon in the established church; he served a curacy but was actively involved with Methodists, and his disapproving parishioners reported him to the Archdeacon’s Court.  In 1743, when he sought ordination to the priesthood, he was denied because of his association with Methodists.  He became an itinerant Calvinistic Methodist preacher.  He also published several books of hymns, mostly in Welsh, with a few in English.  Williams published this hymn in 1762 in Caniadau y rhai sydd ar y Mor o Wydr (Songs of those upon the Sea of Glass).

 

In 1771 another Calvinistic Methodist in Wales, Peter Williams (not directly related to William Williams)—well-known for his editions of the Bible in Welsh and with Welsh notes—translated the first, third and fifth stanzas of the hymn’s original six stanzas into English, but the last two of these stanzas have not survived in modern hymnals.  Rather, Peter Williams’ first stanza plus two more possibly translated by him at a different time, or translated by others, form the modern hymn.  The other two stanzas are not a continuous translation of William Williams’ stanzas, but a mix of words and phrases from the Welsh stanzas 3 and 4 and 5 and 6.  It was Peter Williams who used the name “Jehovah” to translate William Williams’ arglwydd.  A common-enough English word used as the name of God at the time, it was, even then, known to be a misrepresentation of the Hebrew.  As early as 1778 Aaron Williams substituted the word “Redeemer” in his Psalmody in Miniature.  The substitution then disappeared until Hymns Ancient & Modern with Appendix (1868) used it.  Modern hymnals almost universally substitute the word “Redeemer.”

 

In 1905 or 1907 for a Baptist singing festival (Cymanfa ganu) the Welsh composer John Hughes (1873-1932) wrote a tune he called  “Rhondda,” the name a valley in the historic county of Glamorgan, for a hymn by the (Calvinistic Methodist) poet Ann Griffiths,  Wele'n sefyll rhwng y myrtwydd ("Lo, between the myrtles standing")  Hughes  was not a professional musician; he began his working life in a mine but ill health brought on by drinking polluted water kept him from continuing as a miner.  Instead, he became a colliery clerk and was eventually an official of the Great Western colliery at Pontypridd.  He composed prolifically, however, although only his one tune has survived.  A lifelong Baptist, Hughes succeeded to his father’s position of Deacon and Precentor in the Salem Baptist Church, Llantwit.  In 1907, Hughes revised the tune for the inauguration at Pontypridd of a new organ at Capel Rhondda in Hopkinstown in the Rhonda Valley.  At this event the tune was paired with the words of William Williams’ hymn. The name of the tune was changed from "Rhonda" to "Cwm Rhonda" (Rhonda Valley) at the suggestion of Harry Evans, at that time Director of the Liverpool Welsh Choir, to avoid confusion with another tune named Rhonda by Moses Owen Jones. Beyond its use in churches, Hughes’ hymn has a vibrant life as the “Welsh Rugby hymn,” sung especially at games of the Welsh national team.  In this form the arpeggiated lead to the dominant seventh is sung by many voices, rather than, as written, for altos and basses only.