Songs in the Night

 

Do you like singing?  Do you ever just burst into song and find yourself singing a popular song or a song you learned in your youth?  I do - quite often.  Some of us actually enjoy a good hearty tune at church.

I had a dream last night in which I found myself talking about such things to a group of about 40 young and middle-aged adults and ended up teaching them a song I learned as a child.  They took to it quickly and I awoke with their singing ringing in my ears.

Singing in church has varied through my lifetime.  My early experience was of a form of community singing.  I understand that the custom of community singing has been kept alive in some pubs in the evenings, which is probably a good thing unless they are bawdy and indecent songs.  Growing up soon after the Second World War and through the fifties, people used to enjoy community singing and it was not unusual for it to become a form of home entertainment. 

Christian songwriters adopted the style and found it an excellent way to teach biblical truth.  The great evangelistic missions in the early twentieth century led by Torrey and Alexander followed those of Moody and Sankey at the end of the previous century, where thousands of people packed great auditoriums and sang words set to simple memorable tunes that carried the gospel message into heads and hearts.

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, it was quite common in evangelical churches across the denominations to have a chorus time immediately prior to or at the beginning of a church service using the red CSSM chorus book.  In some churches the CSSM book was replaced by the yellow Elim Chorus Books that were used for the same purpose, encouraging people to attend early and setting the theme for the service that followed.  It is a custom that has generally died out apart from a fewx evangelical churches.

Anyway, back to my dream.  I had sung a few lines of a particular chorus and, finding the audience failed to recognise it, I then taught it to them line by line.

“I am feeding on the living bread. 
I am drinking at the fountainhead And those who drink it, Jesus said, Shall never ever thirst again”

Then the women sing, “What! Never thirst again?” to which the men reply, “No! Never thirst again” Those lines were repeated, then everyone joined in to sing the last two lines of the first half I have written above (I have slightly changed the words of the third line).

As a young boy, I used to sing, with extra gusto, the line “No! Never thirst again”. Teaching the song to an adult group learning it for the first time was sheer joy, especially as the men took to my favourite line, singing it enthusiastically and punching the air as they did so.

The words of this song are based on the account of Jesus meeting a woman at a well.  He was thirsty and asked the woman to draw some water for him.  This led to a conversation about satisfying a thirst during which Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4: 13,14).

What amazing words.  They describe ‘water’ that can quench all thirst, and that remains within those who drink it, and leads to eternal life.  Most importantly, the text tells us from whom such satisfaction can be gained.  We find an echo to these words in John 7:37,38 where Jesus is at the temple in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, which celebrated the miraculous provision of water during the journey through the wilderness.  The highlight of this feast was the moment when the priest drew water from the Pool of Siloam and poured it out before the altar.  

Jesus stood and with a loud voice proclaimed, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”  I am sure that you will know that Jesus was then referring to the Holy Spirit who would be poured out upon his believers and would remain within them.  A promise given to all who believe (Acts 2:39).

Another echo may be found in Matthew 5:6 where we read, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” Righteousness is right living and is a characteristic of God. 

So, longing after righteousness, as if desperately thirsty, is longing after God and being like him.  Such a longing is described in Psalm 42:1 and Psalm 63:1.  Is this how you long for God?  The promises are to those who thirst for God.

As a child who sang with such enthusiasm, “No! Never thirst again”, I could not have imagined myself teaching the song to adults.  However, even if only in a dream, it was a joy to drive home such a wonderful truth that there is an experience that far surpasses and eclipses all other longings: sexual desire, longing for riches, or fame.  Only in and through Jesus can lasting satisfaction be found.

If you do not know the song, “I am feeding on the living bread….” I will happily teach it to you.  CLICK HERE if you are interested.