Tag: water

Water of Life, Cleanse and refresh us

My choice of song from the Sing Praise book for 22 January. We’re still in the Epiphany season and looking at hymns and songs relating to baptism.

The phrase “water of life” is itself a very common one, not restricted to Christian theology. Even alcoholic spirits are sometimes given the same honour. At its most basic, water is an essential compound for life as we know it to exist at all, and no animal can live long without drinking it (even camels can only go a week or so without water from the plants they eat).

Water is significant in many key passages of the Bible, from the creation stories where God commands the sea not to invade the land, to the symbolic ‘river of life’ flowing out of the heavenly city. Rivers are crossed miraculously, water drawn from the rock with a holy staff, gallons of it turned into wine – and much more. The symbolism in the chorus of this short song is of baptism, where the water that is blessed and poured over the person being baptised symbolises them being cleansed of their sins and filled with the new life of God’s Spirit.

The first chant (as they are intended to be sung solo rather than as verses of a congregational hymn) starts “all you who thirst, come to the waters” and is from Isaiah 55:1, part of a series of prophesies about the reign of peace of the Messiah. When we turn to Jesus we find abundant life in him. The second, “as rain from heaven, so is God’s word, it waters the earth and brings forth life” draws on several Biblical verses rather than a single one, but the metaphor is a striking one – just as the earth will be dry and unproductive in a drought, so people are spiritually dry and unproductive if they are not ‘watered’ by the presence of God

The third chant is not about water but about resurrection, a link that’s often made, for the plunging into the waters and rising up again at baptism (which makes more sense for the ‘full immersion’ of an adult) is a symbol of resurrection from death. Christians believe that not only did Christ get physically resurrected by God, but that in itself is a promise of a new kind of life after death for all of us who have united ourselves with him.

The last chant, which perhaps should be the first, is about repentance, because normally the challenge to repentance comes before the response of being baptised. But equally, being reminded of our baptism is a prompt to note where we have fallen away from following Jesus and turn back to him.

The Bible in a Year – 7 July

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this, and the introduction to the Psalms for this book of the Bible in particular.

7 July. Psalms 56-65

Psalms 56 to 60 were written in difficult times, when the enemy (Edom) was prevailing in war, and people needed reminding that their own tribes including Ephraim (Israel) and Judah belonged to God who would not abandon them.

Two types of “assault” are mentioned here: the physical violence of warfare, and slander and hate.  As children we used to say “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”. Yet it is a rare person who is strong enough in their own self-esteem not to let cruel words hurt, and the mentally vulnerable can suffer worse than if they had been assaulted physically.

What also holds them in common is that they are all headed to be set to a tune; the middle three all to the same tune, for worship in the Temple.  We will never know what these tunes were, though the names might give us a clue to their style: “A dove on distant oaks” and “Lily of the Covenant” may have been gentle (although the plaintive Psalm 69 is also to be sung to “Lilies”), while “Do not destroy” (also used for Psalm 75) may have been more vigorous.  In Christian worship the psalms have been set to music in many ways – monastic plainsong, the more complex Anglican chant, Scottish metrical tunes, and in various contemporary styles.  These songs continue to fascinate and encourage us.

 

But why songs and not merely spoken poetry or even prose? For one thing, it is easier to remember words when you associate a tune with them, a process that starts with the nursery rhymes your mother taught you.  For another, singing together is a great way of forming an emotional bond between people, whether workers in a field or supporters at a rugby match. Apart from Holy Communion, nothing binds Christians together more strongly than shared music, although unfortunately, by the same token differences in preferred musical styles also easily bring division.

 

Moving on to Psalms 61-65, I will just contrast a couple of verses. Ps. 63 was written “in the desert” (perhaps on a kind of retreat) so we know that verse 1 “my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water” is no metaphor, but spoken out of personal experience.  Whereas in 65:9-10 we read of the land being abundantly blessed, even drenched, with water.  Water is a basic human need, and if we are told to pray for our daily bread, how much more for daily water?  But as with all human needs, trusting God also means acting ourselves: there are still millions around the world living in places with little or no natural water supply, or polluted supplies.  There are charities such as Water Aid and UNICEF who work to provide this most basic of human rights, and they are worth supporting.