Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it:
Israel sang this song during the wilderness journey at Beer, over the well that God gave after directing Moses to gather the people together to receive water. The song is a call for the water to rise, addressed to the well itself, which had been dug by princes and by nobles of the people with scepter and with staves. It teaches that great blessings are received in response to songs of praise, a lesson worthy of thought. In spiritual experience this history is repeated when holy song unseals in the soul the springs of penitence and faith, of hope and love and joy.
As Israel cheered its way with sacred song, God calls His children today to gladden their pilgrim life in the same way. Repeating God's words in song is one of the few most effective means for fixing them in the memory and impressing spiritual truth on the heart. Such song has wonderful power to subdue rude and uncultivated natures, to quicken thought and awaken sympathy, to promote harmony of action, and to banish the gloom and foreboding that destroy courage and weaken effort. When the soul is hard pressed and ready to despair, memory recalling some word of God in the long-forgotten burden of a childhood song breaks the power of temptation, gives life new meaning and new purpose, and imparts courage and gladness to other souls.
Israel sang this song during the wilderness journey at Beer, over the well that God gave after directing Moses to gather the people together to receive water. The song is a call for the water to rise, addressed to the well itself, which had been dug by princes and by nobles of the people with scepter and with staves. It teaches that great blessings are received in response to songs of praise, a lesson worthy of thought. In spiritual experience this history is repeated when holy song unseals in the soul the springs of penitence and faith, of hope and love and joy.
As Israel cheered its way with sacred song, God calls His children today to gladden their pilgrim life in the same way. Repeating God's words in song is one of the few most effective means for fixing them in the memory and impressing spiritual truth on the heart. Such song has wonderful power to subdue rude and uncultivated natures, to quicken thought and awaken sympathy, to promote harmony of action, and to banish the gloom and foreboding that destroy courage and weaken effort. When the soul is hard pressed and ready to despair, memory recalling some word of God in the long-forgotten burden of a childhood song breaks the power of temptation, gives life new meaning and new purpose, and imparts courage and gladness to other souls.