I have just recently returned from Scotland and there have been a lot of interesting adjustments in the process, like a reverse culture-shock. But one of the things that has particularly stood out is the fact that I haven’t known any of the worship songs at the chapel and church services that I’ve attended since returning home. Before moving to Scotland I attended Grace Evangelical Free near Biola where our worship pastor would create songs for the congregation to sing based on the biblical book to which the sermon series was dedicated. So if the teaching Elders decided that we were going to work through Colossians, we would sing the text of Colossians and hear Colossians preached to us. In that context I didn’t hear many worship songs created by other worship leaders or other worship bands. As well, for the past three years in St Andrews I attended the local Free Church of Scotland, which is a Presbyterian denomination that until very recently maintained the regulative principle—God only accepts as worship that which is prescribed as worship. And so naturally, according to this view, the biblical hymnbook is the Psalms. Due to the influence of our former pastor, the denomination’s position on exclusive psalmody changed, and some contemporary worship songs were approved for worship during the service. However, most of the “contemporary” songs that we sang were several years old. So with both my Scottish church and my previous church context in So Cal I wasn’t introduced to the more recent worship songs.
Since returning home I’ve been rather quiet through most worship services. I have used my lack of exposure to these songs, and my silly fear of getting the melody mixed up, to allow myself to listen and reflect on the lyrics. And I wanted to provide a small reflection on one of the songs that stood out to me.
The song is called “There is a River” and it is based on Psalm 46.4. I’m not sure who wrote this song or when it was written, but I had never heard it before. It’s quite simple lyrically, but I really like it. Check out the song here. Below are the lyrics:
(Verse 1) There is a river whose streams make glad the city of our God.
(Refrain) And I will rejoice and be glad.
(Verses 2 & 3) There is a fountain full of grace and it flows from Immanuel’s veins. It came and healed me, and it came and refreshed me, it came and washed my sin away.
As I was listening to Verse 1, I was reminded of an article by David Toshio Tsumura, who teaches at Japan Bible Seminary. Tsumura argues that the reference to the river that “makes glad” is actually a reference to wine. I won’t get into the details, but if you’re interested you can read the article here. As I was standing there thinking about the Psalm—about this river of wine that makes glad and all the temple imagery surrounding it—I was struck by the second Verse of the song. With a mental image of flowing red wine (and in my mind it was an Australian Shiraz), I was struck by the words “There is a fountain full of grace and it flows from Immanuel’s veins.” Now I don’t believe that the writer of this song had thought of the wine connection, but I found the link between the two verses to be so latent with Eucharistic imagery. And to take it one step further, Psalm 46 is so wonderfully concerned with God’s dwelling among his people—God’s presence—that the specific use of “Immanuel” in the song—God with us—extended the Eucharistic imagery as a celebration of Jesus’ spiritual presence with his people.
Although I didn’t know the song I was so moved by the imagery and I wanted to offer it to you as a reflection. If you can, take a moment to listen to the song; I hope it makes a similar impact on you as it did on me.
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