“Spring up, oh, well, sing ye unto it” (Num. xxi. 17).
HIS was a strange song and a strange well. They had been traveling over the desert’s barren sands. No water was in sight and they were famishing with thirst. Then God spake to Moses and said, “Gather the people together and I will give them water,” and this was how it came. They gathered in a circle on the sands. They took their staves and they dug deep down into the burning earth and as they dug they sang, “Spring up, oh, well, sing ye unto it,” and lo, there came a gurgling sound, a rush of waters and a flowing stream which filled the well and ran along the ground. Speaking of it in one of the Psalms, David says, “They ran in the desert like a river.” Whence came these rivers in the desert? The Apostle Paul speaking of this incident says, “They drank of that rock that followed them.” How could a rock follow them? The meaning seems very plain. The original fountain of this water was the rock in Horeb which had been smitten when first they entered on their journey. Doubtless the stream that then flowed from the smitten rock continued to follow them all through the wilderness. Not always did it appear on the surface of the ground. No doubt it ran as a subterranean stream beneath the sand and when they dug this well in the desert, they touched the stream that was running beneath and reached the flowing tides that had been long out of sight.
How beautiful the picture here given, telling us of the river of blessing that flows all through our lives and we have only to reach by faith and praise to find our wants supplied in the most barren desert.
How did they reach the waters of this well? It was by praise. They sang upon the sands their song of faith, while with the staff of promise they dug the well. Our praise will still open fountains in the dessert when murmuring will only bring us judgment and even prayer may fail to reach the fountains of blessing. There is nothing that pleases and honors God so much as our praise. There is no test of faith so true as the grace of thanksgiving. “When I cannot pray, I always begin to sing,” was the testimony of Martin Luther. The devil is a chronic grumbler, and the Christian should be a living doxology.
Beloved friend, are you praising God enough? Are you thanking Him for your actual blessings that are more in number than the sun, and are you daring to praise Him even for those trials which are but blessings in disguise? Have you learned to praise Him in advance for the things that have not yet come? It is when you can thank God for the blessings you have asked that you may be sure you are believing for them, and it is only when you believe that God has promised to hear your prayers. Some time we shall be able to thank Him for everything that came to us and to understand what now, through mists of tears, we try to believe – that all His ways were not only wisdom, but perfect love.
Texts for the Month
1. “Bless the Lord, O my soul” (Ps. ciii. 2).
2. “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift” (II. Cor. ix. 15).
3. “Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord” (Ps. cl. 6).
4. “Every day will I bless Thee” (Ps. cxlv. 2).
5. “Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me” (John xi. 41).
6. “All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord; and Thy saints shall bless Thee” (Ps. cxlv. 10).
7. “What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits to me?” (Ps. cxvi. 12).
8. “Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for He is good” (Ps. cvi. 1).
9. “I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being” (Ps. civ. 33).
10. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy Name” (Ps. ciii. 1).
11. “I will sing of mercy and judgment; unto Thee, O Lord, will I sing” (Ps. ci. 1).
12. “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise” (Ps. c. 4).
13. “Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving” (Ps. xcv. 2).
14. “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord” (Ps. xcii. 1).
15. “Blessing and thanksgiving be unto our God forever and ever” (Rev. vii. 12).
16. “Thou art my God and I will praise Thee” (Ps. cxviii. 28).
17. “By Him let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually” (Heb. xiii. 15).
18. “Let Israel rejoice in Him that made him” (Ps. cxlix. 2.)
19. “Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance” (Ps. xlii. 5).
20. “O Lord, I will praise Thee” (Isa. xii. 1).
21. “The Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song” (Isa. xii. 2).
22. “At midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God” (Acts xvi. 25).
23. “Show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (I Pet. ii. 9).
24. “They did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart” (Acts ii. 46).
25. “And He entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God” (Acts iii. 8).
26. “Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the Most High” (Ps. l. 14).
27. “Rooted and built up in Him, abounding therein with thanksgiving” (Col. ii. 7).
28. “He thanked God and took courage” (Acts xxviii. 15).
29. “Giving thanks always for all things” (Eph. v. 20).
30. “Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ” (II Cor. ii. 14).
31. “The valley of Berachah, there they praised the Lord” (lI Chron. xx. 26).