Worship: Strength

Springs

Springs are natural sources requiring no pumps or pipes, no acts of congress to create or engineer’s blueprints to build, no helping human hands to handle, or leaders to keep them motivated. They simply do as their name describes—they spring—from mountain sides and desert floors, from flowering meadows and at the bottom of clear water pools.

The Psalmist has a message for artists, (he mentions musicians but this applies to all artists) those who create new and better things in the Kingdom of God. Remember where the springs are found—In Zion! I’m not talking about the Holy Land; in the New Covenant Mt. Zion refers to the place where God lives and rules. So let me rephrase:

Creative people! Remember where your springs are found—in the Kingdom of God!

All My Springs Are in You.

The springs in our faith are many.

Word of God is a whole field of springs:

• The Life of Christ—drink deeply here and often.
• The Psalms—every human emotion is brought before the Throne of God here.
• The Histories—the inspiration and admonition of the accounts of the People of God and their enemies have much to say to us.
• The Prophets—this steaming spring of passion for justice and purity mirrors our own times.
• The Wisdom Literature—well-crafted wells of godly truth and human observation full of irony and riddles are found here.
• The Letters—these real words from real persons are inspired by the Spirit to speak to every generation.

Worship is a bubbling spring of strength:

• Fellowship with God,
• Fellowship with other believers, and
• Shared ministry, joy, sorrow and hope.

Witness is a spring in the town square:

• Making a public stand for the truth of God,
• Touching a hurting soul with the compassion of Christ,
• Telling the Jesus story with words and deeds, and
• Living pure in a polluted world.

There Are other Springs.

The artist must go into the world to learn his/her craft but we must be in these arenas, not of them. Like the liberated slaves who escaped Egypt loaded with the riches of their oppressors, we must plunder this world of its corrupted gold and return it to the uses of God: music, dance, visual arts, dramatic arts, technology, narrative, poetry, and language itself.

We must not drink from the springs of profanity and cynicism, of despair and degradation, of hate and prejudice, of lust and self-absorption. These are poison springs.

The invitation of Jesus must never leave our minds:

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”

All my springs are in You.

Scriptures

Psalm 87 NKJV
His foundation is in the holy mountains. The LORD loves the gates of Zion More than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God! “I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those who know Me; Behold, O Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia: ‘This one was born there.'” And of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one were born in her; And the Most High Himself shall establish her.” The LORD will record, When He registers the peoples: “This one was born there. “Both the singers and the players on instruments say, “All my springs are in you.”

John 4:13-14 NIV
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 7:37-41 NIV
On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.” Others said, “He is the Christ.”

Revelation 21:6-8 NIV
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars — their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

Psalm 84:5-7 NIV
Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, (sorrow, weeping) they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.

Hymn of The Waters of Life
Springs of Living Water
by John W. Peterson, 20th Century

1.I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame,
And nothing satisfying there I found;
But to the blessed cross of Christ one day I came,
Where springs of living water did abound.

CHORUS
Drinking at the springs of living water,
Happy now am I,
My soul they satisfy;
Drinking at the springs of living water,
O wonderful and bountiful supply!

2.How sweet the living water from the hills of God,
It makes me glad and happy all the way;
Now glory, grace and blessing mark the path I’ve trod,
I’m shouting “Hallelujah” ev’ry day.

CHORUS

3.O sinner, won’t you come today to Calvary?
A fountain there is flowing deep and wide;
The Savior now invites you to the water free,
Where thirsting spirits can be satisfied.

CHORUS

Semper Reformanda!
Stephen Phifer

© 2016 Stephen R. Phifer All Rights Reserved