4 And
he must needs go through Samaria. 5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria,
which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son
Joseph. 6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with
his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. 7 There
cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. 8 (For
his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) 9 Then saith the
woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of
me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the
Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that
saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would
have given thee living water. (John 4:4-10)
Though
many hymnals classify this work as a hymn, it does not squarely fit the
traditional mold and content of a hymn. It is more in the genre of a ‘spiritual
song’ made reference to in Ephesians 5:19 – “And be not drunk with wine,
wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your
heart to the Lord.” So what is the difference? In the early days of the
Protestant faith, some churches, particularly the Presbyterian churches, would
allow only Psalms from the Bible to be sung in worship. The psalms were metered
to fit a particular pattern and tune. Other churches, to include the Roman
Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches favored hymns written for the purpose
of expressing doctrinal and biblical truths. They were the vehicle by which the
truth of the Bible could be carried in the heart to all places. The spiritual
song, or gospel song, is more inclined to personal testimony of the blessings
of God in our lives.
This hymn-song is written by Richard Blanchard in 1959 and the music was of his
own composition as well.
Fill My Cup, Lord
Like
the woman at the well, I was seeking
For
things that could not satisfy.
And
then I heard my Savior speaking—
“Draw
from My well that never shall run dry.”
Refrain
Fill
my cup, Lord;
I
lift it up Lord;
Come
and quench this thirsting of my soul.
Bread
of Heaven, feed me till I want no more.
Fill
my cup, fill it up and make me whole.
There
are millions in this world who are seeking
For
pleasures earthly goods afford.
But
none can match the wondrous treasure
That
I find in Jesus Christ my Lord.
So my
brother if the things that this world gives you
Leave
hungers that won’t pass away,
My
blessed Lord will come and save you
If
you kneel to Him and humbly pray—
Perhaps one of the greatest shortcomings of Bible scholars, and even ministers,
is the reading of the biblical text as merely an historical account – something
that happened two, or three, thousands of years ago to a certain individual.
While that may be the case, the Bible is far more than that. It is a living
text whose application is just as valid to today’s reader, and which reveals
our present sinfulness, as those to whom it was originally addressed – otherwise,
it would be mere gossip.
“Like the woman at the
well, I was seeking For things that could not satisfy. And then I heard my
Savior speaking—“Draw from My well that never shall run dry.”
This song opens with the account of a woman of somewhat ill-repute coming to
Well that Jacob had dug outside the walls of the little mountain village of
Sychar. She came at a most unusual time – high noon. She had come every day at
this hour for a very long time. All of the other ladies of the village came at
the accustomed time of sunset while the shadows lengthened and the heat of the
sun had waned; but this woman came at noon when no other women were present.
She did so, most probably, to avoid the fiery tongues of gossip that followed
her every day on the streets of Sychar. She was a woman noted for her “sleeping
around.” She was always seeking something that did not satisfy her hunger and
thirst – often things which she should not have had such as men to whom she was
not married.
Though the woman customarily came
unseen by the local women to the Well, she had not been unseen by the great
Fountain of Living Waters. Hagar referred to Him as “Lahairoi” (Beer-Lahairoi) –
“the God that Sees Me!” The fountain to which Hagar had fled, Beer
Lahairoi, means the “Fountain” of the Lord that seeth me.” The Samaritan
Woman of Sychar had also been seen all the days of her life by those same
all-seeing eyes. He had watched her in her wretched search for happiness. He
had witnessed her hurt and pain at the gossip of the ‘more respectable’ class
of women. He had watched her endless noon day trips to the well. There came a
time when the Lord that “saw her” said that “….he must needs go
through Samaria.” There was not a great reason, in the minds
of men, that compelled Him to pass through the desolate hills of Samaria; but
there was a reason of the greatest importance to a sinful woman and her fellow
sinners of Sychar that He must pass by that way. It is the same reason that He
has passed by our empty and unsatisfying wells of worldly water. He knew of a
certain despondent woman who would be coming to an insignificant well of water
outside the gates of Sychar. That woman had an appointment to meet her Lord,
but she knew nothing of the appointment until the event occurred. How seemingly
coincidental that Jesus came at the noon-day hour and sat, waiting, at the
well.
The woman came as surely as the
seventh hour follows the sixth. The Lord meets us, always, in unexpected
places. She came seeking worldly water at the bottom of a hole in the ground to
satisfy her physical thirst; but there was one waiting there who would supply
her with the very Water of Life from Heaven that would satisfy her thirsty soul
for eternity!
“There are millions in
this world who are seeking For pleasures earthly goods afford. But none can
match the wondrous treasure That I find in Jesus Christ my Lord.’ The
woman of Samaria, overly casual and even disrespectful at first, came to meet a
Man who “told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
(John 4:29-30) What a blessed coincidence that He just happened to be waiting
there! Coincidence, INDEED! He came for that specific person – something the
Mind of God had conceived of doing from eternity past. Do you suppose that He
came ONLY for the woman? Yes, He came ONLY for her; and He came ONLY for those
in the village who would believe; and He came ONLY there for you and me! We all
were that Woman of Samaria. If you consider yourself much better than such a
woman, then perhaps He did not come for you, and you remain thirsty in your
sins.
“So my
brother if the things that this world gives you Leave hungers that won’t pass
away, My blessed Lord will come and save you If you kneel to Him and humbly
pray.” Everything that the world has to offer is temporary! There
is nothing in this world that can satisfy eternally. Even the globe itself
shall be destroyed in fervent heat. “But the day of the Lord will come as
a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great
noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the
works that are therein shall be burned up.” (2 Peter 3:10) But the
Water of Life that the Lord can provide is an eternal heritage. It satisfies to
the utmost, and that satisfaction surpasses all understanding of the world.
The source of that Water from
Heaven is as unseen as that Underground River that flowed beneath the streets
of Sychar and fed into the Well that Jacob had dug. Its trickle could not be
heard during the busy hours of the day but, once the commerce had ceased, and
men were quiet, one could hear the gurgling of the water beneath the streets of
Sychar. The same is true of that unseen Water of the Spirit that flows beneath
the concourse of our daily lives – unheard and unseen; yet, when we are still,
and concentrate on its presence, it whispers the most beautiful of promises in
our ears as did our Lord to this Woman at the noonday hour.
REFRAIN: “Fill
my cup, Lord; I lift it up Lord; Come and quench this thirsting of my soul.
Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more. Fill my cup, fill it up and make
me whole.” Without God, our hearts are like unto those Black Holes in
space that devour everything that comes under their influence without being
filled or satisfied. But the Cups of our souls, being lifted to that Fountain
of Living Waters are not only filled, but are overflowed with the Life Giving
Waters of the Lord. When immersed in the Waters of that Fountain of Life, there
can be no thirst. Along with the Water of Heaven comes the bounteous sustenance
for the daily need of our souls – the Bread of Heaven. “And Jesus said unto
them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to
me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
(John 6:35) In some earthly prisons, the only nourishment supplied is bread and
water, but in the Kingdom of Heaven, the soul (loosed from that prison of the
body) needs the Water of Life and Bread of Heaven. We are fed by that Bread and
quenched by that Water through the reading of the Word of God, and reliance
upon that Water (the Holy Ghost).
Friend, are you satisfied. Does
your soul thirst for the Water of Life, or your heart pine for the Bread of
Heaven? Be fed!
