"Who can faint while such a river ever does their thirst asuage?"

"Who can faint while such a river ever does their thirst asuage?"

Hymn: “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken” – John Newton (1725-1807)

Typical Tune: AUSTRIAN HYMN

"Doth this cup thy thirst assuage?"

How long has it been since you used the word ‘assuage’? Unless you’ve been doing a bit part on Downton Abbey or some other British drama, it’s probably been a while!

This grand old hymn about Zion, the city of God founded on the Rock of Ages was penned by the same man who wrote what has been dubbed the Christian National Anthem: “Amazing Grace”!

This particular hymn-line follows a couple of statements about how the sons and daughters of God are well-supplied with living water; then the question is asked how could any one of those sons and daughters (you and I) ever fall by the wayside when we have such a rich supply of living water to quench our thirst? I know it is hyperbole and that the question is rhetorical… and all that poetic-device stuff, but seriously, folks: how can we claim to be thirsty when we have been offered a never-thirst-again dose of effervescent refreshment to even our driest moments?

I know that many people pooh-pooh hymn singing because archaic words crop up now and again. (I can’t believe I just typed “pooh-pooh” into one of these postings! My apologies to people with preschoolers.) For sure, the use of assuage is archaic; but without turning to any dictionary or book of synonyms, in this context we all know what it means. It’s not nearly as off-putting as raising one’s Ebenezer!

The next line of the hymn seems to indicate that the assuaging agent is grace… like that amazing grace of one of John Newton’s other hymns – grace that never fails from age to age.

So before you start swooning and crying out in your dehydration, step into that river of grace – that life-giving, life-maintaining, life-sustaining free gift of God. It could easily be the pause that refreshes!

Listen to This Hymn