“Gushing from the rock before me, lo a spring of joy I see.”

Hymn: “All the Way My Savior Leads Me” – Fanny J. Crosby (1820-1915)
Tune: ALL THE WAY

The joy of the Lord rarely comes as a trickle.

While writing this second stanza of one of her best-known hymns, Fanny Crosby seems to be channeling the Children of Israel on their Exodus trek. She mentions following the meandering route and being fed the living bread – manna. Then comes this description of their situation:
    “Though my weary steps may falter,
    and my soul athirst may be,
    Gushing from the rock before me,
    lo a spring of joy I see.”

Although the pilgrimage to the Promised Land is punctuated by an arguable event (whether or not Moses followed Jehovah’s directive or whether he took credit for the miracle), this fact remains: water gushed forth from a rock and the people were satiated. Not only were they in a quest to quench their lips, their souls were also athirst.

With the herded Hebrews, we look to the Rock because we wish to be slaked of our soul’s dehydration.

This gushing is something to which we can relate in nature – Old Faithful, Niagara Falls, the Holana Blowhole on Oahu – and in man-made fountains, broken water mains, and the Bellagio Hotel. People stand in line to watch these things happen because there is such a display of might and pent-up force. Rarely, if ever have we stood in line to watch a dripping faucet or a trickling stream.

So it is for us whose inner self is a-dry. The joy of the Lord gushes forth with such potency that we can hardly take it in to its fullness.

Stand back, folks. A gushing spring of joy is on its way!

Wintley Phipps Sings This Hymn