Hosannas for the Weary: Five Hymns of Hope When Your Heart Feels Heavyഉദാഹരണം

Deep River

This river, Jordan, is a symbol of death—and for American enslaved people, an escape to freedom and “home,” to “that promised land where all is peace.” There is the “gospel feast,” the abundance of God’s promises of mercy and forgiveness found through Jesus’ death and resurrection. “Campground” is home in Heaven with God.

Some believe this song was a coded message for slaves to escape to freedom across the Ohio River. However, its scope reaches much farther than simply to those who lived near the Ohio River. It is a universal cry for freedom, from slavery, from sin, and from death.

John Bunyan writes:

So I saw in my dream that they went on together until they came in sight of the gate. Between them and the gate was a river, but there was no bridge crossing over it, and the river was very deep . . . but the men who walked with them said, “You must go through the river or you cannot come at the gate . . . the pilgrims resigned themselves to face the water. Upon entering, Christian began to sink and cried out to his good friend, Hopeful. “I sink in the deep water! The billows go over my head; all his waves go over me!” . . . Hopeful said, “Be courageous, my brother. I feel the bottom, and it is firm.” Christian cried out further. “Ah, my friend, the sorrows of death have totally encompassed me! I shall not see the land that flows with milk and honey!”. . . .

Hopeful struggled in his attempts to keep his brother’s head above water. Sometimes Christian would seem to have sunk down for good. Hopeful attempted to comfort him, saying, “Brother, I see the gate and men standing nearby to welcome us! . . . These troubles and distresses you are experiencing in these waters are no indication that God has abandoned you. Rather they are sent to test you to see whether or not you will recall the evidences of his past goodness and rely upon him in your present distresses.”

With that Christian broke out in a loud voice and said, “O, I see him again! And he tells me, ‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you.’” (Isaiah 43:2)

As you sing this spiritual . . . do you wonder what the passage from earth to heaven will be like? Will there be a river or canyon or any barrier in between? The Word of God tells us we will be changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:52).

Don Wyrtzen wrote in a song, “Just think of stepping on shore and finding it heaven; of touching a hand and finding it God’s; of breathing new air and finding it celestial; of waking up in Glory and finding it home.” God takes us through the river. No swimming or rowing would do. Only God, by His grace, will bring us over it to our eternal, celestial home.