Hymns With A Message: SATISFIED

Sunday, November 15, 2015

SATISFIED

As I've written these hymn blogs over the years, I have often remarked that I continue to be amazed when I find hymns that were written so very quickly and yet have survived the test of time. This week's hymn is another example of that. Look at the quote from Clara Tear Williams about the writing of this hymn. "About 1875, I was helping in meetings in Troy, Ohio, where Professor R. E. Hudson conducted the singing, when, just before retiring one night, he asked me to write a song for a book he was preparing to publish. Before sleeping, I wrote "Satisfied". In the morning, he composed the music." And the result was a hymn of comfort and assurance for all of us who have placed our personal faith in the shed blood of Christ. Psalm 107:9, "For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness." Williams (1858 - 1937) was a loved and respected hymn writer. According to George Beverly Shea, who knew her personally, "Mrs. Williams' appearance always reminded me of the classic painting of Whistler's mother. She had a regal and dignified bearing and yet she had the kindness and gentleness of Christ in her face ... Through her sweetness and graciousness to everyone, she became another wonderful proof to me of the reality of the Christian walk." The writer of the music, Ralph Hudson (1843-1901), served in the Union Army in the Civil War. After teaching for five years at Mt. Vernon College, he established his own publishing company. He was a strong prohibitionist and published The Temperance Songster in 1886. George Beverly Shea was one of the Gospel singers who helped make this song popular. According to Shea, "I memorized this hymn. It became one of my first solos as I began to sing publicly in my late teens ... I have always loved to sing it because "all my life long" expresses the conviction of everyone who has found satisfaction in Jesus Christ." Shea continues, "Clara Williams' hymn is as modern as the concerns of mankind. Psychologists today refer to a person's fundamental needs as a need for security, a need to be loved, and a need to find identity. In this hymn these inner longings are represented by metaphors of hunger, thirst and a desire for material riches. Many men and women pursue these elemental physical wants, thinking that they will meet their deeper needs. But, of course, they never do. Others expect that happiness will result from gratifying the desires of the mind and the ego. A thirst for knowledge and a hunger for power characterize many men, accompanied by a desire for status and recognition. But these ambitions, too, finally become futile; as the hymn says, they are only dust which we gather around us." Now what more could I add to these comments by Shea. Are you searching for real satisfaction in this life? The truth is, no man can ever ﬁnd true happiness apart from Jesus Christ. If you haven't done so before, put your trust in Him today and be satisfied for eternity. Jesus himself said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (John 7 :37). "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). "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33) As St. Augustine said in his prayer, long ago, "Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart cannot be quieted till it find repose in Thee."

1. All my life I had a longing

For a drink from some clear spring,

That I hoped would quench the burning

Of the thirst I felt within.

Hallelujah! I have found Him

Whom my soul so long has craved!

Jesus satisfies my longings,

Through His blood I now am saved.

2. Feeding on the husks around me,

Till my strength was almost gone,

Longed my soul for something better,

Only still to hunger on.