Given that I’ve named this blog after a line from my favorite hymn, I thought it would be appropriate to have the first post here be a discussion about Give Me The Bible.

While I sometimes get a little bit of tunnel vision when it comes to the importance of singing in the church, I do think that most of us–myself included–have a bad habit of doing “drive-by” singing, where we sing through a whole Sunday morning service’s worth of songs without really considering the spiritual content of the words we are saying. One of the Scriptural commands for our singing is to be teaching one another, and yet we almost always give less focus to the words of our songs than to the words of our sermons. So, for my first piece of writing here, let’s take a look at this song and put to practice the skill of interrogating our hymns to see what value they bring to us.

In my opinion, Give Me The Bible is a top-tier example of what a “teaching and admonishing” song should look like. Despite having an almost childlike title and premise, it demonstrates a great deal of spiritual depth. In fact, the song is laid out with a very similar structure to a sermon or a class: it states a thesis and then spends each verse elaborating on a different point of why that thesis is true. In this case, it puts forward that the Bible is something that we should desire above everything else, and then goes on to explain the different things that the Bible does for us that makes it so desirable.

Star of Gladness Gleaming

Give me the Bible, star of gladness gleaming,
To cheer the wanderer lone and tempest-tossed;
No storm can hide that radiance peaceful beaming,
Since Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

One of the most common analogies used in Scripture for the word of God and the glory of God is that of light. The imagery of God’s light triumphing over the darkness of the world goes all the way back to the Creation, and the Bible uses it often to describe the message that God gives to men.

John 1:4-5 (ESV) “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

John 8:12b (ESV) “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

2 Corinthians 4:6 (ESV) “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Here in verse one, the song highlights that the Bible is a beacon in the darkness that cannot be hidden from those who are in need of it. Regardless of whatever trials or doubts we may suffer, God’s word is always near to us to lead us on the right path. It cannot be destroyed or covered up, and so long as somebody is seeking it, they are guaranteed to find it.

When My Heart Is Broken

Give me the Bible, star of gladness gleaming,
To cheer the wanderer lone and tempest-tossed;
No storm can hide that radiance peaceful beaming,
Since Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

Now in verse two, the song tells us about of the amazing power of the Bible to bring us comfort. All of us will face some kind of grief or fear at some point in our lives. It may come from some terrible trial that we suffer, the loss of a dear loved one, or even the fear of a separation from God when we fall short of his expectations. Whatever the source may be, the hymn reminds us that there is one perfect source of comfort which we always have to bring us closer to God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 (ESV) “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.”

We are comforted because the Bible is the light that shows us Christ standing with us through every trial, doubt, and fear. In the Scripture, we can see the lives of those who also suffered these same things, and see how they also were able to turn to God for comfort and peace.

All My Steps Enlighten

Give me the Bible, all my steps enlighten,
Teach me the danger of these realms below;
That lamp of safety o’er the gloom shall brighten,
That light alone the path of peace can show.

Here we come to power of the Bible to teach and enlighten us. It is the path of peace that keeps us safe from the spiritual dangers of the world and which teaches us to have an understanding of God’s will for us. When we turn to the word of God, we are able to learn how to bring ourselves closer to God. There is no other way that we can gain this knowledge of the path of peace except by immersing ourselves in God’s word.

Luke 1:76-79 (ESV) “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Lamp of Life Immortal

Give me the Bible, lamp of life immortal,
Hold up that splendor by the open grave;
Show me the light from heaven’s shining portal,
Show me the glory gilding Jordan’s wave.

Finally, in its last verse, the hymn turns to our eternal reward. The Bible is the method by which we are able to see our reward in heaven by faith, and that is our ultimate encouragement and comfort that we can receive. This is the guide to eternal life that God has given freely to all people through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

John 6:68-69 (ESV) “Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.’”

Romans 6:23 (ESV) “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

For most people, death is something that is terrifying and unknown. For the people of God, there is glory in the death of a righteous person, because that is the moment when we have finished our race and laid down our burdens.

Precept And Promise

Give me the Bible, holy message shining;
Thy light shall guide me in the narrow way;
Precept and promise, law and love combining,
Till night shall vanish in eternal day.

My favorite part of Give Me The Bible is the chorus, because it perfectly summarizes one of the most complicated ideas in the Bible in a single line. The nature of a covenant with God–like the one we have through Christ–is that of a law and a promise. We are bound by the Law of Christ to be obedient to God’s commandments, but if we are obedient, then we are promised a reward that exceeds any other.

The song concludes the refrain by telling us that one day, we will no longer need to have the Bible, because God’s people will dwell with him personally and hear God’s word from his own mouth. Then the darkness of the world will completely vanish, because the light of God’s word will be always with us.

1 Corinthians 15:54-58 (ESV) “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”