Unless stated otherwise, my source for hymn texts and tunes is The Lutheran Service Book.

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

LSB #595 "O Blessed Spring"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  John 15:1-5, Genesis 2:9, Revelation 22:14

John 15:1-5:  "1 'I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.  2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.  4 Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  5 I am the vine; you are the branches.  Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.'"

Genesis 2:9:  "And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.  The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

Revelation 22:14:  "Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates."

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The hymn uses the imagery from John 15, and Jesus as the vine is mentioned specifically in the first and fifth verses.

The other two cited verses (but mostly Revelation 22:14) appear in the last two lines of the fifth verse:  "That Word and water thus revive / And join us to Your Tree of Life."

The line "We breathe our last, return to dust" in the fourth verse refers to either Genesis 3:19 ("'By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.'") or Ecclesiastes 3:20 ("All go to one place.  All are from the dust, and to dust all return.").