The River of His Delights
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Psalm 36:7-9
7. How precious is thy steadfast love, O God! The children of men take refuge in the shadow of thy wings. 8. They feast on the abundance of thy house, and thou givest them drink from the river of thy delights. 9. For with thee is the fountain of life; in thy light do we see light.
Isaiah 12:2-3
2. "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." 3. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
Jeremiah 2:13
for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
John 4:13-15
13. Jesus said to her, "Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, 14. but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 15. The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."
I started in Isaiah this morning and turned right to verse 3. Then I followed my bible notes to the other verses. We know without doubt that water is absolutely essential for life. One can live for a long time without food, but not very long without water. When I think of water, though I think of the ocean—my favorite place to be! The never-ending waves falling against the sand. That’s one place where I have a sense of immortality and of God’s abundance.
More than all of that God identifies himself as “the fountain of living waters” in Jeremiah. He chastises his people for fashioning cisterns—broken cisterns—for themselves. In other words, they stray from His word and from worshipping Him. They craft their own gods. They have forgotten the source of all life. And God isn’t happy about it! Jeremiah describes God as a “well of salvation.” He was referring to God’s grace that would be afforded us through Christ.
Psalm 36 declares God not only as the fountain of life, but as the source of all light. Our creator. Our abundant provider and protector. Faith in God is all we need to live abundantly. Belief in Him will afford us everything we need for life. All of these Old Testament scripture foretell of the coming Christ—the ultimate sign of God’s abundant, unspeakable, bountiful and gracious love.
In John, the Samaritan woman at the well, said to have been dug by Abraham himself, beseeches our Lord, “give me this water, that I may not thirst.” Isn’t that we all are looking for? We are so thirsty for the living water of Jesus Christ. Sometimes though, when we see the price we pay for following Him, we fashion our own cisterns. We settle for what the world offers. We take the easy way out. We convince ourselves, “water is water; light is light.”
God is the abundant source of all life through Jesus Christ. Following His footsteps to the cross is the only way to be quenched. In a parched and barren world, there is one source of life that never runs dry. God told us for decades—centuries—that all we need to live is Him. And when we still could not—or would not—understand, He sent Jesus. Lover of unclean Samaritans, healer of demon-possessed cripples, and the salvation for every sinner. He is the living water. He is the light.
I hope today you’ll drink abundantly from the well of living water. And that you’ll reflect His perfect light into the world.
Mary
