Psalm 65:9

Psalm 65:9

The Water of Life

At first sight, this verse is a statement of the obvious, that productive, fertile land needs water and irrigation. God sends the rains from heaven above and fills the streams, and so people grow their crops and reap their grain. There it is - the farmer’s year in just a few words.

However, there is so much more to this, David has written this Psalm to show us our dependency on the Lord. The earth has a vast water supply, in fact it was once covered with water until God intervened and did something that man could never do. He separated the waters in the seas and oceans, and produced clouds above and dry land below. Then He created a world-wide sprinkler system that allows all fertile land to be watered from above in its season. God also formed mountains and valleys so that water need not lie stagnant but could flow back to the seas from whence it came. This “living” water is a source of power and it sustains life for all the creatures that God made. It also allows food to be produced because the land needs water, just as much as the animals and birds and insects and human beings that drink it. What an amazing feat of engineering this all is, set up on such a scale that the whole earth can benefit from its genius. But the story does not end there!

The Old Testament of our Bibles starts with waters being parted, then In Eden a river watered the garden. However, instead of tributaries flowing into it, that river broke the rules of nature and separated into 4 headwaters that flowed out to the 4 corners of what we now call the Middle East. There is no doubt in my mind that Eden was Israel.

Later, God parted the waters so that the Hebrew slaves could leave Egypt and He did the same thing when they entered the Promised Land. During their wilderness journeys He provided the water of life so that 2 million plus people and their livestock would never thirst. Seasons of rain then came to Israel when they occupied their land and it became fertile and productive, just as it has since the Jews returned to it and it became an independent nation in 1948. 

Jesus said that living water would flow out of those who drank from Him and He poured out blood and water when He died on the cross. There will be a day when a river will flow through the centre of future Jerusalem, “The river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.”

It is this living water that we drink when we come to Him as thirsty souls and receive His Spirit. The waters of this earth are symbolic of the greater fountains that pour out the living water of God – His Holy Spirit. Just as the land is fruitful when the rain pours upon it, so you and I will bear fruit when His Spirit is poured into our lives. That water comes from the throne of the living God and the Lamb, but it could not be poured out until Yeshua ascended to heaven. Somehow Peter had already grasped this when He preached on the Day of Pentecost, “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.”Hallelujah!