Eden Spring Water
How precious is your unfailing love, O God!
All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings.
You feed them from the abundance of your own house,
letting them drink from your river of delights. Psalm 36:7-8 (NLT)
If I asked you to name some rivers found in the Bible, it is probable that you would refer to the Euphrates, the Nile or the Jordan, as they are connected with significant biblical events. But did you know there is a river in the bible called God’s “river of delights”? It is mentioned in Psalm 36:8 where God allows us to drink from “the river of delights”.
The word “delights” stood out to me, and when I looked up the original Hebrew I learned that the Hebrew word is eden. Does that sound familiar? It is the same word as is translated “Eden” in Genesis, only here in verse 8 it is in the plural. We know that in the beginning the garden was perfect and encompassed every kind of provision of which Adam and Eve would ever have needed. See how the Message Bible translates today’s verses:
How exquisite your love, O God! How eager we are to run under your wings, to eat our fill at the banquet you spread as you fill our tankards with Eden spring water. Psalm 36:7-8 (MSG)
Drinking from His river of delights is the only basis for lasting satisfaction. The Psalmist said:
As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God. Psalm 42:1-2 (ESV)
My soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1 (ESV)
God in His extravagant and unfailing love allows us access to drink from the river of His delights.
In Isaiah 55:1, He invites us:
Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters. Isaiah 55:1 (NIV)
Jesus says:
If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37-38 (ESV)
Our real thirst is quenched when we come open to the Lord to drink of Him. There’s an old saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” Will you drink deeply of His river of delights today and experience the refreshing and abundant provisions He has in store for you? The hymn I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say encapsulates it well in its second stanza:
“Behold, I freely give
The living water: thirsty one,
Stoop down, and drink, and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him.