The River of Living Water

Key verse: Psalm 46:4 “There is a river the streams of which make the city of God glad – the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.” The three Korah Psalms are thought to refer to Sennacherib’s attack on Jerusalem when they obtained water from Hezekiah’s tunnel; this has a greater latter day fulfilment.

These are in the future, as Ezekiel saw in vision, a literal river of water flowing from the Temple through the desert to the Dead Sea, bringing healing and life wherever it went. So the new Jerusalem has its river of life that produces fruits to the glory of Yahweh. That is the basis of the figure now before us here, applied to symbolic new Jerusalem (II Chron. 6:6; Psalm 48:1, Isa. 60:14, Heb. 12:22).

Christ is the altar (Heb.13:10) and from Him will proceed the doctrine of life represented as the stream of living water (John 4:14, 3739). This will fructify the aridness of men’s minds and will heal the Dead Sea of Nations (Isa. 57:20-21).

The water of the streams mentioned in Psalms is unpolluted and health-giving, because v.9 says, “He makes war to cease to the end of the earth, He breaks bows, shatters the spears, He burns the chariot in the fire,” meaning that this will be in the future Kingdom when Christ reigns on Mount Zion, and with His redeemed in glory. Let us put ourselves in remembrance of these promises as we are waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Bro Alfred Wanyonyi (Luuya, Kenya)