Psalm 36:9 says, “For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light we shall see light.”
In my high school there were water fountains on each of the three floors. There was one at the end of each hall—I drank from them every day. I wondered why they couldn’t have different flavors of pop in each one. After years of living, I realize that pop doesn’t quench your thirst for very long. I must say, water is the best thing they have come up with so far. In Moses’ day God turned the rivers to blood, so God could have made different flavors of water.
In the verse before our text (V. 8), “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.” The Psalm starts off with “…the transgression of the wicked.” The wicked cannot see God’s “river of thy pleasures.” He continues in his wickedness until he becomes sick of it. From there David speaks of the pleasures that are in God’s river.
In verse 5 he speaks of God’s mercy. His mercies are so many that they are in the heavens. The very way that God called the heavens into being shouts of His mercy. He placed the earth and sun at the right distance apart to give us livable temperatures. If the earth was closer to the sun, the oceans would boil away as they did on Venus. Further from the sun we would be covered with ice, such as Mars. This path that the earth follows is called the “Window of Life.”
This mercy is for the righteous and the wicked. This mercy is expressed as grace in the hymn “Wonderful Grace of Jesus,” by Haldor Lillenas. The chorus goes “Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus, Deeper than the mighty rolling sea! Higher than the mountain, Sparkling like a fountain, All sufficient grace for even me! Broader than the scope of my transgressions, Greater far than all my sin and shame! O magnify the precious name of Jesus! Praise His name!”
Praise God, Christ died for sinners. He said, “…him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out,” (John 6:37). In verse 5, David speaks of God’s faithfulness—“…reaches unto the clouds.” The rainbow in the clouds is a beautiful token of God’s faithful promise to Noah to never destroy the earth again with a flood.
In verses 6 & 7 we see, “Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.”
The hymn “Springs of Living Water,” by John W. Peterson, speaks of the pleasures in God’s river. Verse 1 states, “I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame, And nothing satisfying there I found; But to the blessed cross of Christ one day I came, Where springs of living water did abound.” The chorus goes on to say, “Drinking at the springs of living water—Happy now am I; My soul they satisfy. Drinking at the springs of living water—O wonderful and bountiful supply!” Don’t pass up the great water fountain, THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE!
