If you’ve read my previous post, you’ll understand that I believe Creator God is entirely delightful and beautiful, defined by all that’s good and loving.
So in light of that, today I thought I’d briefly point out a fascinating phrase King David used in one of his ancient poems. He was writing about Elohim (Creator God) and His relationship with people.
He writes, “You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures” (Psalm 36:8). Other translations use the word “delights” instead of “pleasures”.
The River of Creator God’s Pleasures and Delights. Think about it. Who knew God had one of those? Isn’t it exciting that God even has such a river? Nevermind that we get to drink from it with His blessing?
Fast Forward
Fast forward several hundred years. Jesus is on the earth, and He’s telling folks He’s Living Water.1 And then Jesus goes out into the middle of this crowded feast day in Jerusalem and loudly cries out to everybody in earshot saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink!”2
Do you think maybe Jesus was the living version of the River of Delights that King David talked about? Scriptures do say elsewhere that Jesus was anointed with extreme joy and gladness.3 (Which may be why the regular folks loved Him and many of the religious types hated Him. There’s nothing like extreme gladness to irritate serious people who are preoccupied with developing and showcasing their own spiritual acumen.)
Got Delightful Living Water?
But Jesus didn’t stop there. He went on to promise that for any person who believed in Him, “from his innermost being will flow rivers of Living Water”.4
Scriptures clarify Jesus was referring to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit that would be given after He returned to His Father.5 And that the Holy Spirit would well up from inside us with Living Water.
Yes, Living Water flowing out of us. That delightful, thirst-quenching, River of God’s Pleasures kind of Living Water. Which is actually just another descriptor of Jesus Himself!
Blessings!
Gail
1 John 4:10-16
2 John 7:37
3 Hebrews 1:9. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance explains the word translated “gladness” as “exultation, extreme joy, gladness”.
4 John 7:38
5 John 7:39
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Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good…”
Taste & See is also title to several songs based on this passage.
I love this verse too. And I’m so grateful the word “good” simply means “good”. Or as I like to say, “yummy good”.
So many of us here (myself included) recited this verse and sang those songs for years, or even decades, yet never connected to the personal “yummy goodness” of our God.
When I sang them before my encounter with the Holy Spirit, it was like I was singing about some goodness that was incomprehensible and esoteric – that His goodness was irrelevant to our hearts, our emotions, our experiences. I think I thought God’s goodness fell into the category of “His ways are not our ways”, which effectively removed His defining trait of being good from my personal world, and turned Him into someone unpleasant, like a medicine that is good for us, rather than Someone who is actually pleasant to the taste and the heart.
Glad to say, I’ve come to know His yummy goodness, His delicious, emotionally satisfying love, and now those songs all sing different.