The wells of salvation
A very expressive image in a hot country. Wells are treated in contrast with cisterns, which only store the drainage of the ground. Wells are fed from springs and storehouses treasured in the heart of the earth. Inside Carisbrooke Castle is a deep well, which ensured constant supply for the garrison, however closely the castle might be besieged. Salvation is like a well; forth from it ever comes "living water." It is not like a man-made cistern, which only holds a limited quantity, and is apt to fail in the supreme hour of need. There may be a reference to the custom associated with one of the great feasts. On the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles—some say on each day—the Jews used to bring water in a golden pitcher from the fountain of Siloam, and pour it, mingled with wine, on the sacrifice on the altar, with great rejoicing. Illustrating the joy of finding fresh and living water in hot countries, "it is said that while the French engineers were boring for water in the African desert, the Arabs looked on in silent wonder, until they saw the precious stream actually gushing forth, and then their joy knew no bounds; and sweet and precious as the cooling waters are now to the weary laboring child of the desert, so precious were they to the people to whom the words of the prophet were originally addressed; and the promise to them of an indefinite supply of that element would be highly appreciated by them, and well calculated to inspire their gratitude and joy." The idea of the text may be thus given: Out of the wells of salvation in God, who is the Fountain of all good to his people, you shall draw water with joy. Matthew Henry suggests three good topics for meditation.
1. God's promises, revealed, ratified, and given out to us in his ordinances, are wells of salvation; wells of the Savior (so some read it), for in them the Savior and salvation are made known to us and made over to us.
2. It is our duty by faith to draw water out of these wells, to take to ourselves the benefit and comfort that are treasured up for us in them, as those that acknowledge all our fresh springs to be there, and all our fresh streams to be thence (Psalms 87:7).
3. Water is to be drawn out of the wells of salvation with a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction. It is the will of God that we should rejoice before him, and rejoice in him (Deuteronomy 26:11); be joyful in his house of prayer (Isaiah 56:7), and keep his feasts with gladness (Acts 2:46)." Like well-water, salvation is—
I. EVER FRESH. And so ever pleasant.
II. EVER ABUNDANT. Fullness for whosoever will. Compare cisterns, or wadys of deserts. Salvation is a perennial fount, a "perpetual tide; it flows for you, for me, for all."
III. EVER FREE. Nobody can seal up this fountain.
IV. EVER HEALTH-GIVING. Restoring, requickening. It is healing for the sick, strength for the disabled, life for those "dead in trespasses and sins." What can surpass in power to bring us joy our sense of the fitness and the fullness of the "great," the "common" salvation?—R.T.