The Water of Life

“You are a garden spring,
A well of living water,
And streams flowing from Lebanon.”
Song of Solomon 4:15

There are eight verses in the Bible with the phrase “living water” - four in the Old Testament, four in the New. All beautifully describe a spiritual truth under the figure of a flowing stream of refreshing water.

The first of these (in our text above) is a portion of the description of the lovely character of a bride as seen by her coming bridegroom, almost certainly symbolic of the Lord and His people. But then, through the prophet, God laments that “For My people...have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13). “They have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the Lord” (Jer. 17:13). One day they shall return, however, and Zechariah prophesies that “living waters will flow out of Jerusalem...And the Lord will be king over all the earth” (Zech. 14:8-9).

In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus appropriated this metaphor to Himself as He spoke to a woman of Samaria - “If you knew the gift of God...He would have given you living water” (John 4:10-11). “The water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14).

Later in Jerusalem He cried out to all, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38). Then, in the last book of the Bible is found a special promise for those who die for the Lord’s sake. “The Lamb...will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:17).