The River of God
Scripture Reading: Psalm 65:9
The river of God is full of water…
David sets the blessings of God in an agricultural setting. The earth is prepared, planted, and produces a harvest by the good grace of God. The “river of God” is a poetic way of speaking about the rains that fall from the heavens. The heavenly river is full and overflows “softening” the earth “with showers and blessing its growth.”
Within this language, David has in mind more than just the cycles of planting and harvesting. The Bible is full of spiritual metaphors that use agrarian life to direct our attention to spiritual truths. Water is one of those metaphors that weaves a blue thread throughout the pages of the Bible. From the river that flowed out of Eden in Genesis chapter two to the River of Life in Revelation 22; water is a major spiritual metaphor.
So, when David writes “the river of God is full of water,” he is thinking of more than the rain clouds that water the farmland of Judea. That river points him, and us, to that spiritual river of the water of life, Jesus Christ. When Moses struck the Rock in the wilderness, water gushed forth to save the mass of desperate humanity of the Hebrew people. When Jesus Christ was struck on the Cross, water poured forth; spiritual water that met the needs of a world desperate for a drink that would quench their thirsty soul.
When we wonder, is Jesus enough to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child; the answer is a resounding “yes!” The river of God is full of water.
