This tiny nugget has been etched upon my heart for a long time. Now I find that there is much debate among the scholars as to the precise meaning of the word “springs.” It satisfies both my heart and my mind to take it just as it stands in “plain English,” and indicates the worshipper has found in God the fountainhead of every blessing, the supply of every need, the ever flowing fulfillment of every legitimate longing of the heart.
In one of our pastorates the community boasted a wonderful spring flowing out of a hillside on an otherwise insignificant narrow road. That road hosted a steady stream of traffic as people from all over the neighborhood came to fill their vessels with water from the spring. There was tap water in abundance in every household, yet many preferred to make the journey to the spring where fresh, crystal clear water never ceased to flow.
Puddles dry up in the noonday sun. Lakes may over time disappear. Even rivers may run dry (see Rev. 116:12). But a springs is by definition, “A small stream of water flowing naturally from the earth,” and “A source, origin, or beginning,“ illustrative of a never ending supply lying not on the surface, but rising from the great deep and unaffected by the surface changes.
That analogy, limited though it may be, suggests the significance of the Psalmist’s affirmation, “All my springs are in thee.” It suggests God as the resource for his every need, and blessed indeed is the soul who finds it thus. “All my springs are in Thee;” not in the church, not even in “the book,” but in thee, the living God, the risen Lord, to Whom the church may be an avenue and the book a roadmap, but Himself the unfailing source of all I really need.
He is the source of salvation. Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly [John 10:10].” Without Him we have but mortality, which ends in the mortuary and the grave. To the woman at the well Jesus said, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life [John 4:14].” Life in a never ending stream!
He is the source of sufficiency in this present world. Think long and hard on the all too familiar, but too little appreciated promise, “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus [Phil. 4:19].” The Lord Jesus is “heir of all things,” owner of “the cattle on a thousand hills” and “the wealth of every mine.” His stock does not rise and fall with each new day, but is steady as a Rock, abundant as the spring. Those who find their springs in Him will never want for any good thing (cf. Psalm 34:10; 84:11).
He is the source of security. The Savior said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one [John 10:27-30].”
He is source of the only true and lasting satisfaction. It is written, “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore [Psalm 16:11].” The “pleasures of sin” are but “for a season,” but the joy of the Lord is everlasting!
How well it has been said (and I paraphrase,) “He who has ‘everything,’ and has not Christ,” in reality “has nothing. But he who has Christ,” if nothing else, “has everything.” He is joint heir with Christ, Who is, as we noted above, is “heir of all things.” The apostle put it this way: “…all things are yours; Whether… the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's [I Cor. 3:21-23].”
Oh, my friends, may this little meditation find us not seeking fulfillment in the “puddles” of this world, but echoing the Psalmist’s declaration, “All my springs are in Thee!”
All my lifelong I had panted For a draught from some cool spring. That I hoped would quench the burning Of the thirst I felt within. Feeding on the husks around me Till my strength was almost gone, my soul for something better, Only still to hunger on.
Poor I was, and sought for riches, Something that would satisfy; But the dust I gathered round me Only mocked my soul’s sad cry. Well of water, ever springing, Bread of life, so rich and free, Untold wealth that never faith, My Redeemer is to me.
Hallelujah! I have found Him—Whom my soul so long has craved! Jesus satisfies my longings; Thro’ His blood I now am saved.
Clara Teare
For true satisfaction,"Pastor" Frasier
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