1. We are not to be content with any shallow and narrow interpretation of either idea in that phrase. No doubt "salvation" in the Old Testament often means merely outward deliverance from material peril. We shall not strain the meaning here, if we take salvation almost in the fully developed New Testament sense, as including, negatively, the deliverance from all evil, both evil of sin and evil of sorrow, and, positively, the endowment with all good, good both of holiness and happiness, which God can bestow or man receive.

2. Then if so, God Himself is, in the deepest truth, the Well of Salvation. The figure of our text does not point to a well so much as to a spring. It is a source, not a reservoir. So we have but to recall, the deep and wonderful words of the psalmist": "With Thee is the fountain of life, and others not less profound of the prophet: "They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters," in order to be led up to the essential meaning of this text. Salvation has its origin in the depths of God's own nature. It wells up as of itself, not drawn forth by anything in us, but pouring out as from an inner impulse in His own deep heart. Surely, too, if God be the fountain of salvation, the essence of salvation must be His communication of Himself. The water is the same in the fountain as in the pitcher. But, God being the true fountain of salvation, notice that Jesus Christ plainly and decisively puts Himself in the place that belongs to God: "If any man thirst," etc. Think of the extraordinary claims involved in that invitation. Every craving of heart and mind, all longings for love and wisdom, for purity and joy, for strength and guidance, He assumes to be able to slake by the gift of Himself.

3. One other remark may be made on this part of our subject. The first word of our text carries us back to something preceding, on which the drawing water with joy is founded. That something is expressed immediately before: "The Lord Jehovah is my strength and song," etc. These words are quoted from Moses' song at the Red Sea, and there point to the one definite act by which God had saved the people from their pursuers. In like manner, we have to look to a definite historical act by which the fountain of salvation has been opened for us, and our glad drawing therefrom has been made possible. The mission and work of Jesus Christ, His incarnation, passion and death, are the means by which the sealed fountain has been opened. For men, Jesus Christ is as the river which flows from the closed and land-locked sea of the infinite Divine nature. He is for us the only source, the inexhaustible, the perennial source — like some spring never hot or muddy, never frozen, never walled in, never sinking one hairbreadth in its basin, though armies drink, and ages pass.

II. Consider again, what is THE WAY OF DRAWING from the wells of salvation.

1. Christ has taught us what "drawing" is. To the Samaritan woman He said, "Thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water." So then Drawing is Asking. To the crowds in the temple courts He said, "Let him come unto Me and drink." So, then, Drawing is Coming. To the listeners by the Sea of Galilee He said, "He that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst." So Coming, Asking, Drawing, are all explained by Believing.

2. Now that faith which is thus powerful, must fasten on a definite historical fact. The faith which draws from the fountain of salvation is not a vague faith in generalities about God's goodness and the like, but it grasps God as revealed and becoming our salvation in the Person and work of Jesus Christ.

3. The words preceding our text suggest another characteristic of the faith which really draws water from the fountain: "He is become my salvation." That is to say, this believing grasp of Christ manifested in a definite historical act is an intensely personal thing,

3. Consider, too, THE JOY OF THE WATER DRAWERS. The well is the meeting place in these hot lands, where the solitary shepherds from the pastures and the maidens from the black camels' hair tents meet in the cool evening, and ringing laughter and cheery talk go round. Or the allusion may be rather to the joy, as of escape from death, with which some exhausted travellers press towards the palm trees on the horizon that tell of a spring in the desert, and when they have reached it, crowd to the fountain and drink greedily, no matter how hot and muddy it may be. So jubilant is the heart of the man whose soul is filled and feasted with the God of his salvation, and the salvation of his God. Such a man has all the sources and motives for joy which the heart can ask.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

II. WHAT THESE MEANS OF SALVATION ARE.

1. The inward means is faith (Hebrews 4:2). This ordinarily requires an outward means to work it by. But being wrought, it is the great inward means of communication betwixt Christ and the soul.

2. Extraordinary means are whatsoever the Lord in His sovereign wisdom is pleased to make use of extraordinarily for conveying grace into the hearts of His elect, as He did a voice from heaven for the conversion of Paul.

3. The outward and ordinary means are the Lord's own ordinances (Romans 10:14, 15).

(1)In general, all the ordinances of God without exception, which He has set up in His Church for that end.

(2)The most special means of grace and salvation are the Word, sacraments, and prayer.

III. WHAT MAKES ANY ORDINANCE A MEANS OF GRACE, a well of salvation, out of which one may in faith look to draw water for his soul, or get spiritual good by.

1. No ordinance whatsoever can avail without a particular blessing; for the efficacy of ordinances is not natural, or from themselves.

2. Men's institutions or ordinances, in respect of God, are forbidden, and condemned by the Lord's word, namely, in the second commandment.

3. Men's use of them is not only useless, but worse, not only to no good purpose, but to ill purpose. That which makes any ordinance a means of grace or salvation, is Divine institution only (Matthew 28:20). Therefore the first question in all ordinances ought to be, Whose is this image and superscription?

IV. TO WHOM THE LORD'S ORDINANCES ARE MADE EFFECTUAL.

1. Not to all who partake of them. "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" Many come to these wells who never taste of the water. I think it an unwarrantable expression, that all God's ordinances do attain their end, in the salvation or damnation of all that come under them; for damnation is not the end of any of God's ordinances, but salvation.

2. But to all the elect they are effectual, unto whom they come (Acts 13:48; John 10:26).

V. WHENCE THE EFFICACY OF ORDINANCES PROCEEDS. It does not proceed from any virtue in themselves, or in him that administers them, but from the Spirit of the Lord working in them and by them (1 Corinthians 3:7).

(T. Boston, D. D.)

1. Water is essential to life.

2. Water is purifying in its influence.

3. It has refreshing and fertilising properties. In this country where water abounds we can hardly appreciate this. In the East a draught of cold water was frequently invaluable. It was not only valuable to the body of man, but fertilising to the earth. In this part of the world we have too much water, and our ingenuity is taxed to drain the land, but in the East ingenuity would be stretched to irrigate it.

4. It is a thing of universal adaptation. There are some persons who cannot take milk, others cannot take different kinds of food, and some cannot take vegetables to any amount; and so on. But you never found anyone who could do without water. It is a fact that not only can none of the human race do without it, but all the human race can take it. In like manner, the Gospel is for every class and condition of men.

II. THE WELLS OF SALVATION. Wherever the pure Gospel is preached, it may be considered one of the wells of salvation.

1. Properly speaking, the Deity is the well of salvation. Christ is the great medium, the great procuring cause, the great efficient cause, and the Holy Ghost is the water of life.

2. Again, the Scriptures of truth may be considered wells of salvation. We moreover observe that in an emphatic manner, all through the Holy Scriptures of revealed truth, Christ is preached, and they are thus wells of salvation.

3. Further, Christ is essentially and emphatically the well of salvation.

III. THE DRAWING OF THE WATER.

1. If you want to draw water, you must come near to the well. If you want to understand something about Christ, you must come to the Bible; you must listen to the Gospel faithfully preached, or, rather, you must come to Christ Jesus Himself.

2. There must be a personal application.

3. This drawing of the water must be continuous. That is a remarkable passage in 1 Peter 2:4 — "To whom coming." "Coming" denotes continued application. We must not only come for justification and sanctification to Christ, but we must continue to come.

IV. THE JOY. "With joy," etc. No wonder when you consider —

1. The unrestricted freeness of the Gospel.

2. The gratuitousness of this great blessing.

3. That this joy inspires a glorious hope of eternal bliss.

(Hugh Allen, M. A.)

I. IT GIVES JOY TO THE BELIEVING SINNER WHEN HE FIRST DISCOVERS IT.

II. IT YIELDS JOY TO HIM THROUGH HIS WHOLE LIFE AFTERWARDS.

(G. Innes.)

1. Invisible in its source. God prepares the water for the wells in hidden springs. Man can make a well, but he cannot make a spring; so men may form systems of religion of their own, but they are only wells without water. Salvation is a well of God's own construction, and He alone from His own hidden resources can supply the life-giving water. There is much mystery in the source of an ordinary well of water, yet we do not allow our inability to fully understand it to present an insuperable barrier in the way of accepting its great blessings; let us exercise the same common sense in our treatment of the wells of salvation.

2. Inexhaustible in its supply. A stream may be dried up, a river may fail to flow, a cistern may be exhausted, but a well is fed from hidden deep springs. In the Gospel of Christ there is enough for each, enough for all, enough for evermore.

3. Inestimable in its service.

II. THE MEANS BY WHICH SALVATION IS TO BE OBTAINED. "With joy shall ye draw," etc. It is not enough for the thirsty to draw near to a well, not enough to look into it, and listen to the music of its waters — an effort must be made, it must be appropriated.

1. We must "draw." God provides the well, but we must use the hand of faith; by the rope of effort we must let down the pitcher of desire — and as we draw the blessing up, we shall not thank the instruments by which we obtain the water, but we shall thank Him who provided it so freely for us.

2. We must drink. Not enough to draw the water to the edge of the well, not enough to lift it to the lips, the water must be drunk as well as drawn.

III. THE SPIRIT IN WHICH SALVATION IS TO BE RECEIVED. "With joy," etc. The teaching of our text harmonises with the inductions of reason, and with the dictates of common sense. For how else could we draw water out of the wells of salvation? Will not the sufferer go gladly to the physician who has the ability and willingness to heal? Will not the fainting traveller go with joy to the well he discovers close by?

(F. W. Brown.)

I. That these wells must be KEPT OPEN for this purpose. The Church of Christ, because devoted to Him, and accessible to none other, is like a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Not so the ordinances of grace: they are accessible to all. To keep these open, ministers must labour, travail as in birth, preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season. Pointed careful attention on the part of the hearers, accompanied with fervent prayer, must keep them open.

II. They must be KEPT PURE, living, running clear from the throne, No admixture to foul them must be allowed. No addition of ours, nothing kept back.

III. These waters must be TASTED.

IV. We must HIGHLY VALUE these wells, if we would draw water from them with joy.

V. A REWARD APPLICATION to these wells is necessary to our spiritual comfort. We must continue hungering and thirsting after righteousness. This application may be made at all times, and in every state. In the public and private and secret exercises of religion, in health and sickness, in the prison or the palace, wherever God is, public ordinances must be preferred. Application:(1) To those who are employed in drawing water for others; and who, in order to this, should draw for themselves, that they may be successful in their work. Do we make it our study to speak from the heart to the heart?(2) To those who think these wells are dry to them. What is the reason of this? Has it proceeded from the ministry? Have you expected from them what you should have from their Master? Have you never thought on your own misimprovement? Have you prayed that these wells might be opened to you?(3) To those who have drawn, or think they have with joy drawn water from the wells of salvation. How ardent will your desires be. He that drinks of this water will not thirst again. Inordinate desires after the world will be quenched — they will be subdued. And here the fullest satisfaction will be obtained.

(A. Brown.)

II. THE JOYFUL DRINKING OF THE WATER found in these wells.

1. The drawer of water from any well of salvation is anyone anywhere who chooses. "Whosoever will, let, him take the water of life freely."

2. The drawing and drinking impulse is the inward thirst of spirit, which, in a general form, characterises all mankind, and shows itself in spiritual minds in the form of thirst for this water in particular. "Let him that is athirst come."

3. The drawing power is communicated by the Holy Spirit acting in His character as the promised Comforter and helper of our infirmities. In one point of view He is the power through which we draw and drink, as in another aspect He is the water we work with in this way for the refreshment of our souls and their true life.

4. The drawing apparatus includes all outward means available for help in our endeavours after the truth expressed in this or in that part of revelation, parallel passages containing like ideas or identical expressions, sound and able expositions, and along with these the lives and deeds of our Lord's faithful and enlightened followers. The intimation in hand lays special stress upon the joy with which the drawing of this water is begun and kept up. This joy comes of the thought that the water is pure, life giving, and refreshing; of the ease with which the drawing machinery is used when all is right with the man who works it, and when the hallowed practice is maintained; of the fulness and constancy of the stream which flows toward us, after it has been drawn up from the depths of the well that is being worked at the time; and of the exhilarating effects of the water when taken freely. The joy prompts and helps the work of drawing. The drawing enlarges and maintains the joy.

(David Lowe.)

1. We must not ignore, or neglect, any of these wells, for God in wisdom has caused them to be dug.

2. We must not substitute for these wells any cisterns of mere human digging.

II. THE REFRESHING WATERS of these wells of salvation. Jesus Himself called it "living water." It is elsewhere called "the water of life" — a very expressive way of representing that salvation which one receives through the appointed means of grace. For —

1. Like living water, this salvation is very refreshing to the thirsty soul.

2. Like water, this salvation cleanses.

3. Like water, this salvation is free.

4. And this water is inexhaustible.

III. THE JOYFUL DRAWING.

(E. H. Witman.)

II. THE DRAWING OUT OF THESE WELLS.

1. The existence of the means of grace is not enough.

2. We never will appropriate those blessings until impelled by a sense of need.

III. THE JOY. There are many things in Christ fitted to inspire joy.

1. His adaptation to the wants of the sinner.

2. His fulness.

3. He is an eternal Christ.

4. There is cause of rejoicing in the terms on which He is tendered.The Gospel is brought within the reach of the poorest, the most abject, the most hopeless. Its language is not "Do," or "Give," but "Take." And if Christ be so free, is it any wonder if the sinner should appropriate Him with joy? Application:(1) What a wilderness this land would be without its Sabbaths, its Bibles, its sermons, its communions!(2) The danger of polluted wells. We dare not mingle anything with Christ.(3) If we have Christ in the ordinances, let us strive to partake of His fulness.

(T. Maclauchlan, LL. D.)

(R. Macculloch.)

(W. Day, M. A.)

(King's Highway.)

     4278   spring of water
     4293   water
     4296   wells

Isaiah 12:1-3

     5334   health

Isaiah 12:1-6

     8149   revival, nature of

Isaiah 12:2-3

     5580   thirst

'My Strength and Song'
'The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation....' EXODUS xv. 2. These words occur three times in the Bible: here, in Isaiah xii. 2, and in Psalm cxviii. 14. I. The lessons from the various instances of their occurrence. The first and second teach that the Mosaic deliverance is a picture- prophecy of the redemption in Christ. The third (Psalm cxviii. 14), long after, and the utterance of some private person, teaches that each age and each soul has the same mighty Hand working for …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

How Shall the Soul Make Use of Christ, as the Life, which is under the Prevailing Power of Unbelief and Infidelity.
That we may help to give some clearing to a poor soul in this case, we shall, 1. See what are the several steps and degrees of this distemper. 2. Consider what the causes hereof are. 3. Shew how Christ is life to a soul in such a case; and, 4. Give some directions how a soul in that case should make use of Christ as the Life, to the end it may be delivered therefrom. And, first, There are many several steps to, and degrees of this distemper. We shall mention a few; as, 1. When they cannot come …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

With Him, all Things
Gerhard Ter Steegen Is. xii. 2 Hath not each heart a passion and a dream? Each some companionship for ever sweet? And each in saddest skies some silver gleam, And each some passing joy, too fair and fleet? And each a staff and stay, though frail it prove, And each a face he fain would ever see? And what have I? An endless Heaven of love, A rapture, and a glory, and a calm; A life that is an everlasting Psalm, All, O Beloved, in Thee. …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and Others

Life in India.
On the 17th of July, 1805, the Union East Indiaman conveying Mr. Martyn sailed from Portsmouth. Mr. Martyn says: "Though it was what I had been anxiously looking forward to so long, yet the consideration of being parted forever from my friends, almost overcame me. My feelings were those of a man who should suddenly be told that every friend he had in the world was dead." Though suffering much in mind and body throughout the long and tedious voyage of nine months, Mr. Martyn seeks no selfish ease. …
Sarah J. Rhea—Life of Henry Martyn, Missionary to India and Persia

His Holy Covenant
"To remember His Holy Covenant; to grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, should serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all our days."-LUKE i. 68-75. WHEN Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, he spoke of God's visiting and redeeming His people, as a remembering of His Holy Covenant. He speaks of what the blessings of that Covenant would be, not in words that had been used before, but in what is manifestly a Divine revelation …
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

Appendix xiv. The Law in Messianic Times.
THE question as to the Rabbinic views in regard to the binding character of the Law, and its imposition on the Gentiles, in Messianic times, although, strictly speaking, not forming part of this history, is of such vital importance in connection with recent controversies as to demand special consideration. In the text to which this Appendix refers it has been indicated, that a new legislation was expected in Messianic days. The ultimate basis of this expectancy must be sought in the Old Testament …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Opposition to Messiah in Vain
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision. T he extent and efficacy [effects] of the depravity of mankind cannot be fully estimated by the conduct of heathens destitute of divine revelation. We may say of the Gospel, in one sense, what the Apostle says of the Law, It entered that sin might abound (Romans 5:20) . It afforded occasion for displaying the alienation of the heart of man from the blessed God, in the strongest light. The sensuality, oppression and …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

The Gospel Message, Good Tidings
[As it is written] How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! T he account which the Apostle Paul gives of his first reception among the Galatians (Galatians 4:15) , exemplifies the truth of this passage. He found them in a state of ignorance and misery; alienated from God, and enslaved to the blind and comfortless superstitions of idolatry. His preaching, accompanied with the power of the Holy Spirit, had a great and marvellous effect. …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

Messiah's Entrance into Jerusalem
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. -- And He shall speak peace unto the heathen. T he narrowness and littleness of the mind of fallen man are sufficiently conspicuous in the idea he forms of magnificence and grandeur. The pageantry and parade of a Roman triumph, or of an eastern monarch, as described in history, exhibit him to us …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

Isaiah
CHAPTERS I-XXXIX Isaiah is the most regal of the prophets. His words and thoughts are those of a man whose eyes had seen the King, vi. 5. The times in which he lived were big with political problems, which he met as a statesman who saw the large meaning of events, and as a prophet who read a divine purpose in history. Unlike his younger contemporary Micah, he was, in all probability, an aristocrat; and during his long ministry (740-701 B.C., possibly, but not probably later) he bore testimony, as …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament