There Is A River
Introduction
As an introduction to this sermon, see the first sermon in the series by Dr. Owen entitled, Be Still and Know. Though this was one sermon when developed, Dr. Owen delivered the message in three parts. This is part two in the series indicating the consolation, peace, safety and blessing we have in our Lord!
There Is A River Psalm 46:4
In 1969, Max and David Sapp published a song that said…
There is a river that flows from deep within. There is a fountain that frees the soul from sin. Come to these waters, there is a vast supply. There is a river that never shall run dry.
Their song was based on this song and the statement in verse 4. As we think about this 4th verse…
I. Consider The Truth Of This River
(Psalms 46:4) There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
A. The Contrast – It Represents Something Different
There Is A Contrast Wrapped Up In This Statement – It Represents Something Different
Albert Barnes said…
The image is designed to represent a state of peace and calm security in contrast with the rough and troubled ocean. While the ocean rages, and foams, and dashes against the mountains as if it would overturn them, the state of Jerusalem, the city of God, was well represented by a calm and gently-flowing river; a river of full banks, diffusing joy and fertility and beauty wherever it flowed. This image, to represent happiness, abundance, peace, joy, is one that is often employed in the Scriptures.
The Pulpit Commentary says…
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God. In contrast with the scene of tumult and disturbance in the world at large, which the writer has presented to us in verses 2-3, he now shows us, resting in perfect peace and tranquility, “the city of God,” threatened, indeed, by the nations, but undismayed by them, and calmly trusting in the protection of the God who is “in the midst of her.”
B. The Confirmation – It Represents Something Definite
There Is A Confirmation Wrapped Up In This Statement – It Represents Something Definite There is a river
J. Vernon McGee said…
Some expositors consider this river symbolic. I believe the river is a reality that speaks of the supply and the refreshment that God gives even today, and that river is the Word of God. In Psalm 1 we were told that the blessed man was planted by the rivers of water, which is the Word of God. Also the Scriptures mention a river that flows out from the house of God (Ezekiel 47). And in the Book of the Revelation John saw “…a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God…? ” (Revelation 22:1).
The Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament says…
What is intended is the river of grace, which is also likened to a river of paradise in 36:8. When the city of God is threatened and encompassed by foes, still she shall not hunger and thirst, nor fear and despair; for the river of grace and of her ordinances and promises flows with its rippling waves through the holy place, where the dwelling-place or tabernacle of the Most High is pitched.
Mr. Spurgeon said…
There is a river. Divine grace like a smoothly flowing, fertilizing, full, and never failing river yields refreshment and consolation to believers. This is the river of the water of life, of which the church above as well as the church below partakes evermore. It is no boisterous ocean, but a placid stream, it is not stayed in its course by earthquakes or crumbling mountains, it follows its serene course without disturbance. Happy are they who know from their own experience that there is such a river of God.
One preacher whose comments were recorded in “The Biblical Illustrator” said of this river, “This I take to be the mercy of God; His kindness to the miserable.”
Yet another preacher whose comments are found in “The Biblical Illustrator” named J. Cummins said…
The fourth chapter of St. John … shows that by the river spoken of, the Holy Spirit of God is meant. Under the figure of a river the properties and excellencies of the Spirit of God, here described as flowing through the Scriptures and the Church, are set forth.
Cf. (John 7:37-39) In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. {38} He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. {39} (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
The Bible Knowledge Commentary says…
The Lord’s presence was like a peaceful flowing river (in contrast with the perilous torrents of verse 3).
II. Consider The Tributaries Of This River
(Psalms 46:4) There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
A. He Speaks Of The Branches Of This River
streams – Hebrew 6388. peleg, peh'-leg; from H6385; a rill (i.e. small channel of water, as in irrigation):--river, stream.
palag, paw-lag'; a prim. root; to split (lit. or fig.):--divide.
According to Albert Barnes, when the psalmist mentions “the streams” of this river…
The allusion here is undoubtedly to the canals, watercourses, or rivulets that were led off from the main stream for the purpose of supplying fountains and watering gardens.
The Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary says…
The “river” in Paradise parting and becoming “four heads” (Genesis 2:10) is the original ground of the imagery. The “river” is first mentioned as a whole; then follows its particular “streams,” representing God’s manifold ways of grace to His Church.
The streams speak of the channel of grace that flows into my life, and your life, and countless other lives. Thank God for the streams!
B. He Speaks Of The Blessing Of This River
Spurgeon said…
The great fear of an Eastern city in time of war was lest the water supply should be cut off during a siege; if that were secured the city could hold out against attacks for an indefinite period. In this verse, Jerusalem, which represents the church of God, is described as well supplied with water, to set forth the fact that in seasons of trial all sufficient grace will be given to enable us to endure unto the end.
And because of this supply and because of the streams, the residents of the city of God are made “glad”! In other words, they would rejoice or be joyful because of the streams of this river. A person usually doesn’t get glad about water unless they are thirsty. That’s why Jesus said…
(Matthew 5:6) Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
For those who are thirsty for the water of grace and mercy and the Holy Spirit … be glad, because the streams are flowing.
According to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, the word “glad” (OT:8055 – samach)…
Usually refers to a spontaneous emotion or extreme happiness which is expressed in some visible and or external manner. It does not normally represent an abiding state of wellbeing or feeling.
But according to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, this root word…
Denotes being glad or joyful with the whole disposition as indicated by its association with the heart (cf. Exodus 4:14), the soul (Psalm 86:4); and with the lighting up of the eyes (Proverbs 15:30).
III. Consider The Territory Of This River
(Psalms 46:4) There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
A. This River Flows To The Place Of Habitation
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia states of the Kidron valley and the river bed or brook that runs the course of this valley…
Except at the irrigated gardens, the ravine is a dry valley containing water only during and immediately after heavy rain, but in ancient times the rocky bottom, now buried beneath many feet of rich soil, must have contained a little stream from Gihon for at least some hundreds of yards. This was the “brook that flowed through the midst of the land” (according to 2 Chronicles 32:4).
Cf. (2 Chronicles 32:4) So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?
Warren Wiersbe says of this verse, and even this last part of the verse, that…
The scene shifts into the city of Jerusalem where the people are confined because of the Assyrian army camped around them. Water was a precious commodity in Palestine and especially in Jerusalem, one of the few ancient cities not built on a river. Wisely, Hezekiah had built an underground water system that connected the Spring of Gihon in Kidron with the Pool of Siloam within the city, so water was available (2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:30). But the psalmist knew that God was their river and provided them with the water of life (36:8; 65:9; 87:7; and see John 7:37- 39).
(Psalms 36:8) They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
(Psalms 65:9) Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.
(Psalms 87:7) As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee (speaking to Zion).
As The Pulpit Commentary says…
The direct application is, of course, to the earthly Jerusalem, which the armies of Sennacherib were threatening.
But this, I believe, is only part of what the verse means. As The Pulpit Commentary goes on, it says…
To this city he assigns a “river, the streams whereof make her glad;” imagery in which we may recognize the perennial fountain of God’s grace – that “pure river of water of life,” which, welling forth from the throne of God and of the Lamb, continually refreshes and gladdens the Church of Christ (Revelation 22:1), whether her dwelling-place be the earthly or the heavenly Jerusalem.
This river of grace flows to my habitation, and it can flow to your habitation – to irrigate our lives and refresh us.
B. This River Flows To The Place Of Holiness
the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High
holy (place) – Hebrew 6918. qadowsh, kaw-doshe'; or qadosh, kaw-doshe'; from H6942; sacred (ceremonially or morally); (as noun) God (by eminence), an angel, a saint, a sanctuary:--holy (One), saint.
If the “city” represented the place of the Jews habitation, then the “tabernacles” represented the place of Jehovah’s habitation. It was the place of worship, the sanctuary.
Barnes said…
The holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High] Of the “tent” where the Most High is supposed to abide. The word is applicable to any habitation or dwelling-place; but in the Scriptures it is applied especially to the sacred tent erected by Moses in the wilderness, and ultimately removed to Mount Zion by David, as the divine abode on earth. It is sometimes, also, applied to the temple; and if this psalm was written, as I have supposed, in the time of Hezekiah, it would be applicable to that. The tabernacle and the temple were alike divided into two parts – the holy and the most holy place – and hence the “plural” term is sometimes applied to them.
His grace can flow to my house and His grace can flow to the church house!
Any personal or experiential knowledge that I have of rivers is related to the French Broad River that begins its flow in my home county in western North Carolina.
The French Broad River Blueway guide says…
Wilma Dykeman describes the mountains of the French Broad as real ancients that were old before the Rockies even began to form. The mountains are part of the Appalachians, the oldest mountains in the world. In fact, the river is older than the mountains in which it now finds itself. It has the distinction of being the third oldest river in the world, following the Nile River in Egypt and the New River in West Virginia (The French Broad, 1955, p.10). … The headwaters are in Western North Carolina in Transylvania County outside of Rosman, a small town surrounded by the Pisgah National Forest. From the headwaters to the North Carolina State line, the River is 116 miles long. The Tennessee section of the River travels another 102 miles through four Tennessee counties, Cocke, Jefferson, Sevier, and Knox to merge with the Holston River east of Knoxville, forming the Tennessee River.
The headwaters of this river are made up of 5 distinct sections, or forks, that join together near Rosman to become the French Broad River
The things that stand out in my mind about this river is that it has flowed my entire life. It has never dried up! And it flows through so many different areas and towns and counties … in two different states, until it changes into another river.
Similarly, the river of God’s grace and mercy and kindness and spirit has never ceased in its flow. And it flows to many different places. And it will continue to flow in our lives here until it changes and becomes a new type of river in heaven. Thank God for the river!