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Psalm 84:5-6:
5Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.
6Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.
In a country such as ours, with its plentiful provisions of water, it is difficult to form any idea of what thirst is.
This accounts for the fact that what Scripture says about "thirsting after righteousness" or "thirsting after the living God " is commonly interpreted among us in far too weak a sense. Of course it frequently happens now that on a hot day after a long walk, or at a time of feverish emotion, you reach out eagerly after a cup of cold water. But this stronger desire for water is by no means yet that thirst which one suffers in mountainous regions when the tongue cleaves, not metaphorically but literally, to the roof of the mouth, when the last moisture in the mouth is dried up and the swollen throat with difficulty lets the breath pass through. With such a thirst the pressing and ever increasing craving for water becomes a real passion; and he alone who so understands it, fathoms the depth of the longing for the nearness of God, which is so frequently expressed in singing by the worshiping congregation, even though he has no idea that there is anything real in that panting of the hart (Psalm 42:1), which under the exhaustion occasioned by thirst sinks to the ground and cries out for the water-brooks.
And who in our days knows anything of the "thirsting after righteousness" such as the Old and the New Testament saints have known? Even when the cup of righteousness full to the brim is set before us, on the part of more than one it is considered much if he stretches out a heavy hand for it and slightly moistens his lips with it. But to thirst for it, to cry out for it, not to be able any longer to go without it, with weeping to supplicate for it unto God—where do we see anything of it? Oh, there are still some thirsting ones, but has not their number diminished? And is not the very infrequency of this strong burning of the real thirst after God, and of the real thirst after righteousness the common danger of our times?
Sin works this.
Sin is the cause that, unless God shows mercy, the stimulus of this thirst scarcely operates.
It requires special grace in certain periods to revive the vigorous activity of this stimulus again.
Such grace was operative in the days of the Apostles, and in every season of revival that has been known in the Church since.
And at the present time this thirst operates, oh, so weakly! The circle within which it operates is so small! And even in this narrow circle its operation is so faint.
Be grateful to God if in your own heart you may perceive sometimes something of this real thirsting after the living God.
Thousands upon thousands live on and die without ever having felt anything of this thirst.
How great then is the grace that has been shown to you!
The Prophets and Psalmists, Jesus and the Apostles, lived in mountainous regions. From thence it is that water and the thirst after water occupies so broad a place in Scripture.
"With thee is the fountain of life" (Psalm 36:9). "All my springs are in thee" (Psalm 87:7). "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters" (Isaiah 54:1). "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst" (John 4:14).
And such is also the striking saying regarding the valley of mulberries in Psalm 84.
The mulberry ripens most lusciously in hot, sunny spots. So the valley of mulberries is the image of those conditions in life when everything within us languishes, occasions anxiety, and almost chokes us with grief. When the heat of day and the heat of battle makes us pant for air and for relief. When we are no more able to go on. When fear overtakes us that unless God help us we shall drop by the way.
Now in these mountainous districts, there is, of course, abundance of water, which flows from the snow fields and leaps down in murmuring brooks. But in the mountains themselves the water is unequally divided. In one place it threatens to drag you along in its wild course. In other parts you will travel a barren path for hours and hours, where no drop of water can be found. And then there is only one hope of relief, that somewhere a tiny spring will trickle from the mountain side, wherewith the traveler may refresh himself and quench his burning thirst.
And for this reason, in connection with the valley of mulberries, the Psalmist speaks of two forms of relief. The first is, that in the midst of scorching heat, all unexpectedly, such a tiny spring is discovered. And the second is that rainclouds gather overhead, and beneath their broad shadow protect the traveler from the heat of the sun.
So it is in the valley in the midst of mountains, and so it is, metaphorically speaking, for God's children in the midst of troubles. When they are no more able to do anything of themselves, when they are breathless and hard pressed, then God is their spring, and then it is God Who stretches out broadly the rainclouds over them and covers them with their shade.
"When they pass through the valley of mulberry trees they make Him a well; yea, the raincloud shall cover them with blessings" (Psalm 84:6, Dutch Version: vide R.V.).
To worship the Fountain of life in the living God and in His Christ has thus become our comforting imagery.
And now you must have seen for yourself in mountain villages what the village well, the village spring there, is, in order to grasp the rich significance of this imagery.
In those small villages, there is, as a rule, only one well, one fountain located in the midst of the public square.
From this one fountain, from this single well, the whole village drinks. Every one goes from his house to this well to fill his pitchers, and morning and evening to carry the provision of precious water to his home. Horse and cattle are led thither to drink from this same spring. And, likewise, soiled clothes are carried there, in order when washed white to be taken home again.
So this one village well is the center of the whole village life. Everything gathers around it. At the well, people meet one another. At the well, conversation is held. At the well, the common life is lived. And so the whole village community feels that this well is in very deed the fountain of life for the entire village.
If, now, in such a place you should sing the Psalm that God is the Fountain of life, every one will understand you. The delightful imagery of it will appeal to all, and the pregnant thought will enter into every soul, that without God we would perish from thirst in our miseries, and that God, and God alone, is the center in Whom all they that fear His Name realize that they are one, and that together they lead one life.
In Christ this is brought closer yet.
In Christ the Fountain of life has been brought into our human life and into our human nature.
There are not two fountains of life, one in God and one in Christ, but it is the one Fountain of the Divine life which springs up in the Father, has come near to us in the Son, and through the Holy Ghost flows into our heart.
Therefore your Christianity is gone when you do not surely worship Christ as God and kneel down to Him as such.
This one Christ is the Fountain of life for the whole village, if we may so express ourselves, of the congregation of the Lord in the earth.
No one has the water of life for himself in his own house. Every morning and every evening each child of God is duty bound to go out to this one Fountain which is in Christ, to fill the small pitcher of his soul against the long day and the long night. And this Fountain never disappoints. It always flows. The water of life is there to be found flowing fresh every moment. There is no shortage for any one. There is abundance for all. And though our eye does not see it, invisibly throughout the whole world every true believer is given water at this one Fountain.
And thereby this one Fountain of life in Christ is and remains the center of life for us all, and the center of fellowship for the heart of us all. All sorts of distances and all sorts of separations, in the social world and in the churches hold you apart. Spiritually and unseen, however, all that are born of God come together day by day at this one Fountain of life, and it is this one Christ who from His abundance gives water to all.
And it is from this being one in Christ, and from this real life which is refreshed and sustained by water from this one Fountain, that believers on earth, in spite of difference and dispute, derive each day anew the strength of unity by which to realize and to work out the kingdom of heaven on earth.
But faith must be put in action.
It says: "They make Him a well."
It does not act of itself. And thousands upon thousands, alas, come and go, without ever having known this Fountain, without ever having admired it or taken a drink from it.
The act of faith alone brings one into fellowship of soul with this Fountain.
Christ wants to be accepted. By faith you must make Him your Fountain.
With this also it is as in the mountain village.
Sometimes in such a mountain village there is a rich man who has dug a well in his own grounds for his own use. He has no more need therefore every morning and every evening to go to the village well.
But the rest, the poorer ones have no such well of their own.
And so it also applies here: Blessed are the poor in spirit, because they go to the Fountain of life, and therefore theirs is the kingdom of God.
* * * * * * *This devotional classic offers 110 meditations on a single thought from Psalm 73: "As for me, it is good to be near to God." The author states, "The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality ... it must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence."
The meditations reflect the blending of spiritual vigor with doctrinal loyalty so consistently expressed in the life of Abraham Kuyper. These are devotions with true substance, avoiding the extremes about which Kuyper adds a word of caution: "Stress in creedal confession, without drinking from the Living Fountain, runs dry in barren orthodoxy, just as truly as spiritual emotion, without clearness in confessional standards, makes one sink in the bog of sickly mysticism."
Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was a Dutch political leader and Calvinist theologian. Elected to parliament in 1874, he became Prime Minister in 1901 and served in that capacity until 1905. As a theologian, he revived a systematic, orthodox Calvinism. He founded the Free Reformed Church and the Free University of Amsterdam. His other works include Principles of Sacred Theology, Lectures on Calvinism, and The Work of the Holy Spirit
Further information about Abraham Kuyper's life can be seen in the translator's "Biographical Note"; further information about To Be Near Unto God can be Abraham Kuyper's "Preface" to that book.
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