THE believer's SONG.
Isai. xii. 3 — 6. With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make niention that his name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord ; for he hath done excellent things : this is knoivn in all the earth. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Z ion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.
THE restoration of the Jews, and their union witli the Gentiles under one head, the Lord Jesus Christ, is foretold so plainly by the inspired writers, that we
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have no doubt at all but that it shall be accomplished in due season. The prediction contained in the fore- going chapter is peculiarly full and express. It relates not to Judah only, but to the ten tribes also; who shall be brought from Assyria, as the other two tribes once were from Babylon. The ensign to which they will flock, is that of the Son of Jesse, the Lord Jesus'' : and the joy excited in their breasts will be like that which their fathers felt at their deliverance from Egypt, when they beheld all their enemies dead upon the sea-shore.
The chapter before us is a song, which shall be sung on that occasion by the whole assembly of the Lord's people : and in it we see,
I. Their high privilege —
The learned prelate to whom the world is so much indebted for his translation of the Prophecies of Isaiah, renders the first verse of our text, not, " Therefore ye shall draw," but, " Whe?i ye shall draw ; " which all will do in the day to which our text refers. But,
There are wells of salvation now open unto us —
[Often is our blessed Lord and Saviour represented under
the image of a well or fountain^ And he himself, in
his conversation with the Samaritan woman, assumed, as it were, that title''. Moreover, the very passage from whence our text is taken was applied by him to himself.
At the feast of Tabernacles a custom obtained, which will fully illustrate our text. The people on the last day of that feast used to go in procession, and draw water from the pool of Siloam, and then to mix it with wine, and pour it on the sacrifices. There was no direction for this in the law of Moses ; but the custom was instituted by the Jews themselves after their return from the Babylonish captivity, with a re- ference to this prophecy which we are now considering. On the day of this ceremony, Jesus stood in the place where the procession was passing, and cried, " If any man thirst, let him
a Isai. xi. 10, 12.
^ Ps. xxxvi. 9. Zech. xiii. 1. Another view of the subject is here taken, different from that in the preceding discourse. As the precise import of the " wells " is not determined in Scripture, it may be taken either wav. '^ John iv. 6 — 14.
881.] THE believer's SONG. 5G5
come unto me, and drink •^:" as if he had said, ' 1 am the per- son spoken of by the Prophet, and the person whom ye profess to expect : and, if you v/ill beheve in me, I will give you my Holy Spirit in such abundance, as shall be effectual for your present peace, and your everlasting salvation.' Indeed, his person, (as God-man,) his work, (even his whole obedience unto death,) his offices, (as our Great High Priest that makes atonement for us, our King that rules over us and in us, and our Prophet that guides us into all truth,) may all be con- sidered as so many wells from whence our salvation flows
Yea, his word also, and ordinances, may be considered
in the same light, because from them we draw all the instruc- tion, the grace, the consolation, that we stand in need of.]