He leads me beside quiet waters

The key to where water can be obtained lies with the shepherd.  It is he who knows the best drinking places and it is to these spots that he leads the flock.  Water determines the vitality, strength and vigor of the sheep and is essential to its health & well-being.

Still waters; quiet waters—a much different image comes to mind than stormy, violent waters. Our tender Shepherd leads us to the gentle waters to quench the thirst of the human soul, which has a capacity and need for the water of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 55:1 is an invitation to the tired, weary soul, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters…”  And Jesus begins his earthly ministry with the Sermon on the Mount (the manifesto of Believers) in which we read the beatitude, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.”  We are given a promise that is we hunger and thirst we will be filled.  Again, this is echoed in the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4).  He tells her, “whoever drinks the water I give him will become in him a living spring of water, welling up to eternal life,” (verse 14).  Naturally, a spring comes from the ground & is a constant source of water.  So it is in the supernatural—the living spring of water comes from the Holy Spirit and is a constant source of living water to the soul, welling up & spilling out!

When sheep are thirsty they become restless and set out in search of water to satisfy their thirst.  If not led to good water supplies of clean, pure water, they will often end up drinking from polluted sources where they can pick up parasites… and so it is with us.  We can only be satisfied when our capacity for thirst is fully quenched by drawing on Christ.  God alone knows where the still, quiet, deep, clean, pure water is to be found that alone can satisfy.  We are not to go off on our own, like wandering sheep looking for our own source of water, which is guaranteed to be polluted sources with all sorts of spiritual parasites. 

Jeremiah declared, “My  people have forsaken me, the Spring of living waters, and have dug their own cisterns,  broken cisterns that can hold no water,”  Jer. 2:13.  Jesus is our only source of living water, which truly satisfies.  Cisterns have no independent source of water.   Cisterns are small reservoirs dug in the ground to collect rain water; water is then channeled into them from roof tops, rain, streets, etc…debris and filth can collect in the cistern also.  Jeremiah is giving a picture of broken lives—barren souls that are dried up and parched, away from the source of Living Water.  These are broken cisterns which cannot hold water.

Put yourself in the hands of the Good Shepherd.  Drink in the depths of His Living Water.  In spiritual terms, “to drink” means to take in; to accept; to believe.  So, drink deep of the water of the Spirit…. This source of water brings vitality, strength and vigor to your soul and is essential to your health & well-being.

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