It pretty much happen every year. Weather gets warmer, rains seem to increase, and the rivers swell. “Flood watch” gets to be kind of a common term around here at this time of year. I drive over a small river on my way to work. Amazing how quickly it rises . . . and how close it can get to overflowing the berms put up to contain it. I was talking to a guy at work yesterday who said he grew up in a home along the Cedar River . . . “Never again,” he said, “Never again will I live by a river.” He talked of how dirty it was . . . of the anxiety that his parents felt when it started to breach its banks and water filled their yard . . . of the almost annual task of bringing in and placing sandbags to hold back the potentially destructive waters. How different from the river I’m considering this morning . . .

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.   (Psalm 46:4-5 ESV)

In the city of God . . . the place of the Most High’s habitation . . . there is a river. And far from being a threat, . . . instead of over flowing its banks with destructive flooding, . . . this river sends out streams of cheer . . . rivulets that cause rejoicing . . . channels of water that bring gladness . . . river fountains that “splash joy” (MSG).

As I think about, the thought of waters of refreshment is repeatedly associated with the place where God dwells . . . the place where His presence is known.

A Samaritan woman was told that if she would, by faith, receive the water that Jesus offered, that it would become in her “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Jesus also promised to those who thirsted, that if they would come to Him to meet that thirst . . . that if they would believe in Him . . . then out of their hearts would “flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). The source of that river? The abiding presence of God through His Spirit. And, in the heavenly New Jerusalem, where God will dwell, in all His glory, amongst His redeemed, there is “the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city” (Rev. 22:1-2). God, in the midst of her, is the source of that river that makes glad the city of God.

There is a river . . . within all, and available to all, who have been made a holy habitation of God . . . whose bodies have been claimed as a temple of God.

There is a river . . . which should flow, even now, within this quieted heart which sits before Word in awe and wonder.

There is a river . . . which should reach flood stage, Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day, when the people of God come together, combining their trickling streams into a grand fountain of worship.

There is a river . . . which, regardless of circumstance, brings gladness and joy . . . refreshing waters that lead to rejoicing and praise . . .

Oh God, by Your grace . . . and for Your glory . . . may the river flow!