“A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from
Lebanon” (Song of Solomon <
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4:15
).

There are eight verses in the Bible with the phrase “living water”: four in the Old Testament, four in the New. All beautifully describe a spiritual truth under the figure of a flowing stream of refreshing water.

The first of these, in our text above, is a portion of the description of the lovely character of a bride as seen by her coming bridegroom, almost certainly symbolic of the Lord and His people. But then, through the prophet, God laments that “my people . . . have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13). “They have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah

17:13
). One day they shall return, however, and Zechariah prophesies that “living waters shall go out from
Jerusalem. . . . And the LORD shall be King over all the earth” (Zechariah 14:8,9).

In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus appropriated this metaphor to Himself as He spoke to a woman of
Samaria: “If thou knewest the gift of God . . . He would have given thee living water” (John

4:10
; see also v.11). “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John

4:14
). Later in
Jerusalem, He cried out to all, saying: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said [referring, no doubt, to the above Old Testament passages], out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37,38). Then, in the last book of the Bible is found a special promise for those who die for the Lord’s sake. “[He] shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation

7:17
). HMM