The Joy of Salvation

Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Isaiah 12:3

From where does true joy come?  It is not found in an exceedingly good day versus a bad one, in superior health versus poor, in a mutually satisfying relationship versus a sour one.  The anchor of true and everlasting joy is secured in our salvation, the salvation that is entirely dependent on the work of Jesus Christ alone.  Eternal joy flows freely from our sure and safe deliverance from the very gates of hell.  As the Israelites were delivered from all their ruin in the wilderness by the mighty hand of God, so have we been delivered from the ruin of death through the shed blood of our precious Christ.  Our joy can and only finds its stream of refreshment through the knowledge that He has made us accepted into the beloved, that ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that by his wounds we have been healed.’

David understood the concept that true joy ceased with sin and was regained through the remembrance of salvation, repentance and of God’s power to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.  For when sin had overtaken David, he cried out to God, “Restore unto me the joy of my salvation.”  He was displaying the knowledge that it is through repentance that the true river of joy flows.  We see Isaiah express a similar thought in today’s verses, “I deserved wrath, but you gave comfort instead.  Behold, God is my salvation.”  In that knowledge, the precious child of God rejoices in his salvation and finds courage and strength in a song of rejoicing.

Joy comes as you sit by the wells of salvation and find that its waters are good, satisfying and abundant beyond our every need.  Sit there with me, please and reflect on where you have been as a redeemed child of God.  He has plucked you from a sin cursed life; one that saps you of every resource, leaves you thirsty and depleted, weary and worn, and leads only to death.  That stands in stark contrast to the invitation to come and draw from the waters that will truly satisfy; waters that cleanse and heal, waters that give hope and an eternal future, waters that never run dry.

With the eradication of sin, comes the essential element of true and everlasting joy, the very presence of Christ.  As the Psalmist articulates, it is in God’s presence we will experience the fullness of joy.  Jesus assures us, as His children, that He will be with us always and our abiding in Him will make our joy complete.  God’s gracious act of salvation is our source of true joy.  That brings a joy that no earthly possession or circumstance could ever begin to match.

Precious Father in Heaven,

the source of our complete joy,

We praise Thee for the invitation to come.

Help us this day to remember the joy of our salvation.

Where the Bush is Burning

Tomm Tice

D.L.