Dr Paul Allen

The Brazen Serpent, by Benjamin West; among the overthrown, an unmistakable reference to the Laocoön (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “For with you is the fountain of life ; in your light do we see light.” Psalm 36:9 There are times in our spiritual experience when human counsel or sympathy, or religious ordinances, fail to comfort or help us. Why does our gracious God permit this? Perhaps it is because we have been living too much without him, and he therefore takes away everything upon which we have been in the habit of depending, that he may drive us to himself. It is a blessed thing to live at the fountain head. While our skin-bottles are full, we are content, like Hagar and Ishmael , to go into the wilderness; but when those are dry, nothing will serve us but “God sees me.” We are like the prodigal , we love the swine-troughs and forget our Father’s house. Remember, we can make swine-troughs and husks even out of the forms of religion. They are blessed things, but we may put them

Image via Wikipedia "The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life , to depart from the snares of death." ( Proverbs 14:27 )   This beautiful phrase, "fountain of life," is used several times in the Old Testament , serving as a metaphor to illuminate a number of important aspects of spiritual faith and experience. Our text stresses "the fear of the Lord" as providing deliverance from death to life, picturing this new life as flowing from a heavenly spring.   A very similar verse is Proverbs 13:14: "The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death." Thus, the fear of the Lord is somehow tantamount to "the law of the wise." Those who are wise will fear the Lord, and thus receive living water from "the fountain of life."   King David penned the wonderful truth of Psalm 36:9: "For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light." " God is light" ( 1 John 1:5 ), s