With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:3

The six-verse psalm which makes up the 12^th chapter of Isaiah, follows the promise of a second exodus for the people of Israel.  As the people of Israel came up from Egypt, so now they will follow a highway from exile in Assyria to return home.  Such a journey would be across inhospitable and dry lands as had been the first exodus.

But the result is the same, in words reminiscent of the song of rejoicing in Exodus 15 the people once more sing, “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”

However, the first obstacle the Israelites faced once they were safely across the Red Sea was thirst.  But God turned bitter tasting water into sweet water.

In a dry and arid land, finding water was often a matter of life and death.  Isaiah uses that image as he imagines God’s salvation as wells of water.  The “you” and the “wells” in verse 3 are plural.  Wherever God’s people find themselves, there will be a source of salvation, for there is God.

Believers in Christ carry with them a constant source of salvation in their baptism.  In baptism, the church (God’s people) draws water from the depths God’s well of salvation, which is Jesus Christ the source of living water.  Day by day we can go back to our baptism and draw upon its quenching blessings of life, and salvation. For as Jesus said, “The water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.