With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
– Isaiah 12:3–6
Oh, I love this passage. Just a short chapter in Isaiah. Many of the chapters in Isaiah are really long, and here you’ve got six verses about how God is our song and our salvation, and I love verse three, “With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” Just think about that imagery today.
Isaiah 12:3–6 points to the mercy and grace found in Jesus.
Just like every day in Isaiah’s day, people would draw water from a well. Today, you have a well to draw from, the water of salvation. You have been saved from sin by God, assuming you have trusted in Jesus. Drink deeply today from his love in your life, his forgiveness of your sins, his grace towards you, his mercy that meets you new this morning. Drink from his mercy. The strength that he promises for you, the joy that he gives you.
This is the well you and I get to draw water from every single day in ways that lead us to give thanks to God and to call upon God for help in all the ways we need it. That’s verse four. “You will say in that day, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon his name.” Yes, in a 1 Thessalonians 5 way, be thankful in all circumstances, like live today giving thanks and calling out to God all throughout the day for things you need, for things others need.
As you drink from the water, the well of salvation in your life, give thanks to God calling his name, and verse four, “make known his deeds among the peoples. Proclaim that his name is exalted.” Here are the two words that I have when I put all this together: enjoy and exalt. This is what you’re made to do today. Enjoy God. You have a relationship with God. Drink deeply from the well of relationship with God that you have today. Enjoy and exalt.
Isaiah 12:3–6 challenges us to live to enjoy and glorify God.
Live today to exalt his name among all the people around you and proclaim that his name is exalted. Tell people about the water you’re drinking from, the well of salvation you enjoy. And don’t stop. Live every day toward the Son, until all the peoples, all the nations of the earth. Verse five, “Let this be made known in all the earth.” That enjoyment with God is available to anyone, anywhere, everyone, everywhere.
Oh God, we pray in light of Isaiah 12, specifically verses three through six here, that you would help us today to enjoy you and exalt you, both to the full. God, help us to enjoy you to the full. We pray you would help us to experience you, communion with you, mercy from you, strength in you, peace in you. Everything that flows from you, God, we want to draw water from the well of the depth of who you are, of the salvation you’ve made possible for us. Reconciliation to you, relationship with you.
This verse calls us to point others to God’s well of salvation.
God, help us to live just drinking all day long from this well and to exalt you. God, we pray that you’d help us to serve others today. Help us to encourage others with our words, to point them to you, to who you are, to how much you love them, to the well that they can drink from.
Help us to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ with the well that is theirs in Jesus. And God, we pray almost like we’re in a desert surrounded by people who don’t know where the water is, and we know where the water is. I just think about when I was growing up. Somebody told me, “David, don’t commit the sin of the desert, knowing where the water is and not telling anyone where to find it.”
God, keep us from this sin today. Help us to tell people where the water is that they can drink from. Use us to lead people to the well of your salvation today. God, help us not to be afraid. Help us to be bold with the gospel today.
Prayer for the Soninke People
And God, we pray for all the peoples of the earth. All the earth to be reached with the good news of the well of your salvation. We pray specifically today for the Soninke people of Mali, Senegal.
God, we pray please for this people group of over three million men, women, and children. May the Soninke in West Africa be reached with the well of salvation that is found in you. We pray for that, oh God. All of this in light of your word in Isaiah chapter 12 verses three through six, which we love. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
