Visible Goodness
Day 298 – 25 October
Six Cups From One Spring
“They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.” (Psalm 145:7, ESV)
A Water Jar Left Behind
It was about the sixth hour, around midday by the Jewish reckoning, when a Samaritan woman came out to Jacob’s well with her jar (John 4:6–7). A tired Jewish traveller was sitting by the well, and He asked her for a drink. She was surprised, because, as John explains, “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (John 4:9). By the end of that conversation she had heard Him speak of “living water” and of a gift that becomes “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:10, 14).
Then she did something that tells us everything about what had happened inside her. “The woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’” (John 4:28–29). She had come for water and went home as a spring.
From a Well to a Spring
Her words had a remarkable effect. “Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony,” and when they came to Jesus “they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days” (John 4:39–40). Her answer opened a door, and the townspeople walked through it to meet Him for themselves. Soon they could say, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world” (John 4:42).
Jesus had described this very thing at the well. The gift He spoke of would become in a person a pēgē (a spring, a fountain) of water hallomenou (leaping up, welling up). The Received Text adds a phrase in verse 42 that the King James and New King James keep, “the Christ, the Saviour of the world,” while the critical text reads “the Savior of the world” alone, and in both readings the Samaritans confessed Him as Saviour of everyone. A Samaritan woman, from a people many Jews kept at arm’s length, became the source from which a whole town drank.
Goodness That Bubbles Over
A psalm of David gives that overflow its Hebrew name. “They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness.” The verb is yabbi’u (they will pour forth, they will bubble up), from naba’ (to gush, to flow, to bubble like a spring). Strong’s gives its sense as “to gush forth; figuratively, to utter,” and the same root describes a flowing stream in Proverbs 18:4: “the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.” Praise, in this psalm, behaves like water from a spring that is too full to hold it in.
What pours out is zekher rav-tuvkha (the remembrance of your abundant goodness). Zekher (a remembrance, a memory kept alive) comes from zakhar (to remember), the same root as yesterday’s stones of remembrance, and tuv (goodness) names the very thing this month has been tracing. The King James renders the line, “They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness.” Remembered goodness refuses to stay still. It wells up and runs over into speech.
The psalm also tells us who receives it. “One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts” (Psalm 145:4). And a few lines later comes the reason the spring never runs dry: “The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made” (Psalm 145:9). The goodness is the same for every person, and so the testimony is meant for every person too.
Six Cups Set Side by Side
All week we have been drawing cups of water from that same spring, one each day, in answer to the question people ask when they see goodness in a life. This Sunday we can set the six cups side by side.
The first was drawn beside a charcoal fire, where Peter learned to give a gentle apologia (a reasoned defence) for his hope (1 Peter 3:15). The second came from a den of lions, where Daniel was found mehēman (trustworthy) because hēmin (he trusted) in his God (Daniel 6:4, 23). The third was poured in a council chamber, where two fishermen spoke with parrēsia (open, fearless speech) because they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). The fourth came from a healed beggar who said simply, hen oida (one thing I know), “though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25). The fifth was sung at midnight in the stocks, while prisoners epēkroōnto (kept listening intently) to the hymns (Acts 16:25). The sixth was carried up from a riverbed, twelve stones set as a zikkaron (a memorial) so that children would ask (Joshua 4:6–7).
Every cup came from the same source. Each answer pointed beyond the person giving it, to a goodness that was there long before anyone asked about it.
Sunday, Drawing Water
Come to worship this morning as someone coming to a well. Drink deeply of the goodness of God in song, in Scripture, at the Lord’s Table, in the company of His people. Let it fill you until it starts to spill over.
Then take one cup into the week. Decide which answer you most need to give, the gentle reason, the faithful record, the courage that comes from His company, the one thing you know, the song in the dark, or the story you leave for a child. Somebody will ask why you are different, and like the woman at the well, you can leave your water jar behind and invite them to come and see.
Declaration
I come thirsty and leave overflowing. The goodness I have tasted rises in me like fresh water, and I let it run into my words. I answer questions gently, live trustworthily, speak openly, testify plainly, sing in the dark and leave markers for those who follow. Let my neighbours come and see for themselves, and let every life I touch find its way to the One from whom it all flows.
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