Psalm 105:41

EXPOSITION

Verse 41. He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out. With Moses' rod and his own word he cleft the rock in the desert, and forth leaped abundant floods for their drinking where they had feared to die of thirst. From most unlikely sources the all sufficient God can supply his people's needs; hard rocks become springing fountains at the Lord's command.

They ran in the dry places like a river: so that those at a distance from the rock could stoop down and refresh themselves, and the stream flowed on, so that in future journeyings they were supplied. The desert sand would naturally swallow up the streams, and yet it did not so, the refreshing river ran "in the dry places." We know that the rock set forth our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom there flows a fountain of living waters which shall never be exhausted till the last pilgrim has crossed the Jordan and entered Canaan.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 41. -- We have,

1. A type of the person of Christ, in the rock.
   1. Unsightly as Horeb -- "When we shall see him, there is no beauty," etc. ( Isaiah 43:2 ).

(b) Firm and immovable "Who is a rock, save our God?" ( 2 Samuel 22:32 ).

1. A type of the sufferings of Christ, in the smitten rock.
   1. Smitten by the rod of the Law.

(b) Smitten to the heart.

1. A type of the benefits of Christ, in the water flowing from the rock -- pure, refreshing, perpetual, abundant. --James Bennett, 1828.

Verse 41. --

1. The miraculous energy of God's grace in the conversion of a sinner: "He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out."
2. The effect in relation to others, which demonstrates at once the excellence and the reality of the miracle in ourselves: "They ran in the dry places like a river." --Thomas Dale, 1836.

Verse 41. --

1. The grand source -- the rock opened.
2. The liberal stream -- "gushed out".
3. The continued flow -- "in dry places".