“And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth its fruit in his season; his leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” Psalm 1:3.

Blessed is the man!

Yes, thrice blest is he who makes God’s precepts his chief delight, in God’s law, divinely perfect, meditating day and night.

A new figure is brought to our attention.  It is the figure of a tree with its roots deeply embedded in the warn earth, fed by the rushing, foaming stream nearby.

The tree stands tall and stately with its widely splayed branches, its leaves sparkling in the sunlight as the gentle breezes rustles them.  Many years ago a little sprout stirred from the depths of the soil, from the decaying body of a forest patriarch.  Protected in infancy by the leafy boughs of other trees, it soon reached out toward the sky.  Now it has become part of the forest and serves as a protector, stabilizing the soil from which it grows.

A tree is a word of God.

We can say that it is an ever changing word of God.  In the spring of the year the warm winds awaken the buds that have lain dormant during the winter months.  The brown branches change to yellow and then into a verdant green, the animals seek the shelter in its shade.  In the fall the tree drops its nutty nourishment to the forest floor to aid young animals to survive the cold winter.  At the same time the leaves begin to die, yet they die triumphantly.  Who does not marvel at the multi-colored trees before they drop their leaves?  Rich auburns, fiery reds, bright yellows, rich browns, and a combination of all these are such a delight to the eye, a promise of springtime.  For the tree that displays such dazzling splendor is a living tree, which soon produces new buds for another season.  All winter long the tree stands waiting, groaning in hope, even as the believer groans in hope for the glorious resurrection still to come.  (Romans 8:19-22).

A tree expresses the ever changing beauty of covenant youth.

Born and reared in a covenant home, instructed in a covenant school, and in the church of Jesus Christ, the covenant child develops in the grace, the beauty and knowledge of Christ.  What a thrill it gives one to hear the strong convictions of faith from the lips of a small child!  What a joy floods the soul when adolescent youth walks in God’s fear, even though it means reproach from his peers.  Young men, you are strong, for you have the Word of God abiding in you, whereby you are able to overcome the wicked one.  (I John 2: 14).  Young women have the adornment of the Holy Spirit in love and devotion to God, evidencing itself in a meek and quiet spirit.

A tree also expresses strength and stability.

We speak of the might oak and the sturdy elm.

When that tree was a mere sapling it swayed and bent, creaking and groaning under the onslaughts of winds and storms.  Instead of showing signs of weakness this young tree only pushed its roots deeper into the earth and spread them over a broader area.

The man that fears Jehovah is like that tree.

The marginal reference takes us to Jeremiah 17: 7,8.  “Blessed is the man that trusted in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither cease from yielding fruit.”

The child of God does not boast of his own strength, but is strong in the Lord.  He is rooted in Christ by a living faith.  From Christ he draws his life, in Him he grows and develops in strength, able to weather the storms of life.

Our life is not a playground.  It is a battlefield, a life-long struggle.  No one of us rides to heaven on 747, first class, leaving the responsibility and concern of the trip to the navigator and pilot.  God makes us responsible creatures, that is, creatures who are able to respond to His law, able to choose the good and reject the evil.  The storms of life that come to us in adversity and temptations, as well as the heat of persecution and cutting cold of rejection by the world work together to make us strong in the Lord and able to stand firm in the power of His might, we are like a tree well planted.

Already as young people you face the onslaughts of Satan, the lure of a pleasure mad, treasure seeking world, the temptations round about you that appeal so strongly to our sinful flesh.  Satan is rarely mentioned any more, is certainly ignored, and he greatly appreciates that.  But he still is very active, busier than ever, especially out to destroy you because of your place in God’s church and covenant.  The world presents her sensual lusts in the rock and roll music of our day, in the soap operas and the movies on TV and on the screen, which leave nothing to the imagination.  You know of those, who have chosen to play with temptation, to explore the pleasures of liquor and drugs, or to exploit the evils of Satan.  Their outward appearance and actions show what they are.  They are swallowed up and swept along like chaff in the wind from evil to evil, from sins to ever greater sins.

The believer is not like that.  He is like a tree planted by the rivers of waters.

Planted and rooted in Christ, he draws his life from Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit in his heart.  That Spirit works through the means of the Scriptures.  Christ becomes for us the Water of Life, quickening, refreshing our souls by the powerful, efficacious operation of the preaching of the Word.

We eat and drink Christ when we hear the Word preached and when the sacraments are administered to us by Christ through the minister.  The Word is the chief means of grace, supplemented by the sacraments, whereby Christ nourishes our thirsty souls unto life eternal.

You know the difference.  There are those who sit in church out of a sense of duty or custom.  They allow their minds to wander off into realms of the imagination.  They come out of church with the feeling, maybe even making the complaint, “The same old stuff in the same old way”.  Others come to church with a prayer in their hearts that the Lord will make them attentive, needy, and desirous to hear Christ speak to them.  They seek a blessing while they sing, while they pray along with the entire congregation, and when they listen to the sermon.  They come out of church with a strong sense of satisfaction and joy, ready to face another week of trials and problems.  They may even feel and say, “That sermon was just for me.”

A good tree brings forth fruit in its season.

A bad tree produces shriveled, worm infested, rotted fruit.  Unless a radical change is brought about in that tree it will only become scrawnier, leafless, fit only to be cut down and burned.  There are young people who seemingly have everything going for them.  They are attractive, pleasant, intelligent, revealing a wonderful personality.  They sell themselves for a mess of pottage, for the pleasures and treasures of sin.  They enjoy drinking parties, sexual indulgence, until suddenly they realize that they have brought themselves into a bad situation.  Often they marry, only to add misery upon misery.  Their homes lack the proper Christian atmosphere; their children are not properly instructed in God’s Word, just because the parents are too involved in the passing things of this world.

A good tree produces an abundant harvest of good fruit.  The textual reference here is to Isaiah 47:12, “Say to the righteous, that it shall be will with him:  for they shall eat the fruit of their going.”  You and I are men and women of God each with our own place in life, each with our own gifts and talents, our own calling, which no one but you and I can fill.  An orange tree brings forth oranges in its season.  An apple tree cannot produce pears, but it does produce its own kind of apples.  So also each of us is a “workmanship” of God, God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus unto those good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10).

Only when we walk in the fear of God, with God’s law as our guide, can we have the assurance of God’s approval and blessing.  Only then can we enjoy God’s covenant promise, “I will be thy God and the God of thy seed after thee forever.”  Only in that way can we experience a foretaste of that eternal blessedness of the saints described in Revelation 22: 1, 2: “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.  In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruit, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”