What Will Sustain You in the Hour of Trial?
I’m doing some preaching/teaching in our church about “thinking about Scripture,” or Christian meditation. In our day and age, you might get a little nervous about the word “meditation.” In the non-Christian sense, meditation has the idea of “emptying the mind.” In the Christian sense, meditation has the idea of filling the mind with Bible content, focusing the mind in particular on specific Bible passages so as to internalize the message in one’s heart. A resource I am using for this is Frank Hamrick’s Mighty Through God material. He is writing for young people, but I’m working through the material and making application to the rest of us who (whatever we are) aren’t “young people” any more.
In this study, I noticed a particular word in Psalm 1 that stirred some additional thinking. I thought I’d share the fruit of that study with you.
Psa 1:3 And he [the blessed man] shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The word “planted” (bolded above) caught my attention in this passage, describing the fruit of a life devoted to shunning the way (and mind) of the wicked and delighting in, yea, meditating in the Law of the Lord. The consequence of this lifestyle is to be like a fruitful tree, planted by the life giving water source. Thinking about this word led me to search out its usage in the Old Testament. To my surprise, the word occurs only ten times, though a synonym abounds.
The synonym occurs in Gen 2.8 and Ex 15.16-17, among other places:
Gen 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Exo 15:16 Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased. 17 Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.
You can see that the synonym has a literal usage and a figurative usage — God planted the Garden of Eden, would promised to plant Israel in the mountain of the inheritance.
Our word in Ps 1.3 literally is “to plant,” but its use in the Bible is always figurative. “All occurrences of the verb involve figurative usage and refer to Israel or the righteous man in the form of a tree or a vine.”1 Since the synonym used in Gen 2.8 can also have a figurative use, it is curious to me why this verb’s use is never literal and always figurative. I also wonder whether there is any distinction between the “planted” of Ps 1.3 and that of Gen 2.8.
Let’s think about the figurative uses of nata`, the “planted” of Gen 2.8. In 2 Sam 7.10 (see also 1 Chr 17.9), in the Davidic Covenant, the emphasis seems to be on the security and stability of the plantation.
2Sa 7:10 Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime,
Psalm 44.2 speaks of the security of Israel’s plantation in the land, compared to the insecurity of the nations God drove out. A similar idea is in Ps 80.8-9, with Ps 80.15 describes the vine of Israel that God’s strong “right hand hath planted” and “the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.” There are a few more references, but to the extent that I can see any special emphasis with this word, it seems to me that the big idea is stability and strength as something firmly planted.
On the other hand, consider these uses of the word šātal which parallel the use in Ps 1.3.
Psa 92:13 Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.
Jer 17:8 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 shall cease from yielding fruit. [Note: very like Ps 1.3, no doubt the Psalm lived in Jeremiah’s mind as he wrote.]
Both of these uses emphasize the fruitfulness of the individual plant.
Ezekiel uses the word in two parables. First in Ezek 17, where the prophet uses the word four times, we see unfaithful Israel, stretching out its roots and branches towards Egypt, as if that pagan nation could provide sustenance (Ezek 17.7), all the time that God planted the nation in good soil of its own with the purpose that it might flourish.
Eze 17:8 It was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine.
In verse 9 and 10, God asks many questions concerning the prosperity of this plant, reaching out its roots towards Egypt. “Shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither?”
As the chapter closes, Ezekiel turns the parable away from viewing Judah’s recent past (the attempted alliance with Egypt in opposition to Babylon) to take a long look down the corridors of time to Israel’s hopeful future.
Eze 17:22 ¶ Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent: 23 In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.
The broken off branch, Israel’s remnant, God will plant on a high mountain and will make the nation fruitful at last.
In the last uses of our word, Ezekiel tells another parable of Israel. First, he speaks of the blessing God gave the nation when he set her in her own land:
Eze 19:10 Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.
But now, after her many rebellions, she is uprooted, and, though planted, she is not planted by the waters. She cannot bear fruit now.
Eze 19:13 And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.
What are we to make of these passages? I am not sure there is any inherent distinction in the words themselves. Nevertheless, there does seem to be a distinction in usage. The word of Ps 1.3, šātal, always seems to emphasize something about fruitfulness.
The distinction adds force, for me, to the message of Psalm 1.3, and the importance of committing to a deep relationship with God’s word (the rivers of water). Spurgeon says, “The man who delights in God’s Word, being taught by it, bringeth forth patience in the time of suffering, faith in the day of trial, and holy joy in the hour of prosperity. Fruitfulness is an essential quality of a gracious man, and that fruitfulness should be seasonable.”2
We all know adversity will come in our lives, in one way or another. Some of our brethren already have walked through deep valleys. What sustains them? The rivers of water where they are deeply planted.
Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.