Lent Day 30: God’s Promise to the Righteous: Flourishing like a Palm Tree (Psalm 92:12)

One of the many promises in the scripture prayer from Day 29, (Psalm 92), Lent Day 29: Personalized Scripture Prayer – Psalm 92 is the pronouncement that the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree bringing forth fruit in old age – v. 12. This is a promise that should be prayed by all Followers of Christ, and it merits its own discussion. The passages below are largely culled from The Treasury of David, by Charles Spurgeon.

1. The palm tree grows in the desert. Earth is a desert to the Christian; true believers are ever refreshed in it as a palm is in the Arabian desert.

2. The palm tree grows from the sand, but the sand is not its food; water from below feeds its tap roots. Some Christians grow, not as the lily, Hosea 14:5, by green pastures, or the willow by water-courses, Isaiah 44:4, but as the palm of the desert. Faith’s penetrating root reaches the fountains of living waters.

3. The palm tree is beautiful, with its tall and verdant canopy, and the silvery flashes of its waving plumes; so the Christian virtues are not like the creeper or bramble, tending downwards, their palm branches shoot upwards, and seek the things above where Christ dwells, Colossians 3:1. Its beautiful, unfading leaves make it an emblem of victory;  No dust adheres to the leaf as it does with the battree; the Christian is in the world, not of it; the dust of earth’s desert adheres not to his palm leaf. The leaf of the palm is the same – through all seasons, it is an evergreen.

4. The palm tree is very useful. The Hindus reckon it has 360 uses. Its shadow shelters, its fruit refreshes the weary traveller and it points out the place of water..

5. The palm tree produces even to old age. The best dates are produced when the tree is from thirty to one hundred years old; 300 lbs. of dates are annually yielded: so the Christian grows happier and more useful as he becomes older. Knowing his own faults more, be is more mellow to others: he is like the sun setting, beautiful, mild, and large, looking like Elfin, where the wearied Jews found twelve wells and seventy palm trees. – J. Long, in “Scripture Truth in Oriental Dress,” 1871

6. “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree!” Unmoved by the scorching and withering blasts of temptations or persecutions, the Christian sustained by the secret springs of Divine grace, lives and grows in likeness to his Divine Master, when all others are overcome, and their professions wither. How striking is the contrast in the Psalm. The wicked and worldlings are compared to grass, which is at best but of short duration, and which is easily withered; but the emblem of the Christian is the palm tree, which stands for centuries. Like the grateful shade of the palm groves, the Christian extends around him a genial, sanctified, and heavenly influence; and just as the great value of the date palm lies in its abundant, wholesome, and delicious fruit, so do those who are the true disciples of Christ abound in “fruits of righteousness,” for, said our Saviour. “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” – “The Palm Tribes and their Varieties.” R. T. Society’s Monthly Volume.

We thank God for His faithfulness to His Word. Like the palm tree with evergreen leaves looking upward, may our gaze always be firmly fixed on our Source and may we learn to do all things for His glory. Amen.

Please continue to Day 31 to read some more about how the righteous shall grow like a Cedar in Lebanon. Day 31: God’s Promise – The Righteous Shall Grow Like a Cedar in Lebanon