Day 31: God’s Promise – The Righteous Shall Grow Like a Cedar in Lebanon

Concluding the postings on Psalm 92 from the past two days, Lent Day 30: God’s Promise to the Righteous: Flourishing like a Palm Tree (Psalm 92:12); Lent Day 29: Personalized Scripture Prayer – Psalm 92; we should dig some more into how the Cedar of Lebanon grows to fully grasp God’s promise in verse 12. Lebanon Cedars have a thick, massive trunk and very wide-spreading branches, the lower ones sweeping the ground. The dark green, densely packed leaves are borne in horizontal tiers. The wood of Lebanon Cedar has been greatly appreciated since ancient times for its durability, density, color, and insecticidal properties (Fady et al. 2008)

From Wikipedia, we learn that the Lebanon Cedar:

• Is an evergreen tree
• Grows in well-drained calcareous lithosols on rocky slopes and ridges and thrives in rich loam or a sandy clay in full sun
• Is mentioned several times in the Old Testament. Hebrew priests were ordered by Moses to use the bark of the Lebanon cedar in the treatment of leprosy and according to biblical references, wood from this tree was used in the construction of King Solomon’s temple (Choukas-Bradley and Alexander 1987)
• Wood is very prized for its fine grain, attractive yellow color and fragrance. It is exceptionally durable and immune to insect ravages. It has a density of 560 kg/m³; it is used for furniture, construction and handicrafts
• The resin (cedria) and cedar essential oil (cedrum) are prized extracts from the timber and cones of the cedar tree. Traditional people in southern Turkey produce a wood extract, called katran, from the tree and use it to protect wooden structures against insects and fungi, to fight parasites and bacteria, and to heal wounds and cure various diseases in humans and domestic animals, both internally and externally. 

But as strong and useful as the Cedar of Lebanon  is, it can succumb to disease. We learn that:

The Cedar of Lebanon is susceptible to a number of soil-borne, foliar and stem pathogens. The seedlings are prone to fungal attacks. A necrotrophic fungus that is known to cause considerable damage to food crops, attacks the cedar needles causing them to turn yellow and drop. The honey fungus fruits in dense clusters at the base of trunks or stumps and attacks the roots of cedars growing in wet soils.

So how does one preserve this extremely useful, evergreen and and keep it useful for its purposes? How does one prevent the fungal attacks on trees? From an internet search, we find that prevention is key when it comes to fungus (https://rtectreecare.com). Instructions include:

Don’t over water
Make sure your soil drains properly
Boost overall health with proper maintenance
Rake and remove falling leaves from your yard
Use preventative fungicides

Can these guidelines apply to the righteous, so they can go on growing in grace and strength? Let’s try:

Don’t over-water: We should not over-indulge in anything, not even the necessities of life like food and drink. Even though they are necessary for growth, moderation should be the key. Needless to say, if we are not over-indulging in necessities, we should not over-indulge in the pleasures of life.

Make sure your soil drains properly: Our roots grow deep into Christ, but the graces we get from that Source of Living Water are not meant to for ourselves only, they are meant to drain out into the lives of those around us. If we don’t share our blessings and graces, we do not have the capacity to receive new ones from God

Boost overall health with proper maintenance: We must properly maintain our bodies and souls, not neglecting one for the other. Our bodies are the Tabernacles of God’s Holy Spirit and we should maintain them well, even as we daily maintain our souls with spiritual nourishment.

Rake and remove falling leaves from your yard: We should gather up and remove from our lives any traits or deeds that have fallen away from or are in opposition to our Source of Living Waters, Jesus.

Use preventative fungicides: We must kill temptation and sin before it begins or matures. It is a good thing to understand one’s areas of weakness and where we might have opened a window in our lives to the enemy. Armed with this knowledge, we can put safeguards based on biblical principles in place and use them to prevent a fall from grace.

Oh well, it’s a fair analogy! We just need to get the general idea. The promises of God’s Word are ours to inhabit. May God’s Spirit enlighten us to really understand the riches of His Grace and give us the ability and courage to possess what we have already been blessed with in His Word. Amen.