(Psalms 1:3) “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers...”
If I consider God’s ingenious intellectual all knowing brain I sand in awe as I normally do when considering one of God’s attributes. To realise that He knows His children systematically, all those whom He has called from before the foundation of the world, God knows them by name and knew them as such before they where even born. What a phenomenal thought, almost impossible for our humanistic brains to process, but to God this would be a simple task, He is perfect and understands the beginning from the end. He knows all things past, present and into the future. If we think we can get to know Him here on earth, firstly it would be impossible outside of salvation, we must be born again, and if God has given us life by imparting His spirit unto us individually and personally then we will build a relationship with Him but only in part, as we now live in this world through the realm of faith, which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. We must constantly be reminded of the finished work of Calvary; our "First Love" must always be in the forefront of our minds as we learn to have a Godly fear for God, it will then play out with respectful reverence. However we must also remember the purpose of Christ’s obedience; He is the first fruit of many sons that will be brought to glory. He has bought us son-ship through His sacrifice and although we have not been confirmed as sons by God which will one day take place and in person; (Revelation 21:7) “The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.” We must believe it by faith and exercise this truth in our lives. God the Holy Spirit itself bears witness in our lives to this truth. We have the privileged to approach God respectfully and humbly, yet with confidence as we have entered into a Father-son relationship, we now are entitled to these Father-son privileges, it would be wise for us to get to know our heavenly Father and the only way to do this would be to study His attributes, get to know what He enjoys and what He detests etc, why?
In building a relationship one builds a bond of trust, we must learn to trust our God, regardless of what life may throw at us. Unless we have built a relationship with God our Father in the bonds of love and we haven’t yet learnt to trust Him more than we trust our earthly fathers we will always have doubt as a companion and who wants a friend like that, I certainly don’t! My objective, my goal, is to understand Jehovah more than ever before, I want to with John Piper echo these words and believe them with all my heart, not just say them because it sounds right; “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied with Him.”
How will I achieve this? Firstly I must not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or on the wicked. I must avoid the company of scoffers. My delight will be to meditate of the law of God day and night, the law teachers us about the character of God, we can glean from God’s law and understand who He is and what is required from us to please our Father. He knows our character, he knows whether we avoid evil or swiftly run toward it. This part of my character is examined first, because those that will keep the commandments of their God must say to evil-doers, depart from us! When I run in the opposite direction to whatever is evil even when it appears harmless on the surface, this is where wisdom begins. I know this to be true because of what Paul teachers us on the fruit of repentance; A tree will yield particular fruit, a pear tree pears, an apple tree apples and a tree of repentance the fruit of repentance, which we see in this verse; (2Corinthians 7:11) “For behold, this selfsame thing, that ye were made sorry after a godly sort, what earnest care it wrought in you, yea what clearing of yourselves, yea what indignation, yea what fear, yea what longing, yea what zeal, yea what avenging! In everything ye approved yourselves to be pure in the matter.”
In other words what carefulness surrounds my life? I must make it evident that my sorrow in repenting is a godly sorrow, it must work in me great carefulness about my soul, and to avoid sin, and please God; it will shaped also a clearing of myself, not by insisting upon my own justification before God, especially while I persist in my habitual sin.
I must learn to surround my life from the morning well into the night with the law of God, God’s Word must be an appendage to my life as if my life depended upon it, and it does!
If I begin to live like this and apply myself through the spirit and not by the flesh, I am assured by my heavenly Father, that I will be like a tree planted by a river of water and I will in its season bring forth fruit, that God would be well pleased with, in fact He himself is the Gardener and will prune that tree to yield fruit up to its potential quota.
Everything rests with the will our God’s sovereignty, from beginning to end, whatever He has willed and set in motion will come to pass, that is a fact! However, we must assume responsibility for our actions and cry out to our Saviour and remember that there is a room full of grace that we can draw from as believers. The unrepentant do not have access to this room, but to all who fall on their knees and confess unto God and repent of their sin have access to this room and its supply. This is such a wonderful room, I have had the privileged to draw on its supply and I can confess that it yields beneficial pleasantries that have been sweet to my life and helped my relationship with God our Father, in and through His beloved Son, my Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we can heed the counsel of what David teaches us in this Psalm, it will be to our benefit and regardless of how barren our tree has been it will in due season bring forth fruit.
“He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers...”
Let us not look for counsel from the ungodly, let us remember to avoid the wicked or to sit in the seat of the scoffer. Let us feast on the word of God with an unquenchable hunger. And regardless of what trial may come let us remember our God and what He has already accomplished on our behalf, salvation in and through our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise His name, now and forever more, Amen!
Signing off
Tyrone
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