He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. (Psalm 1:3)
I’ve always found it interesting that, in the Bible, men are often likened to trees (see Deut. 20:19, Mark 8:24). When you think about it, it makes sense because, like trees, we have trunks and limbs, and most importantly, we produce fruit. Whether that fruit is good or bad is dependent upon what kind of tree it is — a good tree or a bad tree. As Messiah said, “Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit” (Matthew 7:17). The point is all of us are going to produce some kind of fruit — it will be one or the other. The blessed man, the one who meditates on His Word day and night and delights to do His will, is a good tree.
According to the Psalm, good trees produce abundant fruit because they are planted by rivers of water. May I suggest that this language hints at what we see in the beginning — a river ran through the garden watering all the trees that God said were good for food, i.e. those that produced good fruit. If that is viable, then the hint leads us to consider the most important tree in the garden, the Tree of Life. The Scripture is clear that this tree is emblematic of the Word of God, that which the happy man contemplates night and day.
My point is that the prosperity mentioned in the verse above is predicated on the notion that this man consults God’s Word as his only source of wisdom and truth. In other words, the blessed man looks to the Tree of Life as opposed to the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil — or as the Psalmist describes it, “the counsel of the ungodly.” From the beginning we understand that some trees are good for food and some are not. Some trees, in fact, contain deadly fruit, the most notable of these being the Tree of Knowledge. To connect this infamous tree to ungodly counsel is not a stretch; in fact, the Hebrew word translated as counsel is עצת etzat which related to the Hebrew word for עץ tree.
So why is the blessed man happy and prosperous? Because he has turned his back on the ungodly tree, the one that produces a poisonous and deadly fruit — that is, the wisdom of the world. Instead the happy man turns his gaze and desire upon the Tree of Life whose seed is within its fruit; the Good Seed that is propagated in our lives and through our lives by virtue of the abundant fruit we produce. If we truly want to be happy, then we must be deliberate in our pursuit of Truth, only to be found in the Word of God.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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