AP

Psalm 1:3  That man [whose worldview and life are totally informed by God’s Written Word – verses 1-2] is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever he does prospers.

My late wife, Pat was a resolute planter of trees, and before she went to be with her Lord and Saviour, she left me strict instructions to make sure I kept them watered.  Being an erstwhile engineer at Sydney Water I’m an equally resolute conserver of this valuable natural resource, so we have rainwater tanks with a total capacity of 5,000 litres and multiple 10 litre watering cans.  (All this manual distribution of the water gives me plenty of regular exercise  and so it also saves me having to pay to go to the gym!)

I therefore appreciate the relevance and importance of David’s ‘parable’ here.  I am brought into God’s Kingdom by his grace through faith alone, but if I want to be a really fruitful member of it I need to be reading, delighting in, and meditating on, his Word, day-and-night, as the first two verses of Psalm 1 tell me..

This is especially so now that the ‘wicked’, the ‘sinners’ and the ‘mockers’ (those whose worldview and life are informed by fallen human ‘wisdom’) have such easy, constant, persistent, unsolicited access into my head through all sorts of whizz-bang media technology.  I try to help a little bit with this by TQW (the writing of which I myself find helpful in my constant battle with ‘the world, the flesh, and the devil’ – so thanks everyone for giving me this opportunity – and I pray it is the same for you!).

By the way, one of Pat’s trees was described on its label, when we bought and planted it 16 years ago, as reaching a height of 1-2 metres – and estimating its height now by triangulation it would be over 40 metres high and possibly a threat to the overhead train wires nearby if it blew over – which she assured me it won’t do – by extrapolation of the implications of today’s verse!

– Bruce Christian