Psalms 92:12

The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree,.... Not like grass, as the wicked, Psalms 92:7 which is weak and tender, and soon cut down; but like trees, and like palm trees, that are firm and

The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Like the palm tree; which is constantly green, and flourishing, and fruitful, , and growing even when it is pressed down; and so is a fit emblem of a just man’ s person and condition. See . Like a cedar; which spreads itself wide, and grows very high and strong, and is very durable, and in some sort incorruptible.

Psalms 92:12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.Ver. 12. The righteous shall flourish like the palm] A tree that groweth not in these cold climates, but where it doth is noted for tall, constantly green, long lived, sweet, firm, straight, &c., εμπεδοφυλλος (Theoph.). Nititur in pondus palma et consurgit in altum; Quo magis et premitur, hoc mage tollit onus. Though it hath many weights at the top, and many snakes at the bottom, yet is still saith, Nec premor, nee perimor. Like a cedar] Not like grass, as the wicked do, Psalms 92:7.

(12) Palm tree.—This is the only place where the palm appears as an emblem of moral rectitude and beauty of character, yet its aptness for such comparison has often been noticed. (See Tristram’s Natural History of the Bible, p. 384; and comp. Thomson’s The Land and the Book, p. 49.) A moral use was more often made of the cedar. Emblem of kingly might, it also became the type of the imperial grandeur of virtuous souls. (See Bible Educator, iii. 379.) The contrast of the palm’s perennial verdure, and the cedar’s venerable age, an age measured not by years, but by centuries, with the fleeting moments of the brief day of the grass, to which the wicked are compared (Psalms 92:7), is very striking, as striking as that in Psalms 1 between the empty husk and the flourishing fruit-tree.

Verse 12. The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree] Very different from the wicked, Psalms 92:7, who are likened to grass. These shall have a short duration; but those shall have a long and useful life. They are compared also to the cedar of Lebanon, an incorruptible wood, and extremely long-lived. Mr. Maundrell, who visited those trees in 1697, describes them thus: "These noble trees grow among the snow, near the highest part of Lebanon. Some are very old, and of prodigious bulk. I measured one of the largest, and found it twelve yards six inches in girt, and yet sound; and thirty-seven yards in the spread of its boughs. At about five or six yards from the ground, it was divided into five limbs, each of which was equal to a large tree." Some of these trees are supposed to have lived upwards of one thousand years! The figure of the palm-tree gives us the idea of grandeur and usefulness. The fruit of the palm-tree makes a great part of the diet of the people of Arabia, part of Persia, and Upper Egypt. The stones are ground down for the camels; the leaves are made into baskets; the hard boughs, or rather strong leaves, some being six or eight feet in length, make fences; the juice makes arrack; the threads of the web-like integument between the leaves make ropes, and the rigging of small vessels; and the wood serves for slighter buildings and fire-wood. In short, the palm or date tree, and the olive, are two of the most excellent and useful productions of the forest or the field. The cedar gives us the idea of majesty, stability, durableness, and incorruptibility. To these two trees, for the most obvious reasons, are the righteous compared. William Lithgow, who travelled through the holy land about A.D. 1600, describes the cedars of Mount Lebanon as "being in number twenty-four, growing after the manner of oaks, but a great deal taller straighter, and thicker, and the branches growing so straight, and interlocking, as though they were kept by art: and yet from the root to the top they bear no boughs, but grow straight and upwards like to a palm-tree. Their circle-spread tops do kiss or embrace the lower clouds, making their grandeur overlook the highest bodies of all other aspiring trees. The nature of this tree is, that it is always green, yielding an odoriferous smell, and an excellent kind of fruit, like unto apples, but of a sweeter taste, and more wholesome. The roots of some of these cedars are almost destroyed by the shepherds, who have made fires thereat, and holes where they sleep; yet nevertheless they flourish green above, in the tops and branches." - Lithgow's 17 years' Travels, 4to., London, 1640.

12. The fruitfulness of the palm and the fragrance of the cedar, the stately growth and evergreen foliage of both trees, above all, their longevity in contrast to the ephemeral grass which is the emblem of the wicked, may be among the points of comparison intended. Cp. Psalms 92:14; Psalms 1:3; Hosea 14:5-6; Isaiah 65:22.

The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree - That is, the beauty, the erectness, the stateliness, the growth of the palm-tree - all this is an emblem of the condition, the prosperity, the happiness of a righteous man.

12. The righteous shall flourish—The psalmist now drops the first person, as used in Psalms 92:4; Psalms 92:10-11, and again speaks in general terms of general principles.