November 24

"The righteous shall flourish." Psalms 92:12.

PROSPERITY in the divine life is the Christian's duty, and therefore he is commanded to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour. It is his desire; and hence he prays, Strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us. It is his privilege, and thus it is provided for and secured by divine promise: "The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger." David here tells us that "the righteous shall flourish." And he tells us,

How he shall flourish. "He shall flourish like the palm-tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." Of the wicked he had said just before, "When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed for ever." They flourish as the grass, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven. What a contrast with the worthlessness, the weakness, transitoriness, and destiny of grass—in a warm country too—are the palm-tree and cedar in Lebanon. They are evergreens. How beautifully, how firmly, how largely they grow. How strong and lofty is the cedar. How upright and majestic and tall the palm-tree. The palm also bears fruit, called dates, like bunches of grapes. It sometimes yields a hundred weight at once.

He tells us where he shall flourish. "Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God." The allusion is striking. It compares the house of God to a garden, or fine, well-watered soil, favorable to the life and verdure and fertility of the trees fixed there. The reason is, that in the sanctuary we have the communion of saints. There our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. There are dispensed the ordinances of religion and the word of truth. There God commandeth the blessing, even life for evermore. "Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors." They that wait upon the Lord renew their strength. Hence, from their own experience as well as from the word of promise, they are increasingly induced to say, with David, "I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."

He also tells us when he shall flourish. "They shall still bring forth fruit in old age." This is to show the permanency of their principles, and to distinguish them from natural productions.

"The plants of grace shall ever live; Nature decays, but grace must thrive: Time, that doth all things else impair. Still makes them flourish strong and fair."

The believer does not escape all the effects of years. The eye may grow dim, the ear become dull of hearing; but as the outward man perisheth, the inward man is renewed day by day. The young Christian is lovely, like a tree in the blossoms of spring; the aged Christian is valuable, like a tree in autumn, bending with ripe fruit. We therefore look for something superior in old disciples: more deadness to the world, the vanity of which they have had more opportunities to see; more meekness of wisdom; more disposition to make sacrifices for the sake of peace; more maturity of judgment in divine things; more confidence in God; more richness of experience.

He also tells us why he shall flourish. "They shall be fat and flourishing, to show that the Lord is upright." We might rather have supposed that it was necessary to show that they were upright. But by the grace of God they are what they are—not they, but the grace of God which is in them. From him is their fruit found. Their preservation and fertility, therefore, are to the praise and glory of God; and as what he does for them he had engaged to do, it displays his truth as well as his mercy, and proves that he is upright. This cleaving also to him with purpose of heart, and not turning away from him, whatever temptations the world presents, shows that they had found him to be what he had given himself out to be, and what they had taken him to be. Had he deceived or disappointed them, they would have forsaken him. But he has always dealt well with them; he has surpassed their hopes. They therefore love their Master and his work, and are willing to follow him to prison or to death, to show that he is upright.

David therefore attests this from his own experience: "Let every one speak as he finds. I cannot but magnify his name. I cannot but recommend him to those who want a dependence that will not give way. I have tried him, and tried him much and long. I never served him for naught. I never called upon him in vain. I never trusted in him, and was confounded. HE IS MY ROCK; AND THERE IS NO UNRIGHTEOUSNESS IN HIM."