Whatever they do prospers
Whatever they do prospers
Psalms 1:3-4; Followers of Christ have made the choice to be nourished by the living water and bear fruit.
New River Gorge near Edmond, West Virginia. © 2021, Steven Sande
“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.”
Psalms 1:3-4 NIV
As you saw in my last devotional two days ago, Psalm 1 is a powerful beginning to the book of sacred songs known collectively as the Book of Psalms. Today we dive into the second pair of verses in this short chapter.
Verses 1 and 2 were a succinct summary of what a righteous person does and does not do. Here in the next two verses, the psalmist describes the benefits of being godly by using the simile of that person being like a tree planted near a river or stream where it has a constant, unending source of water.
Trees located by water rarely wither away, as they always get what they need. If a person is constantly in need, perhaps they are not planted by “streams of water”. Remember what Jesus said in John 7:38: “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” Our Christian belief in Jesus as our Lord and Savior nourishes our being like the stream of water near the tree.
Living the godly life “yields its fruit in season”. Galatians 5:22-23 speaks of the fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” The psalm doesn’t say that the tree will produce fruit immediately or constantly — it happens during a specific season. New Christians may feel disheartened when they begin to live a righteous life and don’t see the fruit (benefits) immediately. They need patience to wait for the fruit to appear on the branches.
17th century English Anglican Bible commentator John Trapp had these words about the tree planted near the stream:
“There are no barren trees in God’s orchard, and yet they may have their fits of barrenness, as an apple tree sometimes hath; but they will reflourish with advantage.”1
The psalmist says of the righteous person that their “leaf does not wither”. Living in the dry American west, we often see trees that have lost their source of water due to drought, and they are covered with brown, dead and withered leaves or needles. The leaves of the godly person are always green and flourishing.
Does “whatever they do prospers” mean that the righteous person will always be rich and comfortable? No, but for the godly, the Lord brings good out of everything. Even the worst possible circumstances brings out something — even a kind gesture or word to another person in need — that prospers.
Verse 4 describes the dangerous fate of the ungodly (wicked). From Enduring Word:
a. The ungodly are not so: Everything true about the righteous man — stable as a tree, continual life and nourishment, fruitful, alive, and prosperous — is not so regarding the ungodly.
i. It may often seem like the ungodly have these things, and sometimes it seems they have them more than the righteous. But it is not so! Any of these things are fleeting in the life of the ungodly; it can be said that they don’t really have them at all.
b. Are like the chaff which the wind drives away: Chaff is the light “shell” around a kernel of grain, which must be stripped away before the kernel of grain can be ground into flour. Chaff was light enough that it could be separated from the grain by throwing a scoopful into the wind and letting the wind drive away the chaff. This is how unstable, how lacking in substance, the ungodly are.
i. Spurgeon on chaff: “Intrinsically worthless, dead, unserviceable, without substance, and easily carried away.” There is a huge difference between a tree and chaff.
We are all given the choice in our lives to be either that tree planted by streams of water or the chaff the wind blows away. Followers of Christ have made the choice to be nourished by the living water and bear fruit.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Lord, thank You for the psalmist’s description of the godly person being like a deeply-rooted tree nourished by streams of living water, creating a bumper crop of the fruit of righteousness, and prospering from your unfailing provision. May I never be tempted to walk in the way of the world or compromise my faith, as I have all I need to live a godly life. May everything I do and say be done for Your praise and glory, and may I be a worthy witness of Your compassion and a testimony of Your love. I pray this in the name of Jesus, AMEN.
Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.
Commentary quoted from Enduring Word with the written permission of the author.
Trapp, John "A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments" Volume 2 (Ezra to Psalms) (Eureka, California: Tanski Publications, 1997)