The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Psalm 92:12 

Date palm tree বাংলা: খেজুর গাছ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Barnes’ Notes on the Bible 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. The wicked shall be cut down; but the righteous shall flourish. This image – the comparison of a righteous man to a flourishing, majestic, green, and beautiful tree – is not uncommon in the Scriptures.  The following remarks of Dr. Thomson (“land and the Book,” vol. i. pp. 65, 66) will illustrate the passage before us; – “The palm grows slowly, but steadily, from century to century, uninfluenced by those alternations of the seasons which affect other trees. It does not rejoice overmuch in winter’s copious rain, nor does it droop under the drought and the burning sun of summer. Neither heavy weights which people place upon its head, nor the importunate urgency of the wind, can sway it aside from perfect uprightness. There it stands, looking calmly down upon the world below, and patiently yielding its large clusters of golden fruit from generation to generation. They ‘bring forth fruit in old age.’ The allusion to being planted in the house of the Lord is probably drawn from the custom of planting beautiful and long-lived trees in the courts of temples and palaces, and in all ‘high places’ used for worship. This is still common; nearly every palace, and mosque, and convent in the country has such trees in the courts, and, being well protected there, they flourish exceedingly. Solomon covered all the walls of the ‘holy of holies’ round about with palm-trees. They were thus planted, as it were, within the very house of the Lord; and their presence there was not only ornamental, but appropriate and highly suggestive; the very best emblem, not only of patience in well-doing, but of the rewards of the righteous – a fat and flourishing old age – a peaceful end – a glorious immortality.”

Lebanon cedar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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 traveled 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

Will you let the Lord bless you with beauty, fruits in old age and a glorious immortality like the palm trees. Or will you be an evergreen beyond the winters of life, bearing sweet fruit, standing above others and be sweet smelling still?

The Lord wants to establish us in His love. He wants to bless us but there are conditions which we must fulfil as in Psalm 1

 Blessed is the man Who

• walks not.  in the counsel of the ungodly
•  nor stands in the path of sinners,
•   nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

 ² But his delight is in the law of the Lord,     And in His law he meditates day and night. ³ 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.

⁴ The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away. ⁵ Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

⁶ For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

 But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Will you be counted among the righteous and be blessed?
If not, make haste and ask the Lord to  help you change today !