The Blessed Man: A Tree Planted by Living Waters

The righteous man is compared to a tree planted by rivers of water—a vivid image of perpetual verdure and fruitfulness nourished by the Word of God. As sap flows from roots through trunk, branches, and the remotest leaf, so genuine piety pervades the whole life of the godly man, imparting its spirit and character to everything he does. He is not merely religious in certain departments; his faith is a mental habit—of thought, feeling, purpose, and action—from which he never divests himself. Not a single leaf on his tree of righteous living shall show decay. The same spirit that actuates him in the largest transaction actuates him in the least.

His religion is not something put on; it is the man himself. Consequently, storms that bow mock trees of righteousness to earth leave him standing still. Droughts that dry up their streams of life leave his still full, fresh, and flowing. His source of strength is the river of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, reaching his soul through the law of the Lord, wherein is his delight and unceasing meditation.

The blessed man's blessedness does not depend upon his kind—not the cedar of Lebanon, but any tree. It is the planting and the place that constitute the blessing. The world requires all kinds of people God has made; we must each be after our own kind, rooted in Adonai's provision.