I AM A CEDAR, BUT TO BE A PALM

  For those who are my regular readers, you must know by now, that I was enlightened by a blind man! Blind Bartimaeus, as his sight was restored, had an intermediate stage. He told Jesus who he saw in his mind’s eye and had faith in him, “I see men; as trees walking” (Mark 8:24)! It struck me that in the Garden of Eden I had often seen “trees; as men standing, praising, glorifying, and singing.” I saw them bearing fruit, and I saw Adam serving and preserving trees; as men! It came to me that the trees of the Garden were allegorical of the souls of men praising God. Once a formerly blind man saw that, I saw trees throughout scripture as allegorical to mankind worshiping their Creator, of Whom the Tree of Life is symbolic!
  That is not to say that the trees were not real, but that there was something spiritual going on in the Garden. God knew us before the foundation of the world (Ephes 1:4), and some thing represented mankind’s immortal soul. Just as the Tree of Life represented the Holy Trinity, and the main “branch,” Jesus, the other trees of the Garden surely represented men, their souls, and them as sons of God - in the image of God.
  This morning in my studies, I saw men; as trees flourishing:

The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing. (Psalm 92:12-14)

  There is something about the righteous that is unique. The ‘righteous,” in that context, are those vindicated by God. They have not been pure, but God consecrated them to make them pure in His sight. In the beginning, God made Adam (man) in His image - in the image of the Creator, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. When the Jews returned from Babylon, the exodus from there was operationalized by God, and as such, the returning Jews had the faith to travel with God and depended on His preservation. Those who returned to the Promised Land were essentially “born again,” or made righteous again by God! Those who had not been preserved in Babylon were destitute from God, and they were not righteous.
  Psalm 92, perhaps, was sung upon the Jews return to their homeland, and it was only the “traveling church” from the exodus from Babylon that could grow like trees in Jerusalem. Therein, the “trees” that had sojourned from Babylon were planted firmly on holy ground. The psalmist likened the returning Jews to flourishing palm trees and the cedars of Lebanon. If you remember, the Temple of God was built from cedars of Lebanon. Well, those same types of cedars perhaps represent the souls – the living, walking, glorifying souls of the Jews!
  Cedars are steadfast, enduring, resistant to destructive things, aromatic, and fast-growing. They are used as incense, and surely smell as good to the Lord as to us. Cedars are allegorical for “souls growing” as the psalm says.
  Now for the palm tree. Any who have grown palms understand that most grow like corn. You can almost hear them grow, and in the course of a day, a new leaf can be born and mature. In other words, palm trees flourish given the right climate and conditions. Righteous men are as trees flourishing! Imagine a date palm, common to the Holy Land; it has a great canopy of leaves and bears much fruit. Whereas fig trees are allegorical of philosophers of the world, as “Wisdom Trees,” and symbolize the Prince of the World - Satan; palm trees symbolize men as trees firmly planted and flourishing with life! The olive tree, perhaps, symbolizes God since it is the tree of Peace.
  Do you see the Serpent in his tree? Can you not see God in the Tree of Life? Can you not see yourself as a sturdy cedar or a flourishing palm tree? To be honest, I did a self-examination this morning; for God saw me as a sturdy cedar, but he did not see me as a flourishing palm! What do palms do? They flourish.  As the psalm says, “Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.” My soul is as rigid to God as the cedar of Lebanon, but we are not in Lebanon; we stand firmly in God’s House. We are the cedars!
  But that’s not all we are to be; we are to be flourishing as the palm trees! Palm trees sway in the wind, and seem to dance to a tune. One can almost hear them singing a quiet song. The psalmist wrote a song for the Sabbath day. The Christian Sabbath, right or wrong, is the Lord’s Day, or Sunday, and God’s House is the Church. When I read Psalm 92, it came to me that God may not see me as a “flourishing palm,” but only an “upright cedar.” He desires more that fidelity, He wants praise; to wit: “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night” (Psalm 92:1-2).
  The palms flourishing are the giving thanks and singing of those verses, whereas the lovingkindness and faithfulness is as the upright cedars. What is missing from my “tree?” I am upright, but do not flourish. It came to me that I can sing, albeit not so well, but God hears my noise (a joyful noise) as music to His ears.
  “What keeps me from singing?” I ask myself. The toxic environment. The perception that the other “trees” resent me. I hesitate to use the word, “hate,” as trees cannot hate, but they flourish better when the palms are in the sun and have their own canopy, away from the shade of mine. With that said, I am my own tree and my Canopy is God. Thus, as a palm, I will change. My new attitude is to flourish in song and praise, although I am still just a plain old “cedar tree.”
  Did God speak to me today? I believe so! My “cedar tree” heard his words in the wind. My tree wants to be a palm! Now it’s up to me to flourish and not to pay heed to what the other “trees” are whispering in the wind.

Palm Tree (Credit: Gardening Knowhow)