Spiritual Refreshment: Ever Green
By: Jill Briscoe
Reading Psalm 1:1-6
Key verse: Psalm 1:3
A tree with roots in the riverbank will be ever green. The leaves are green, the branches are strong, the trunk is solid, the roots are deep. Similarly, the woman who chooses to live a spiritually vibrant life is not going to copy the lifestyle of the religiously indifferent, but rather will choose to be a "planted" person. The word planted is translated more accurately "transplanted"-for example, from a wadi (a dry riverbed) to irrigated land – planted right on the lush banks of a swelling river. It pictures a tree planted in a channel where the water never stops flowing. God's grace plants His followers in running streams of His love. These "trees" have to flourish, for they have all they need. The Bible promises that we are like these trees, "bearing fruit each season without fail. Their leaves never wither, and in all they do, they prosper" (Psalm 1:3).
The desert crowd, on the other hand, is a secular bunch of scrublike bushes, parched and dry. Politically correct maybe, yet scoffing at the God of all things and all the things of God. Such people "are like workless chaff, scattered by the wind" (Psalm 1:4)- they have no substance to them. Israel winnowed grain on high hills in full wind where the chaff would be carried away. "Chaff people" will stand no chance when Jesus comes. The Psalmist knew that "they will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly" (Pslam 1:5). When Jesus, the judge, comes with His winnowing fork in His hand, "He will clean up the threshing area" (Matthew 3:12).
We need to find out what sort of people we are- planted by the riverbank or blowing across the desert. If we are God's people, He plants us in His river of salvation, where our roots are bathed in the water of eternal life. Then, as the psalmist says, we will prosper spiritually. We need to let our roots drink deeply on this living water so we can be transformed. If we are truly planted, we will be productive, however hot the desert sun or barren the wilderness around us. Planted people are joyous people (Psalm 1:1). Our soul, like the tree with its roots in the river that flows from the throne of God, will be ever green.
