“The Trees of the Lord are Watered Abundantly” - Psalm 104:16

Ps 104:16 The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly

I had prepared another message for today but ran into a verse one evening last week which leapt out at me, and I felt that it was for this morning’s devotional time.

We are living through a major drought in Waikato this summer. The grass is brown and withered. The cows are groaning for water and suffering in the heat and garden plants need watering or are dying away altogether. Even the trees are under extreme stress: possums are eating away in the treetops, fungal disease is affecting their roots and their leaves are withering from disease and drought. In fact some of the trees of Waikato look very unhealthy, but other trees look very resilient. Their leaves are all fully in place, they stand strong and tall in the greatest wind and heat and we fully expect to see them in place next year. 

Psalm 104 is a psalm of praise to God for his goodness. The author is reflecting all the goodness of the whole of creation, such as trees and animals, and on how God’s creation reflects glory back to Him. Because of other Old Testament references in Isaiah and Psalms, I feel free to apply this verse beyond actual trees of the field to us and to the blessings of God on us.

And now to you and me: To you new students, you are now in a new and different chapter of your lives. You have been willing to give up work or secular studies to devote yourselves to the study of the Bible and theology and missions in order to serve God in what might be some very hard places in the future. I believe you are trees of the Lord.

For you to persevere at this college and in your future ministry this psalm tells us two things about these trees:

1.     You will need to be planted by the Lord.

2.     You will need to be watered abundantly.

1.     You need to be planted by the Lord … and know it.

Firstly, the reason he plants us is that we might glorify his name – not so much on earth, but in the heavenly places. Very few people today in our wider world praise God for missionaries. But the ministry of the future messiah was predicted in Isaiah 61:3 to grant to those of us who grieve over the spiritual state of the world:

That they may be called oaks of righteousness,
    The planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

I believe in the call of God to Christian ministry, as I am sure you do. A call that is validated by others and is also self-evident. But ultimately this call is the work of God. There will come days when that call will be tested, but you are planted by God and not man, and you will remain standing.

As for these trees these cedars of Lebanon, there will be no man to plant them and no-one to look after them afterwards. Cedars of Lebanon are planted by God in hard places on the high slopes of Mt Lebanon, with bitter cold, heavy rain and snow in winter and blazing heat in summer. They are chewed at by goats and cattle, chopped at by people looking for firewood, but they are trees that endure – sometimes for 2,000 years. Those ancient trees in Lebanon have lived for hundreds of years through all the turmoil of the Middle East and are always there in spite of everything. There are trees in Lebanon which were seen by people who may have heard the words of Jesus Christ on earth. Nations and empires come and go but the cedars persevere. So it is with gospel and God’s gospel messengers. 

2.     How do these Cedar trees of Ps 104 survive?

They survive because God waters them supernaturally. They survive because 16 The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly. There is no-one to dig irrigation canals for them or to come up the mountain and water them in summer. They are there on their own on the rockiest slopes. It is God who waters them. This watering by God is more than going to church, more than having private quiet times – it is about abiding in Christ and in particular abiding in Christ for his supply both physical, emotional and spiritual. We learn how to draw on Christ for all good things – even when we say to God that it’s not fair that we haven’t got certain things in our lives. But remember that it is God who is watering his own trees. His grace is sufficient for us.

This college is a supernatural college – not because the staff are especially holy or because we are Pentecostal, which perhaps we ought to be more of – but because we trust in God for all things, and pray over all things and look to God and not man in this. We look to God for his supply. To the new students I can genuinely say you were all prayed for. Even though I can say at the same time that I wish there were more of you – I can also say that God has given us sufficient.

It is God not man who is planting and watering his trees. As God waters us, cross-cultural missionaries have one tremendous advantage over all other Christians when we read the Bible, especially the New Testament: The New Testament was written by missionaries largely for new Christians in pioneer situations. We can draw on all of it. The Old Testament was written by prophets who foresaw thousands of years ago the spread of the gospel of the God of Israel to all the earth – and we live in a generation in which that is actually happening and which you – the planting of the Lord will be part of that.

For any doubtful cedar trees in the room this morning, I want to reassure you with the author of Ps 104 that this is a promise for you:

16 The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly.