Psalm 92: Planted in the Courts of the Lord

I’ve been planting things in the yard. I can’t help it.  Spring rolls around and it just begs me to plant things!  Pasture grass in the pastures, lettuce, zucchini and tomatoes in the raised beds.  This year, I even bought some blueberry plants.  

I really want all my little plants to flourish.  We’ve got great soil and plenty of water, and even the occasional coffee grounds (tomatoes and blueberries both like acidic soil).  But we have Enemies— Squirrels.  Squirrels love everything I grow.  The little Workers of Iniquity even like the spiny stems of zucchini vines!   This year I am trusting my Rat Terriers to keep the Enemy scattered and out of my plants.  I reward them handsomely—fortunately they are easy to please!

David tells us that “Those who are planted in the house of the Lord

Shall flourish in the courts of our God.”  He even promises that they will bear fruit in their (ripe) old age!  

Do you feel like you are planted in the house of the Lord?  Are you fresh and   flourishing?  Psalm 1 says “He will be like a tree firmly planted by the streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither…”

Doing well in the garden of the Lord starts with deep roots and carries into branches that are strong and healthy enough to bear fruit.  To truly flourish, we must begin with God and continue with Him.

In John 15:5 Jesus says, “I am the vine and your are the branches.  If you abide in me and I abide in you, you will bear much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.”

What do we look like when we flourish in the courts of the Lord?  

We are someone who is able to have close relationships and a meaningful, purposeful life.  We continuously grow vigorously, we are productive in our calling.  We have resilience when stressful, challenging times come based on faith in God and a healthy outlook on life.  We help others, and shine the Lord’s Light on those around us. 

Doesn’t that sound wonderful?  Don’t you want to flourish like that?  I sure would.

So how do we do it??

I think the key to the whole process is in abiding in Christ.  Without Him, we can do nothing.  All we have to do is to have our face turned toward Him, to pray without ceasing, to be obedient, to yield to the Spirit, to always be in a posture of listening, to be quiet enough to hear Him, to practice His presence.  

All of that will be a “natural” state in the next life, but what about now?  How do we do any of that?

Just like anything else we learn, we enter into what Dallas Willard would call a “training in righteousness”.  We certainly can’t be obedient—Christ died because we couldn’t.  Yielding to anyone or anything is against our human nature.  We talk a lot more than we listen to anybody, much less someone we can only hear with spiritual ears.  We need to learn how.

Enter: Spiritual Disciplines.  Spiritual disciplines don’t change us.  God does. Spiritual disciplines are just something we do while we wait for the Holy Spirit to mold our hearts and renew our minds.  They help put us in a framework of receptivity to God.

We already engage in some spiritual disciplines.  We meet together as a church, read our Bibles, worship God, pray.  Those are a great start!  But if you are hard-headed like I am, you may need more encouragement.  Over time, the church has developed some helpful methods of drawing close to God.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 commands us to “rejoice always, praying without ceasing, give thanks in all things”.  But as Jesus reminds us, we can’t do that.   You could tell me to love my neighbor, but that doesn’t make it possible for me to do it for very long on my own.  What Paul is really saying is “Put yourself is a position to let God the Holy Spirit work through you to love your neighbor.  It’s in the tense of the Greek.

So I use a spiritual discipline to help me learn to pray without ceasing.  It starts with my desire to flourish, and puts me in a position to have God change my heart.

I have been using the “Breath Prayer” for a long time now.  The words change, but the practice is the same.  I began with the prayer of the publican in Temple who said “God, have mercy on me, a sinner”.  The “Jesus Prayer” is an ancient prayer that has become embedded in the souls of many over the centuries.

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

I repeat it under my breath or aloud as I go through my day.  

What can happen eventually is truly remarkable.  When I am stressed, or angry, or hurt, or afraid, this prayer is most often what pops out of my mouth instead of other words.  Calling on God has become my first resort, not my last.  Most of the time.

You can create your own Breath Prayer from any snippet of scripture that fits your situation.  Once in a financial crisis I would pace back and forth repeating “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”  God carried me through that time as I turned intentionally to Him.  I still use it.

Give the Breath Prayer a try.  There are countless other disciplines.  We’ll explore some as we travel this road together.

I want to produce fruit into my old age, don’t you?  

Psalm 92

1 It is good to give thanks to the Lord,

And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;

2 To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning,

And Your faithfulness every night,

3 On an instrument of ten strings,

On the lute,

And on the harp,

With harmonious sound.

4 For You, Lord, have made me glad through Your work;

I will triumph in the works of Your hands.

5 O Lord, how great are Your works!

Your thoughts are very deep.

6 A senseless man does not know,

Nor does a fool understand this.

7 When the wicked spring up like grass,

And when all the workers of iniquity flourish,

It is that they may be destroyed forever.

8 But You, Lord, are on high forevermore.

9 For behold, Your enemies, O Lord,

For behold, Your enemies shall perish;

All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.

10 But my horn You have exalted like a wild ox;

I have been anointed with fresh oil.

11 My eye also has seen my desire on my enemies;

My ears hear my desire on the wicked

Who rise up against me.

12 The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,

They shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

13 Those who are planted in the house of the Lord

Shall flourish in the courts of our God.

14 They shall still bear fruit in old age;

They shall be fresh and flourishing,

15 To declare that the Lord is upright;

He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

———————

Some recommended reading:

Flourish: Discover Vibrant Living by Catherine Hart Weber, PhD

Celebrating the Disciplines by Richard Foster