“But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon.” – Psalm 92:12

God created you to flourish – and ransomed you to set you free to flourish – so you could be a living, vibrant, remarkable shining light in a world of blindness and darkness.

All creation is waiting for the sons and daughters of the Father of creation to display their glorious, wonderful, beautiful, pure new creation life.

Christ’s wonderful sacrifice at the cross made it possible for the living powerful, resurrected Spirit of Christ to dwell inside us. The passion of His heart is to see everything in creation flourish in new creation life birthed within each redeemed heart.

King David expressed it well when he wrote from the overflow of his heart in Psalm 92 – “But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon.”

As the Psalmist sings in this verse about the abundant strength and magnificence, he paints a picture of fruitfulness, uprightness, steadfastness, health and longevity.

The significance of the Palm Tree lies in the fact that a palm has only one, above ground growing point. This is located at the top of its trunk, and if this terminal bud is injured, the palm often dies. This deep rooted tree is able to withstand the most violent storms and blossom, bud and produce fruit all the year in the most arid of deserts. We are being reminded in this beautiful, creative picture of all God has made available and provided for us, and what will inevitably take place when we are rooted and established in him.

We can flourish in him because our new creation life inside us is rooted in the finished work of Christ. Christ now is our one and only growing point, and because He won the victory over death in His resurrection, we will never stop growing and blossoming into all He dreams for us.

When God wanted to grip the hearts of the Children of Israel, He gave them a portrait of his overwhelming love and goodness. He wanted to change how they thought and felt and lived, he wanted to captivate their entire individual existence with the wonder and majesty of his passionate love for them. He wanted them to believe in Him and all he could accomplish for them. Their liberation from Egypt into the glorious freedom of the Promised Land, a land so lavishly abundant he described it as overflowing with “milk and honey”, was a journey of discovery into the grip of His grace.

Palm trees flourish by the grace of God, and from the dates of the tree, dark brown syrup is harvested that is rich and sweet. It was this preserved syrup that was also referred to the “honey” of the Promised Land. God’s promise of honey was open for all to see in the comprehensive blessing of every Palm Tree established throughout the land. When hearts started to question, just looking and focusing on a flourishing tree reminded every soul that God is faithful and is to be trusted.

The vastness of God’s love is contained in His promises and sometimes it feels like these are beyond our human understanding and experience. But they are all there, they are all ours, they have all been showered upon us in Christ and God wants us to encounter him, be immersed in him, be filled with the abundance of him and like Palm Trees in the desert, be rooted and flourish.