My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.

This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.

I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.

Psalm 52:8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
Psalm 52:9 I will thank you forever, because you have done it. I will wait for your name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly.

David has just described the doom of the mighty man, along with the reaction of the humble man to the “breaking” of the mighty man.
We considered what it meant to be broken and what seeking refuge in his own destruction may be describing. (Who in their right mind would seek refuge in their own destruction).

David, in our portion this time, describes his own experience in relation to God. He is like a green olive tree, and when I hear the term olive tree I think of God’s covenant relationship with His people. See Jeremiah 11:16 for an example.

Jeremiah 11:16 – The LORD once called you ‘a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.’ But with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed.

Not only does the green olive tree remind me of the relationship God had with His nation Israel, it also reminds me of the new covenant we enjoy under the Lord’s authority today.

But beyond all that, I think of the wonderful oil that is produced from the fruit of this tree. The olive oil that is produced by the crushing of the olive fruit. A crushing of the fruit that hearkens to the crushing of the Savior, the crushing of His body to bring about the spiritual oil that anoints those who seek the Master. But we must not forget that it was a crushing that was required to produce this blessing, and as he hung on the cross, taking the punishment we – I – deserved, He was also undergoing a crushing that would produce the fruit of life to those who sought Him.

How often Jesus may have recounted the second portion of verse 8 while suffering.

I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.

No one in the history of all of creation has experienced the depth of the truth of that verse but for him. At the very time of His suffering, He only had His trust in the steadfast love of God, in the faithfulness of His Father, even as He was abandoned for the first (and only) time of His existence.

Upon His resurrection, may I suggest that Jesus entered the truth of verse 9.

I will thank you forever, because you have done it.

Consider how Jesus is thanking His Father. God the Father rescued Him from death, for He could not behold it. Is it any less incumbent for us who know nothing of His depth of suffering to be any less thankful for His tremendous grace towards us?

Let us have a thankful spirit and give thanks unto the Lord for His mighty acts of rescue!

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