Audio
Neugepflanzt
“You are like a tree planted new by streams of water, yielding its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither” (Psalm 1:3),
Gardeners sometimes bring a plant to a better location. If it is in a container, it can simply be moved to get more sunlight or shade whatever the plant needs. Maybe the plant is completely dug up with the root and transplanted to where it can grow better.
Most translations of Psalm 1:3 use the word "planted." In the Common English Bible, however, the word "replanted" is used. The idea is that those who enjoy God's teaching, as a group or individually, behave like a tree that has been replanted. The English translation of The Message puts it this way: “You are a newly planted tree in Eden, bearing fresh fruit each month, whose foliage never withers, and which is always in bloom.”
In the original Hebrew text there is a verb "schatal" which means "to insert", "to transplant". In other words, the tree is moved from where it was before to a new location so that it will flower again and bear more fruit. It comes to mind what Christ says in John 15:16: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit and your fruit should abide".
The parallel is striking. Jesus chose us for fruitfulness. But in order for us to grow, we had to be moved on in the spirit. Paul takes up this concept by explaining that believers produce fruit because they live and walk in the spirit in which they are founded. “Just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:7).
Prayer
Thank you, Father, for moving us from the old starting point to a new life, firmly established in Jesus and safe in Him, in His Name we pray. Amen.
by James Henderson
