How to Flourish

Dannah Gresh: The Bible sometimes compares us to plants. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth wonders, Where are we rooted?

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Where you are planted now determines how you fare and whether you thrive and flourish over the long haul. If you are planted in His presence among His people, you will flourish in this life and all the way to the end for all eternity.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of A Place of Quiet Rest, for December 7, 2023. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Nancy: In August of ’23, a series of wildfires swept through the state of Hawaii causing some $6 billion in damages. You remember perhaps of hearing about the historic town of Lahaina, with a population of just about 12,000 people. It’s located on the northwest coast of Maui. This town was particularly hard hit causing the loss of at least ninety-eight lives—ninety-eight people who perished in that fire in that town, 2,200 buildings were destroyed in that town, most of them homes, and much of the town was reduced to ashes.

There was a lot about it in the news while it was taking place, but about a month later, I read an interesting story that captured my attention. It talked about a massive banyan tree in the center of this town of Lahaina. It was a 150-year old tree. The tree was called “the heartbeat of the town.” 

It sustained major damage from the fire. After the fires were put out, the community rallied together to try and save the tree. Volunteers poured thousands of gallons of water on the tree’s roots. And they were thrilled over the next weeks to see signs of new growth on that tree—leaves sprouting through the charred branches.

This article called that tree in the middle of that devastated town that will take a long, long time to recover, they called that tree “a symbol of hope” where there had been so much death and dying and damage.

Well, as I read about that tree thriving in the midst of adversity, it brought to mind the verses we want to look at today in Psalm 92.

Let’s go back and read through the first 11 verses we’ve already looked at, and then we’ll pick up today with verses 12 and 13.

Psalm 92, A Song for the Sabbath Day

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praise to your name, Most High,
to declare your faithful love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night,
with a ten-stringed harp
and the music of a lyre.

For you have made me rejoice, Lord,
by what you have done;
I will shout for joy
because of the works of your hands.

How magnificent are your works, Lord,
how profound your thoughts!
A stupid person does not know,
a fool does not understand this:
though the wicked sprout like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they will be eternally destroyed.

But you, Lord, are exalted forever.
For indeed, Lord, your enemies—
indeed, your enemies will perish;
all evildoers will be scattered.

You have lifted up my horn
like that of a wild ox;
I have been anointed with the finest oil.

My eyes look at my enemies;
when evildoers rise against me,
my ears hear them.

I mentioned in the last session one of the commentators, Derek Kidner who talks about that first section as being “tireless praise” focused on the magnificence, the greatness, the faithfulness of God.

And then we come to this middle section that he called “heedless arrogance.” It’s the heedless arrogance of the wicked, beginning in verse 6.

A stupid person does not know,
a fool does not understand this:
though the wicked sprout like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they will be eternally destroyed. (vv. 6–7)

Back to the tireless phrase of the majestic reigning God.

But you, Lord, are exalted forever.
For indeed, Lord, your enemies—
indeed, your enemies will perish;
all evildoers will be scattered.

And then beginning in verse 10, we begin to look at the vitality of the righteous. He says:

You have lifted up my horn
like that of a wild ox;
I have been anointed with the finest oil [or fresh oil].

My eyes look at my enemies;
when evildoers rise against me,
my ears hear them. (vv. 8–11)

So we’ve seen the arrogance and the outcome of evildoers. It seems like they’re sprouting. It seems like they’re flourishing. They seem like they’re doing great. The whole world bows before them and says, “We believe those lies. We don’t believe in God. We believe in the liars and the evildoers.”

But those who are righteous, who hold fast to Christ, who holds fast to them, they hold fast to the truth. They in time will see these evildoers done away with. The evildoers will perish. All evildoers will be scattered.

So we’ve seen the arrogance of evildoers and the outcome of the wicked. But what about the righteous? What happens to them? Well, we pick up in verse 12, and today we want to look at verses 12 and 13 of Psalm 92.

The righteous thrive like a palm tree
and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon.
Planted in the house of the Lord,
they thrive in the courts of our God.

And the last 2 verses, we’ll look at those tomorrow.

They will still bear fruit in old age,
healthy and green,
to declare, “The Lord is just;
he is my rock,
and there is no unrighteousness in him. (vv. 14–15)

So today we want to park on just those two verses, 12 and 13 in Psalm 92. Listen to verse 12 again: “The righteous thrive like a palm tree and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon.”

Now, this raises first just the obvious questions: who are the righteous? We’ve looked at the evildoers, but who are the righteous? Are we righteous because we haven’t done all the evil terrorist acts that maybe other people have done?

Well, Scripture tells us that there’s no one who’s righteous, that all have sinned. All fall short of the glory of God (see Rom. 3:23). But the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is that through faith in Christ, who died in the place of sinners, taking the penalty we deserve for our evil doing. Those who place their faith in Christ are declared righteous. They receive the righteousness of Christ, who took their sin, they receive His righteousness as their own.

So as you think about the righteous, those who’ve been made righteous through faith in Jesus Christ, there are two important verbs in this verse 12. What do the righteous do?

Well, we’re told first that they thrive. That word means “to break forth as a bud, to bloom, to spread, to flourish.” Think of those budding new leaves on that banyan tree in Lahaina in that fire-destroyed area. Here’s this tree with some new life, thriving, breaking forth as a bud.

The righteous thrive, and what else do they do? They grow. “The righteous thrive like a palm tree and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon.”

We read in verse 7 that evildoers flourish. And now we’re seeing that the righteous thrive or flourish, depending on your translation. So what’s the difference between the wicked and the righteous? Well, here’s the difference:

The wicked thrive now—for a season, for a while. But they will not flourish forever. They will be eternally destroyed, we read earlier.

 

The righteous, by contrast, endure hardship now—for a while, for a season. Sometimes they seem to be overwhelmed by all the evildoers that are flooding in. But the troubles that the righteousexperience are actually making them stronger. They are maturing them. The righteous will flourish in the long run, like that massive, ancient banyan tree, the forest of affliction may singe the righteous, but new growth will not cease to sprout up from their branches. The righteous thrive, and they grow.

We see this concept of how the righteous undergo fires of affliction in 2 Corinthians 4, where the apostle Paul says, beginning in verse 16, having talked about a lot of the afflictions they’re going through: 

Therefore, we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed [or wasting away, the ESV says, our outer person is being destroyed], our inner person is being renewed, thriving, flourishing] day by day. (v. 16)

“For our momentary light affliction . . .” It doesn’t always seem light. It doesn’t always seem momentary—it may go on for years. It may seem impossibly heavy. But it is momentary light affliction that is doing something good in and for and through us. What is it?

That momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. (v. 17)

The affliction seems so heavy, but actually, what it is doing is producing for us a great weight of eternal glory. The affliction will not be forever. The glory will be forever.

Mark and Michelle Leach are friends who are relatives by marriage to my husband Robert. Over the last few years I’ve gotten to know them and this precious child, one of four daughters that the Lord has given them. We’ve told the story about Michelle and her daughter Blair on Revive Our Hearts. We have video of their story, and we’ll post a link to that on today’s transcript. But they have four children who are very young.

Their second child Blair (you’ve heard me talk about before) was born with a rare genetic mutation which has resulted in severe physical and cognitive disabilities. It severely impacts just about every bodily function of this precious little girl.

Michelle and Mark have spent years in and out of the hospital with Blair, open-heart surgery at two months of age. Another surgery not long ago. It’s an everyday, seemingly unending battle.

A couple of weeks ago Blair turned four, and her mom Michelle posted a picture of little Blair on her fourth birthday. You would never have guessed this little girl is four. She doesn’t look nearly that age. Michelle posted a picture of this beautiful child with this caption:

Four years of the highest highs and lowest lows, yet through it all, He remains constant, always good, sovereign, and patient. Happy birthday to this precious girl He has entrusted to our care. As I reflect on these years, these are the truths that anchor my soul:

Number one: God is who He says He is.
Number two: His sovereign will is good and perfect.
Number three: Every moment spent caring for this daughter is an opportunity to bring Him glory.
Number four: This broken world is not my forever home.

We love you,
Blair

I read that post, and I thought, This is a woman who is thriving spiritually in the midst of fiery, intense adversity. Every day is hard. Every day is challenging. Every day could be an opportunity for depression, for anger, for bitterness, for resentment. But here’s a woman who is thriving in the midst of a fire.”

The righteous thrive even while they’re going through adversity. Not only do they thrive, they grow. If you’re not growing, you’re not thriving. If you’re not thriving, you’re not going to grow. The righteous don’t remain stagnant spiritually. They don’t settle in.

 

I think when I was a little girl, I used to have this vision of what it meant to be an older, godly woman, and I would think, Boy, you get to be a godly, old lady, and you just settle in, and it’s good, it’s okay. You arrive.

Well, I am a lot closer to that old lady than I ever pictured back in those days as a child, but one of the things I’ve realized is you can’t ever stop growing. You can’t stop maturing, spiritually.

The righteous thrive, but they thrive because they keep growing, and they keep growing because they’re thriving.

The New Testament has a lot to say to us about growth, starting with the Lord Jesus Himself in Luke 2, verse 52. It says of the child Jesus, that He “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with people.” He came to this earth incarnate—God in the flesh. He grew. He grew physically. He increased in wisdom. He increased in relationship with God and with other people. That set a pattern for us, whether we’re young or older, to keep growing. The righteous thrive, and the righteous grow.

Ephesians 4 has a lot to say to us about this thing of the righteous growing. It talks about we’re all to “reach unity in the faith and in the [knowing] of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness” (v. 13).

What does that mean? We are becoming more like Jesus. We’re growing to be like Him, growing up into His fullness, into His stature. That’s the measure. Who Jesus is, that’s the measure of growth that we’re aspiring to.

And then we will no longer be little children (that’s the not grown up), tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head— Christ. From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part. (Eph. 4:14–15)

So each individual part needs to be thriving and growing. And then as I’m growing and you’re growing and you’re growing and you’re growing, we’re growing together. We’re thriving together as a body, growing up into the fullness, the measure of Christ.

Paul said it a different way in Colossians chapter 1. He prayed that believers would “walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God” (v. 10). Growing, thriving, bearing fruit, and growing in the knowledge of God.

And then in Hebrews 5, the author says in verse 12: “By this time you ought to be teachers.” You should have learned enough about the gospel and the truths of God’s Word and who God is and His redeeming work that you should be able to share it with others. But he said instead: “You need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food.”

What he’s saying is you’ve never grown up spiritually. You’re still spiritual babies. Hey, babies are really cute—unless they’re fourteen years old and still babies. That’s not cute. There’s something wrong with that picture. He says you’ve been around us long enough that you should have grown up so that you would be mature and you could be eating real meals, and you could be teaching others.

And then he says: 

Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature—for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil. Therefore, let us leave the elementary teaching about Christ [not leave it as if we’d go away from it, but we move on, go on] go on to maturity.” (Heb. 5:13–6:1)

That’s the goal. The righteous thrive, and the righteous grow. The body of Christ thrives even through fires and adversity, and it grows.

And then in 1 Peter 2, using the analogy in a little different way, Peter says, 

Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation. (v. 1)

Listen, for spiritual growth, there is no substitute for the Word of God. That’s where we get to know Jesus. That’s where we get to know the heart of God. It’s the Word that cleanses us and matures us and sanctifies us. He’s saying desire that milk of the Word so that you can grow up into your salvation.

And then in 2 Peter, chapter 1, he says: 

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith, [to build on your faith. And then he talks about seven qualities that need to be added to our faith] goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. (vv. 5–7)

(We’ve done a whole teaching series on this passage. You can find that at ReviveOurHearts.com.)

But looking at the big picture here, he says, “If you possess these qualities in increasing measure–you’re thriving and you’re growing–those qualities will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

You can’t ever stop growing. You don’t ever want to stop increasing in the knowledge of Christ and in your spiritual maturity. And as you do, you will become more and more fruitful. If you stop growing, you’re going to become unfruitful. You’re going to become useless in the knowledge of Christ.

And then in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 18: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Always maturing. Always growing. Always changing. It’s over the course of time that we grow—just as kids do. Now, you’ll have maybe one of those years where your kid just seems to pop up there, and you say, “How did he grow so fast?” But normally growth is steady and slow—not sudden, not dramatic—but over the long haul.

And a reminder here is that the righteous who thrive and grow, they never arrive. You never just settle into your Christian experience as it is now. You never want to get to the place where you’re coasting spiritually. Because I can tell you, like the river outside my house, you think it’s still, but you get in there in a canoe or a row boat or a pontoon and turn the engine off, and it’s going to drift. It’s going to go the way of the current.

We don’t want to go the way of the current. We want to be swimming upstream and growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ all the way from here to heaven.

So, are you thriving today?

Are you flourishing?

Is your inner person being renewed day by day—even through adversity?

Is the work of Christ causing you to thrive?

Or are you barely surviving, just keeping your head above water?

My friend Michelle, with a precious four-year old Blair who requires constant care and attention, constant medical appointments . . . It’s hard. There’s a lot of adversity in her life with this—not to speak of having three other little children as well. But she’s thriving because God is holding her head up. She’s learning. She’s growing. It’s hard, but she’s thriving.

Are you thriving?
Are you growing?
Are you growing in grace?
Are you growing in your knowledge of Christ?
Or are you standing still, treading water, just existing?
So caught up in the things of this world that you’re not taking time to focus on the Word of God and the ways of God?

“The righteous thrive like a palm tree,” Psalm 92, verse 12, “and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon.”

Now, we saw in verse 7 that “the wicked sprout like grass,” but here we see that “the righteous thrive like a palm tree.” There’s a big difference between grass and palm trees or cedar trees. Can you just see how the thriving of the wicked is like grass. It’s here today and gone tomorrow. But the thriving or the flourishing of the righteous is like a palm tree—green year round—beautiful, tall, erect, majestic.

The palm tree representing strength and permanence, stability, enduring. And the cedar tree in Lebanon– “the righteous grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon.” Cedar wood is aromatic. It’s resistant to decay and to bugs. That’s why you might have a cedar closet in your house or a cedar chest. It’s good for protecting things that could decay.

The country of Lebanon is known for these magnificent trees. In fact, the national flag of Lebanon has a picture of a cedar tree. It’s the country’s national symbol to this day. It represents abundance and prosperity.

David in the Old Testament acquired cedars from Lebanon to prepare to build a temple for the Lord. And Solomon used cedar trees from Lebanon to build his magnificent palace in Jerusalem.

These cedar trees, these logs, this wood was acquired from Hiram, king of Tyre. Do you remember that? Tyre is a city in Lebanon.

So these precious, valuable, strong, beautiful trees from Lebanon were used for beautiful purposes.

So what does the Scripture say? The righteous thrive like that erect, strong, permanent, beautiful palm tree, and grow like that valuable, beautiful cedar tree in Lebanon.

And then verse 13: “Planted in the house of the Lord, they thrive in the courts of our God.”

Where are the righteous planted? Where do they grow up? In the presence of God, with the people of God.

And where do they end up? In the presence of God and with the people of God.

I want to say something very important to you, and I just hope you really get this: where you are planted now determines how you fare and whether you thrive and flourish over the long haul.

• Are you planted in social media?
  Do you spend hours scrolling mindlessly through Instagram reels, getting worked up over Facebook posts, seeking likes and comments? If you’re planted in social media, you will not thrive and flourish in the long run.
• Are you planted in endless news reports, debates about political and social issues?
  If so, you will not thrive and flourish in the long run.
• Are you planted in frivolous entertainment and recreation and pastimes?
  If so, you will not thrive or flourish in the long run.
• Are you planted in shallow, silly relationships?
  If so, you will not thrive or flourish in the long run.
• Are you planted in a fixation on health and beauty and fitness?
  If so, you will not thrive or flourish in the long run.
• Are you planted in reading material that stimulates your mind but doesn’t feed your soul?
  If so, your soul will not thrive or flourish in the long run.
• Are you planted in this world with little or no thought of the next, of eternity?
  If so, you will not thrive or flourish in the long run.

But, if you are planted in His presence, among His people, you will flourish in this life and all the way to the end, through all eternity. It is because His life is in you, His Word is in you, His Spirit is in you. The life that flows through your veins is His life, and His life is endless. It will always, always flourish.

Tomorrow, we’re going to expand on this concept as we come to the last two verses of Psalm 92, 

[The righteous] will still bear fruit in old age,
healthy and green,
to declare, “The LORD is just;
he is my rock,
and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Oh Lord, may we be planted as Your people in the presence of the Lord, in the house of the Lord, in the courts of our God. This song is a sabbath song. We think of how we come together with the people of God on the Lord’s day, and other days of the week as well. We want to be planted in Your presence and with the people of God. And as we are, Your life will course through our veins, and we will be life-givers to others.

And we pray, oh Lord, that we might thrive and flourish. We’ll stop and take stock of: where are we planted? Where are we planting our lives? Our relationships? Our thoughts? Our affections? Our time? Our efforts?

May we be so planted in You and with the people of God who love You, that we will thrive, we will flourish through all of time and then to all of eternity, age upon age. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

Dannah: Are you thriving? Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has been showing us how where we’re planted affects our flourishing.

This message is part of a series on Psalm 92 that we’ve been listening to this week. You can go back and listen to any of the episodes at ReviveOurHearts.com or on the Revive Our Hearts app.

You know, Erin Davis recently talked about Psalm 92 on The Deep Well podcast in a series called, “Among the Sequoias.” After she faced a health crisis, the Lord used that psalm in her life to show her how to truly thrive. You can listen to that series along with any other podcast in the podcast family on our website: ReviveOurHearts.com.

We are a listener-supported ministry, which means we’re able to produce these podcasts and make them available thanks to people like you. And when you donate to Revive Our Hearts, you’re joining us in helping women around the world experience a life of thriving in Christ.

This month, your gift of any amount will actually be doubled. Some generous friends of the ministry, who believe in the work God is doing through Revive Our Hearts, have offered a matching challenge. So if you give $50, that becomes $100, $100 becomes $200, and you get the picture.

Your donation means so much to us as we wrap up this calendar year and prepare for what God is calling us to do in the coming months. If you’d like to give today, visit ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959.

What does it look like to be fruitful as you age? Tomorrow Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth will share wisdom for living our God’s purpose for your life no matter how old you are. Please join us again for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is calling you to freedom, fullness and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the CSB.
 

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