But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
I will thank you forevermore,
because you have done it.
I will wait for your name, for it is good,
in the presence of the godly.
Psalm 52:8-9
Each time I went to research olive trees and looking for information on the trees themselves, Google kept giving me all of the Biblical references. I appreciated it, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. Finally, I found some facts about olive trees. They are hardy. Some have been known to live more than 2,000 years and they still produce fruit. They are strong. They are stable and they aren’t easily moved. So, for this Psalm when David describes himself as an olive tree, it’s a hefty analogy.
I have spent many hours in the Psalms in the last 18 months. I have found them to be the most honest and real when I have been waking up each day with the heavy burden of grief. Some days are harder than others.
David’s honesty, when he was penning many of these psalms out of the depths of his own grief, despair, fear, turmoil, joy, gladness and relief have shown me that he was a guy who “got it.” He was a guy who experienced a lot of life. Committed much sin. Ran for his life. Fought in many battles. Knew the joy of the Lord. Knew true repentance and restoration. Struggled with himself and was truly a man after God’s heart.
I’ve noticed in the Psalms, that David will verbally express the ache of his hurt and pain. He will verbalize his wonderings. His why’s. His how’s. He asks God over and over, “how long” must he wait until God saves him from his calamities, but many times in the middle of those wonderings, are his outcries of God’s goodness and His steadfast love that endures forever. The hesed love that is difficult to describe in English. And then, many times, David would fall back into wondering if God is still watching over him while he was being pursued by Saul or when he was struggling with sin in his life.
But in these two verses, David proclaims that he is strong. He is stable and he is secure in the house of God. He claims that he is immovable. He shouts out where his trust lies. It lies in the “steadfast love of God forever and ever.” David shows where his confidence is in these verses. He shows that despite his pursuers (Saul is trying to kill him. Again.), he knows where his true home is-in the House of God forevermore.
The next part, though, “I will thank you forever, because you have done it. I will wait for your name, for it is good…” There are days where LIFE is too overwhelming and I forget that “He has done IT.” I forget that Good Friday happened. I forget that Easter happened. I forget the Gospel. I get so caught up in myself and in my junk, that I forget that I serve a Lord who has done IT. Therein, is what makes Him good. Always.
Last week, Mike and I were talking with some friends. It was a good and hard conversation. At the end, I said, “Jesus died for this. He died for this mess. This is why we need Easter. This is why we have Easter.” It doesn’t mean that we don’t have answers to our circumstances, but it does mean that we have hope and peace.
I’ve said before that I text friends randomly on dark days asking them to tell me the Gospel, because I forget. I’ll get too caught up in myself and think that somehow Jesus isn’t enough for me and my circumstance. I need to be remind that, “He has done it!” That, “His steadfast love endures forever and ever.” That, “I will wait, for He is good.”
Despite what is going on in our life. Despite our struggle with faith and belief in the dark moments. Despite our hurts, our pain, our shame, our past and our anxiety of the future, if we are His we are firmly planted in His house. We can trust in His hesed love forever and ever. We have the confidence that He has done IT. He has taken our pain, shame, hurt and anxiety into the wounds on his back, and for that, He is good. Amazingly, wonderfully good.
Now, THAT, is something that can help me sleep at night and wake me in the morning.