Tree Planted by the River
I walk my German shepherds in the icy air, so cold I can’t take a deep breath. Frost crunches under my boots, and my fingers are painfully stiff from the bitter chill. My clouded mind resets as I hustle back to our rustic cabin.
We live on the Pend Oreille River, which flows crystal-clear green, reflecting the cedars and Douglas firs. The closest town, Ione, has a hardware store, a grocery store, a post office, a gas station, and a restaurant/bar. People hunt, fish, raise livestock, and enjoy outdoor life.
Two weeks later, we trade pine trees for palm trees. We drove four days to Orange County, California, to spend two months with our kids on a bay. Yachts parade in the salt water past our little beach house, the latest Tesla zips in the streets, and ten trendy restaurants are within walking distance. Whether living by the river in Ione or the bay in Newport Beach, I am to be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season (Psalm 1:3).
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on its day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers (Psalm 1:1-3).
The roots of the trees spread deeply into the soil, reaching for the nutrients of the river. The water gives the trees nourishment and stability. We have squalls in the river valley, and the tall pine trees sway side to side in the wind, but they do not fall. In fact, the turbulent gusts make them stronger.
According to this Psalm, not walking with sinners is to hurry past them. To not stand with the wicked, is not to stop and chit-chat about negative or nasty talk with the transgressor; and do not sit with mockers (hypocrites, gossips, and slanderers). To sit is to consciously choose to hang out in their company. Sometimes a tasty morsel of gossip (stand with the wicked) satisfies our hunger for power. We know something that everybody else doesn’t, and it ruminates in our mind. After a while, we want to tell someone else, who is listening to gossip, and we act on it. So, the moral of the story is do not walk, stand, or sit with sinners. Instead… A friend of mine will handle gossip this way. “I don’t want to hear this, and you don’t want to tell me.”