“But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints.”-Psalm 52:8-9
A.W. Tozer writes: “When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a great deal of anxiety.”
The olive tree is prevalent around the Mediterranean and is known for its longevity, abundance, and toughness. The olives they produce are good and good for you. The Psalmist David writes “thou hast done it.” His life was filled with hardship, pain, loss, and anxiety. At a young age he was taken from his home to serve King Saul. David’s prolific war campaigns made him a rival to the king, which led to attempts on Davids’s life. Ultimately, he had to flee and stay on the run. David narrowly escaped the clutches of King Saul and spent his early years hiding in caves and mountains. He knew hardship at the hands of wicked men, was betrayed, wrongly accused, rejected, ridiculed, robbed, and threatened. Yet, he can praise God, and say: “I am like a green olive tree in the house of God:” He can say: “thou hast done it.” During our life, just like David, we can trust it is ordered by the Lord. He hath done it. In his hand is both blessing and cursing. Right and wrong. Good and evil. The prophet Ezekiel said of the nation of Israel that God like a potter would “work a work on the wheel.” God is the potter and we are the clay. His providence is the pressure that molds us into the image of Christ. Especially in the trials and testing times of life. Our faith and trust in the goodness of the Lord is tested in the times of darkness. When faced with the trails and uncertainty of this life we can question “why?” When the wisdom of God’s providence is withheld from us, our task is waiting on the Lord. Waiting for the fog to lift and the way forward to be made plain. It is like being dropped into the void. Yet we lean once more on the promises of God, the confidence that he has done it, and he has done it for a purpose. When we praise him for this, it moves us closer and closer to acceptance and trust. You can accept long before you understand. Here children are our betters. They readily accept the will of their fathers without even understanding it. They accept because they trust he is good and right.
David said: “I trust.” Herein is the secret, when our reasoning, and rationale is bankrupt; we trust. We trust and wait. We trust and wait, because we have seen the fruit of the tree that trusts and waits. The deliverance and quiet assurance that comes from abiding in the vine. The inward knowing that all these things are making us more like Jesus, and we are in that sacred fellowship of sacrifice and suffering. Given wholly to the promise: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;” (2 Corinthians 4:17)
