Call to Worship: Trees, Not Channels (Psalm 1)

Leader: Blessed is the one...whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

Response: 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.[1]

Leader: The tree is no mere channel, piping water unchanged from one place to another, but a living organism which absorbs it, to produce in due course something new and delightful, proper to its kind and to its time.[1]

Response; Like water through the tree, God's grace does not retain the same form. It is expressed in as many unique ways as there are children of God. We are your children.

Leader: Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, on each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. 

Response: And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.[3] We are your people.

[1] Psalm 1:1a,2-3 (NIV)
[2]Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, vol. 15 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973), p. 48 as cited by Tim Keller, Prayer (New York, NY: Dutton, 2014), p. 148

[3] Revelation 22:1a,2b (NIV)

Psalm 1: Conduits vs. Trees

The tree is no mere channel, piping water unchanged from one place to another, but a living organism which absorbs it, to produce in due course something new and delightful, proper to its kind and to its time. - Derek Kidner[1]

I have often thought of God's life-giving grace as something which God gives to us with the intent that we would, in turn, give it to others. We act as a sort of conduit or channel of grace. This word picture was helpful in my conversations to describe God's intent that we were not the intended end-point of his grace. We should not be a point of blockage or diversion.

But in reading this quote this morning, I realized that my working picture was inadequate. The electrical conduit or water channel does not change the form of what it receives, it merely passes it along. Also, the conduit doesn't grow and the channel doesn't alter. But the tree takes what comes in-soil, sun and water-and expresses it in a new, fresh and yet entirely dependent way: trunk, branches, leaves, fruit, shade, and protection.

We receive God's grace, it transforms us and we produce the fruit of the Spirit and (my wife mentioned) shelter for others to grow and flourish (shalom). God's grace does not retain the same form. It is expressed in as many unique ways as there are children of God.

His grace takes many forms, but one of the most available is his Word. The Bible says that God's replenishes those "...whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law 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."(Ps. 1:2-3)

So this week I am considering myself a tree.



[1]Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, vol. 15 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973), p. 48 as cited by Tim Keller, Prayer (New York, NY: Dutton, 2014), p. 148