How To Make Everything Prosper Right Now All The Time
[1] Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; [2] but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. [3] He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
Psalm 1:1–3 ESV
The time of year is beginning where everybody knows somebody that has a bazillion tomatoes in their garden. There are tomatoes everywhere, on the counter at work with a sign that says “Free,” and that guy at church that hands you a paper grocery bag full and says “I’ll never be able to eat all of them!” If it hasn’t happened to you yet, hang in there, it’s only the start of August.
Before the year-round food availability of the local grocery store, tomato season was a big deal. All of the tomatoes that were growing right now were the tomatoes that had to last you until next year at this time. Tomatoes in December were unheard of unless you bought them in a metal can or opened them out of a jar that you filled up in August. If it wasn’t in season, you couldn’t have it.
Here in Psalm 1, there is a reference to the man that meditates on God’s law day and night. He is like a tree that yield’s its fruit in its season. He is delighted in the Lord and lives like a tree that is always growing and never withering. When a person lives like this, always thinking about the Lord and His ways, they really do flourish in the midst of the crazy world around them.
This is a picture of the fullness of life in the Lord. Even if the prospering mentioned at the end isn’t cash money, the life-long meditation on the Law of the Lord is prosperity in and of itself. In contrast to that, look at how life draining it is to be in the counsel of the wicked or hang out with sinners and scoffers. That kind of life-drain is like being hungry, seeing a tree, and finding it fruitless. What is the point of such a tree anyway?
God made us and lives in us to bring out a full life that spends time with Him and overflows His life to others. A mature apple tree can produce 100 gallons of applesauce in a year! If a tree that can be chopped up and burned for heat can be so fruitful, how much more so we who are made in His image!?
Meditate on the Law day and night. Write it on notecards, text it back and forth to your friends, carry a Bible around for your lunch break at work, whatever. As you dwell on the life and the ways of the Lord, all that you do prospers.