Planted in the house of the Lord.
Five subjects fall to be considered here.
I. THE PLANTED ONES. The similitude is taken from the fact of trees being commonly planted in the quadrangles of Eastern houses; there were trees in the temple courts. Now, from this emblem we learn much about those persons whom it represents.
1. They must have had life in them. People do not plant dead things. So ere ever any soul is planted in the house of the Lord, the Divine life must have begun. It may have been very feeble, but it was there. Many come to church, and regularly, who have never been planted in the house of the Lord, because they are not "born again."
2. They are where they once were not. The tree had been transplanted, moved from one place to another. So the soul of the man spoken of here. He has been "translated out of the kingdom of darkness into," etc.; he has passed "from death into life;" he has undergone a great and wonderful change. The process may have been very painful; the roots of our life seemed so to cling to our old state. But by one means and another we have been transplanted. "If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature; old things have," etc.
3. And it was done for us, not by ourselves. We were "born, not of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of the will of God." Unless Christ saves us, we shall never be saved. We owe our all to the grace of God.
4. The roots have taken hold of the soil. (C.H. Spurgeon.) We often make use of the expression that a man has taken root in a place, meaning that he has settled down there, and has found pleasure and good in his surroundings, and is at home there. So these people, these planted ones, find their home in the house of God.
5. And they stay there. They are no mere birds of passage, but they dwell in the secret place of the Most High, love the habitation of God's house, their soul's home is there. In body they must often be absent, but in spirit never.
II. THE PROSPERITY PROMISED THEM. They "shall flourish in the courts of our God."
1. As a fact they do. What great saint ever set light store by the sanctuary of God?
2. And it is certain they will. There is the promise of God. There is the soul nurture which the sacred services of the sanctuary supply. There is the shelter, and retreat from the hostile forces of the world outside. There is the ever-watchful eye of the husbandman. God cares for the trees planted there. He watches over them night and day.
III. THE PERMANENCE OF ALL THIS. "They bring forth fruit in old age" (see homily on this clause).
IV. THE PROOF HEREBY GIVEN OF THE CHARACTER OF GOD.
1. They shout "that the Lord is upright." They do this, for they, being righteous themselves, prove that he who made them so is righteous. We judge by deeds. Righteous souls are God's deeds.
2. And they show his love also; for he does not cast them off in the time of their old age, as most men do their servants; but he puts yet more honour on them.
V. THE PERSONAL TESTIMONY OF THE PSALMIST. "He is my Rock," etc. It is as if he would say, "I know all this is true, for he is my Rock, and there is," etc. It is good to proclaim the truth of God, but he does it the more powerfully who can bear testimony from his own experience. Then, are we willing to be planted in the house of our God? Go and tell him so, and it shall be done unto you.—S.C.