The Prosperity of the Blessed Man (Psalm 1:3-4) | Worship Service

Good morning, good morning and welcome to Kootenai Church. We're glad that you have joined us this morning. Would you please stand as we begin our service with a call to worship from the book of Isaiah.

In chapter 12, verses four to five, it says, and in that day you will say, give thanks to Yahweh, call on his name. Make known his deeds among the peoples. Make them remember that his name is exalted.

Praise Yahweh in song, for he has done majestic things. Let this be known throughout the earth. Let's sing together this morning, Christ our glory.

They came to the glory Sing together, my soul will wait, Psalm 62. And my heart grows faint within When the darkness, oh, and my fears are pressing in I will trust in you, in the silence I will hide My salvation, my steadfast hope that won't be shaken My soul will wait, my soul, my strong in the midst of heaven Though the way, yes, I know the outcome's sure Satan's evil plan in your body shaking my soul This is mercy unreserved through your sacrifice, oh grace That's undeserved battle has been won, and I fear no shame And my salvation, my steadfast hope that won't be shaken My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you You're my comfort when I feel my shoreline

And you may be seated.

Just the one announcement that I have has to do with the biblical counseling training conference that we are hosting next weekend. It's one weekend each in September, October, and November for a Friday night and Saturday sessions.

The first one is this coming Friday, which means that today is the deadline to register for that if you're planning on making it. So I can see in the face of my kids, the ones who are planning on showing up still have not registered.

So Taryn and Liam and Sheffley, this is for you. This morning, oh man, that's early, that's good.

Early registration.

So do not confuse the application for the rebate with the registration itself. Those are two different things. So if you're gonna register, you need to register online for that. And the link should be in the literature that's available either outside or in your bulletin or both.

And you can turn in the rebate application to Jennifer or to Kathy. Jennifer Barba or Kathy Conger, either one. Turn now, if you will, please. And don't register now, Liam, just later on is fine. Turn to Psalm 119.

Psalm 119 for our scripture reading. We're gonna begin reading at verse 49 and go to the end of verse 72. Psalm 119, beginning at verse 49. Remember the word to your servant in which you have made me hope.

This is my comfort in my affliction that your word has revived me. The arrogant utterly derided me, yet I do not turn aside from your law. I have remembered your ordinances from of old, oh Lord, and comfort myself.

Burning indignation has seized me because of the wicked who forsake your law. Your statutes are my songs and the house of my pilgrimage. Oh Lord, I remember your name in the night and keep your law. This has become mine that I observe your precepts.

The Lord is my portion. I have promised to keep your words. I sought your favor with all my heart. Be gracious to me according to your word. I considered my ways and turned my feet to your testimonies.

I hastened and did not delay to keep your commandments. The cords of the wicked have encircled me, but I have not forgotten your law. At midnight, I shall rise to give thanks to you because of your righteous ordinances.

I am a companion of all those who fear you and of those who keep your precepts. The earth is full of your loving kindness, oh Lord. Teach me your statutes. You have dealt well with your servant, oh Lord, according to your word.

Teach me good discernment and knowledge for I believe in your commandments. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. You are good and do good. Teach me your statutes. The arrogant have forged a lie against me.

With all my heart, I will observe your precepts. Their heart is covered with fat, but I delight in your law. It is good for me that I was afflicted that I may learn your statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

Please remain seated for the prayer time.

Let's bow our heads.

Our Father, we are thankful for your word and the clarity that it gives us in all of life, in all of the decisions that we must make in walking day to day as you have ordained for us to walk. We are grateful that you have revealed to us in your word, your path, your instruction, your righteous ordinances and precepts.

You have revealed to us your righteousness, oh God, your holiness, and you have revealed to us our own sin, depravity, and inability to do anything that is pleasing in your sight. But then most importantly, you have revealed to us how righteousness is available in Jesus Christ and forgiveness of sins because of what he has done.

And so as your people, we gather together here to worship you, to adore you, and to thank you for your righteous ordinances, your righteous precepts, your holy word, your law and instruction, and also for the one, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has fulfilled those righteous ordinances on our behalf and then died so that we may have life and forgiveness and righteousness.

And so we rejoice in that and thank you for your mercy. We pray that you would instruct us in your word, that you would cause our hearts to delight together as we fellowship with one another and worship with one another, and as we rejoice around your throne and your goodness and your grace.

We ask this for the glory of Christ, in whose name we pray, amen. It's not in your bulletin, but I do want to introduce a missionary who is here with us, who's going to give a brief presentation of his ministry.

Many of you know Gordy Hunt. He's preached here, he's a member here, has been here for years, and we've supported him and Nancy for years on the mission field and even now at home. And Gordy, you know, for those of you who don't know who Gordy is, you should make it your life's mission to meet Gordy and learn what he did on the mission field for 40 years.

And he has now two sons who are serving on the mission field. One of them is working with the tribe that Gordy translated scripture for. One of them, whom you met several months ago, he was here, Jamie and Char, his wife, were here, and he got up and gave a presentation about what he's doing in another neighboring tribe down there.

And so now we have Gordy's other son, Jeff, who is here to present to us the ministry that he continues there with the Monhui. And with that, Jeff, would you come up here and just present what the Lord's doing through you there.

Missionary Testimony and the Power of God’s Word

Yeah.

Well, it's a real treat to have this opportunity to take just a couple minutes and introduce ourselves. We've heard a lot about you. We've heard from our brother and sister-in-law who came by, as was mentioned.

I actually hear from my son, who listens online to things that come from this church and the reputation that you preach and teach God's words in this church. So it's just a real privilege to be able to come by and say hi and introduce ourselves briefly.

My wife, Stacey, and I, as we mentioned, we are Gordy and Nancy's kids. I have the privilege of continuing on the work that my dad started. And actually, I brought the work that my dad started here with me this morning.

This is what my dad did. He won't brag about it, but he did this in the Monhui language. It is the New Testament and Genesis. And Stacey and I now have the privilege of following in his footsteps and continuing the work with the Monhui people by translating the Old Testament into the Monhui language.

So that's what we've been doing for the last several years and will continue to do as long as the Lord allows us to have health and continue going back. We have two children, Micah and Jayla. Micah is 21, Jayla is 18.

We just brought Jayla back this furlough and have left her about three weeks ago in the Ethnos Bible School in Waukesha. She's doing wonderful and we are making it. So I wanted to just share, currently we're working on 2 Samuel and we're gonna continue working on through the Old Testament.

What I wanted to do really briefly this morning, I was trying to think of what could give you the best idea of something different and yet really something that is just the same in many ways, something that this has done in the Monhui tribe as briefly as possible by sharing a testimony about how God's words have changed a man's life.

And I just wanna read his testimony. I thought that would be probably something that would give you the best idea possible of who the Monhui people are, kind of what they thought and yet the same in many ways because it's only by God's words that a heart and a life and a person has changed.

So I thought the best way to do that would just be to read Latinus' testimony to you this morning. And hopefully you can kind of glean a little bit of some differences and yet again see that there is nothing new under the sun.

It really is really truly only God's words that changes a heart and brings a person to the Lord, not fancy teaching, not eloquent missionaries, but God's words. And so without further ado, I just wanna read the testimony of Latinus and leave that with you here, hopefully to give you an idea of who the Monhui people are and what God's word has done in the Monhui tribe.

So here goes. Picture Latinus, he was the strongest shaman in the Monhui village, a witch doctor, someone who adored and worshiped and felt like the spirits and the demons bowed down to him and yet also he was able to manipulate them.

So this is Latinus' words translated into English as best as I could. Latinus says this, my feet hurt from walking all day. They were cracked and bleeding from the dry ground. As I walked through the dust on the way back to the village from hunting, I thought about what the kids would say when I came back to the village empty-handed again.

They would cry. They cried a lot lately. Sure enough, everyone came out to meet me when I got home and I told them I hadn't found anything for food in the jungle. When they cried, I told them to stop crying or else lions would come eat them.

Lions wouldn't actually come into the village but that's how I got them to obey. They'd have to learn to deal with hunger. We were always hungry. That's what it was like being a Monhui. It was dry this time of year.

There wasn't much to be found in the woods and someone in the village most likely wasn't properly pleasing the spirits. That's why we were having a hard time getting food from the jungle but I was afraid we wouldn't last much longer.

My oldest son, Cessa, came in from hunting. He had killed a couple of birds and a rabbit with his slingshot so that'd have to do for food for tonight. I thought about my daughter then. She wasn't a baby but she could fit in my bag.

She was so skinny. She'd been sick for a long, long time. I'd have to chant over her again tonight to try to heal her. She was sick because a bad spirit had her spirit and I couldn't seem to get her spirit back.

You would have thought that I could because I was the strongest shaman with the strongest helper spirit around. Everyone was afraid of me because I was the strongest shaman around. They were afraid because I could get anything I wanted.

I could cast a spell on them if I wanted but I was generally good. I usually tried to heal people. Even though I was the strongest shaman around though, I was actually very afraid of my own helper spirit.

I always tried to do whatever my helper spirit told me to do because I was afraid of him. I'll never forget the night I chanted over my sick daughter to try to heal her. I chanted so hard I could hardly talk.

Eventually my helper spirit told me I had to put her body underwater to try to ground out the bad spirit and it didn't help and she passed away. Even though I wasn't able to heal my daughter, I was still known as a strong shaman.

My people were afraid of me and respected me. Nobody would ever want to stop me from what I wanted. They'd never want to make me mad or shame me. Shortly after my daughter died, the White Skins, those guys, came.

They told us a lot of stories that we already knew most of from the past. They didn't have them all correct though. They said that one God made us all and we know that we all came from parrots, the Amazon parrot, because it's the only animal that knows how to talk.

We listened to a time to the White Skins teaching, but after a while my helper spirit told me I had to stop. I still tried to listen, but it made my helper spirit really angry and unhappy. After I listened to what the White Skins called God's words, it would take me such a long time to try to chant and call up my helper spirit to help me heal somebody.

My helper spirit really didn't like God's words or me listening to God's words. And about that time, a lot of my fellow shamans started to leave their helper spirits, but not me. I was still strong. The missionaries talked a lot in those days about God and what he did for us.

If I ever mentioned anything to my helper spirit, he would cower and get angry and leave me for a long time. I'm not sure why, because he was the strongest helper spirit around. I felt so weak when my helper spirit would leave me.

I didn't know what to do. Nobody would ever dare confront me about my helper spirit, because they were all afraid of me. Nobody that is except for my son, Cessa. Everyone knew what I'd do to them if they confronted me and shamed me.

But that day that my son Cessa stood up to me remains in my mind. My son had been listening for a long time to God's words, and he believed them. He said I was wrong about what I believed, and I'd go to a very bad place called hell if I didn't believe God's words.

My helper spirit was very angry that my son had stood up to me. He begged me not to be done with him. He also said I should put a curse on my son for shaming me and confronting me. And I would have done that, but my wife wouldn't let me.

About that time, I started listening more and more when I could to the White Skins' teaching. I didn't know what to do. I told the people I was doing it because I wanted to, not because my son said I should.

But the truth is I was listening to God's words because I was afraid. I was afraid, excuse me. I was afraid of everything. I was afraid of dying. I was afraid of not having food. I was afraid of my helper spirit leaving me and becoming weak.

And not that many of my people were now afraid of me anymore. I seemed like I was the only one in the village still afraid of everything. Finally came the day that I gave up my helper spirit for good.

I hadn't seen him around for a long time. I'd been listening quite a bit to the white man's teaching and what he said about God and about man not being good enough to go to God's place. Excuse me. Man not being good enough to go to God's place because God was perfect and man was sinful.

I wanted to go to God's place when I died. I was so terribly afraid of dying. My helper spirit demon left me for good the day that I understood that God's son died in my place so that I could go to God's place when I died.

I thought I'd be really afraid and lonely when my helper spirit or demon left me, but I wasn't. I got another helper that day. God's spirit came to live inside me. I wasn't afraid of God's spirit like I had been in my old helper demon.

I was only happy. My stomach wasn't even full of honey and yet I was really, really happy. I think I was so happy because I was freed by God's words that I believed. I wasn't afraid anymore. It was so good to not be afraid.

These are my words. My name is Latnis. I can say my own name now because I'm not afraid of the curse that that was supposed to bring from saying my own name. And that's Latnis. Someone that's been changed by God's words being translated into his own language and then taught.

Just want to say thank you again for letting us share and thank you for what you're doing here and giving us the opportunity to do the same thing in Paraguay. Thanks for taking care of our parents as well.

Would you please stand as we sing together this psalm? Psalm 23, the King of love, my shepherd is.

The King of love, my shepherd is

Peter chapter one and verses three to five, it says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Let's sing together Christ the sure and steady anchor.

Christ the sure and steady anchor

In the fury of the storm When the winds of doubt blow through me And my sails have all been torn In the suffering, in the sorrow When my sins to thee it shall mend Christ the sure and steady anchor While the tempest rages on When temptation claims the battle And it seems the night has won Deeper still then goes the eye of the sun

The Blessed Man’s Delight in the Law of the Lord

Return your Bibles now please to Psalm 1,.

The first Psalm, Psalm 1.

Let's begin with a word of prayer before we start. Our Father, we are thankful that You have called us here, that You have brought us here by the power of Your Word, that You keep us in Your Word. And by our Word, You preserve us in our sanctification and our security by Your Word of power.

You've given to us all that we need for life and for godliness. And so we pray today that as we open up Your Word and consider it together, that You would use this time, the preaching of Your Word and our meditation around it, to conform us to the image of Christ and to make us men and women of Your Word that are described here in this Psalm.

Be glorified through our time here and through the teaching of Your Word, we pray for Christ's sake and in His name, amen. We have looked at the first of three contrasts in Psalm 1, the path, contrasting the path of the wicked and the path of the righteous or the blessed man.

We saw last week that the blessed man avoids the instruction of sinners. He does not walk in the way of the ungodly, the wicked. He does not stand in the path of sinners. And he doesn't sit in the seat of scoffers.

That is to say, he is not swayed by them. He does not stand with them and he does not seduce with them. Those are two or three different degrees of involvement and relationship to evil. Instead, the righteous man or the blessed man delights himself in Yahweh's instruction, which is an entirely different path than the path of the wicked.

The righteous man is informed by the Word of God, by His righteousness and by His truth, which is found in the instruction of Yahweh. So that kind of summarizes what we covered last week in verses one and two.

And I want to offer just a note of clarification before we move on. This is not the path of the legalist, verses one and two. It's not the path of the legalist. The legalist is somebody who delights in his use or abuse of the law of God as a means for his own righteousness or a measure of his own righteousness.

The legalist uses the law of God to show how righteous he is in his own eyes and holds other people up to that sort of man-made standard. That's what a legalist does. But the righteous man or the blessed man who delights himself in the law of the Lord is not delighting in the law because it condemns him.

He's not delighting in the law because he cannot achieve the standards of the law. Even though the law condemns all of us, the righteous delight in it because we see even in that thing that condemns us, we see something that is holy and good and righteous and true, and we delight in that.

We delight in the righteousness that is revealed in the law, the instruction of the Lord. We delight in the God who is revealed in the Scriptures and in the righteousness that is revealed in the Scriptures.

We don't delight in the law in some sadistic sense where we think we have achieved the standards of the law and we have kept its perfect standards of righteousness because we can't and we don't. But instead, the righteous one delights in the God who is revealed in that word and in the instruction that Yahweh gives to us in that law.

So the blessed man receives all kinds of different blessings, a variety of blessings. He is blessed in a variety of ways. He can look at his life and say that he is blessed by God because of God's goodness and grace to him.

He is blessed in salvation. He is blessed in the fruit of that salvation, and he is blessed in ways that the wicked cannot even perceive or even understand. So here at the outset of the Psalms, in Psalm 1, we have this question, are we the righteous man described in this Psalm or are we the wicked that is described in this Psalm?

And before we even enter into worshiping God in and through the Psalms, the Psalter, that's the question that confronts us. Which one are we? Psalm 1 is a wisdom Psalm that calls us to consider two paths, two products, and two outcomes.

And we see in this Psalm the way of blessedness. So the outline that we're using to work our way through the Psalm in verses 1 to 2, we see two contrasted there, two paths, and we've called verses 1 and 2 the path of the blessed man.

Verses 3 and 4 we're looking at today, this describes the prosperity of the blessed man, and then verses 5 and 6, the prize of the blessed man, that the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked or the path of the wicked will perish.

And here is a second contrast, the prosperity of the blessed man. The righteous and the wicked are contrasted with these two agricultural similes. You'll notice it, let's read together verses 3 and 4.

Actually, let's back up and just start at verse 1 again, we can read the whole Psalm, it's not that long. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Verses 3 and 4 are our text for this morning.

We're gonna notice there, with each of the phrases in verse 3, a different kind, a distinct kind of blessing, and this gives us some idea of what the author means when he talks about the blessedness or the blessingsness of the righteous man in verse 1.

We'll notice in each of those phrases a different and distinct blessing. The first one, we notice his provision. He's like a tree firmly planted by streams of water. Then we'll see his produce or product.

It yields its fruit in its season. Then we'll notice his permanence. His leaf does not wither. And then finally, his prosperity, and whatever he does, he prospers. We'll break those down, spend most of our time in verse 3, because verse 4 is simply the negated contrast of that, but the wicked are not so, and then just a brief description of the wicked.

So we'll spend our time in verse 3 so we can see what it is that really is the blessing of the righteous, and then we can just simply say, all of that for the wicked, not so. None of that is true of the wicked person in verse 4.

Let's notice, first of all, his provision. Psalm 1, verse 3. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water. Again, this is a simile, and there's a simile in verse 3 and a simile in verse 4.

Verse 3 says the blessed man is like a tree, and verse 4, the wicked is like chaff. And these two similes, agricultural similes, are intended to contrast these two men and their prosperity, or we would say, the product or produce of their life.

The imagery used here of a tree flourishing by streams of water is one that's used frequently in the Old Testament, and it's really used to picture here a flourishing and fruitful life under the blessing of God.

And I want you to notice something in verse 3 that probably flies under your radar as you just read over the verse. Notice that he is describing here a tree that is planted. It is a planted tree, not a wild tree.

It's a planted tree. Those are two entirely different images in Old Testament scripture, a planted tree and a wild tree. A wild tree pops up next to a river of water. Its seed is planted by the dung of a bird or just by accident or happenstance, or the wind blows the seed in next to a stream.

A wild tree is there by accident or by chance. It springs up on its own, but the author is not describing a wild tree. He's not describing a tree that just so happened to pop up next to an undefined stream of water out somewhere in the wilderness.

Instead, he is indicating here, by calling this a planted tree, a tree that is chosen with intention and care and design, and then is intentionally and specifically, by God's providence, planted where it is by the grower, a tree that is cared for by the husbandman who plants the tree with intention and purpose.

In other words, in this picture, God himself is the farmer, and he chooses the tree. He chooses the place in which the tree is planted, and then he cares for that tree. He tends it. He plants it. The blessed man is a man who is attended by God's providence and as a planted tree, he is the special object of that special divine providence to not only choose the tree, but also choose the place where it is planted.

This last spring, I went to a local nursery, and I bought two trees, a honeycrisp apple tree and an apricot tree. And when I showed up at the nursery, I look for, of course, I find the section that has the tree, the specific tree that I want, and then I don't just grab any tree.

You guess which tree I pick? I pick the best tree that is there. Now, that's not what God did when he chose you and I, but every analogy breaks down a little bit. But follow me here.

I choose the tree.

I select a tree that is green and lush. It looks healthy. It's got lots of leaves on it. It's got lots of new shoots that year. Maybe even has some blossoms or some fruit starting to form on it. It's taller.

It looks like something that I can shape and mold as I prune it over the years. I bring that home with great care, and I know exactly on my lot where I want to plant it in direct sun and a place that sort of catches the eye and is specific to the landscaping, whatever landscaping I have in my yard.

And I plant the tree specifically there, and I fertilize it.

I dig the hole.

I put the food in there, a little shot of some liquid, whatever it is that's supposed to make it sort of take root. And then I water it over the course of the summer. And these two trees, I put wire cages up around them to protect them from the deer.

And then I'm observing them, not just for their health and their vitality, but also eventually for their fruit-bearing quality. And I watch them. I guard them. I protect them. Now, that's a lot different from just a tree that's planted out in the wilderness that I could care nothing about.

Spurgeon says this. It is the particular characteristic of the Christian man and woman that he is like a tree planted. That is to say, there is a special providence exercised in his position. You all know the difference between a tree that is planted and a tree that is self-sown.

The tree that is planted in the garden is visited by the husbandman. He digs about it. He fertilizes it. He trims it, prunes it, looks for its fruit. It is an object of property and of special care. The tree in the forest, the tree which is self-sown upon the plain, no one owns, no one watches over it.

No heart will sigh if lightning flash shall shiver it. No tears will be wept if the blast should light upon it and all its leaves should wither. It is no man's property. It shelters no man's roof. No man cares for it.".

Close quote.

That's the difference between a cultivated tree.

And a wild tree.

The blessed man is like a tree that is planted, which means that you, believer, are by God's choice and by God's providence the special object of his care. That's the imagery that is used here. Not a wild tree out in the middle of the wilderness that you could care less about, but a specific tree chosen and planted and watched over that you would be fruitful and flourish.

Now, the tree symbolism is a rich symbolism that's used throughout the Old Testament and obviously into the New Testament. Israel was an agrarian land with a lot of agrarian culture, and so we see these types of agrarian similes and metaphors and pictures used all the way through our scriptures.

The first episode or the first incident of this type of imagery, and it's in a literal place, a literal time, that's in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2. So this picture occurs early. Genesis 2, verse 8,.

"'The Lord God planted a garden toward the east in Eden, and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also, in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became four rivers.'". So here early in Genesis, you have a tree that is planted at a place where there are four rivers that water that lush garden.

And in that garden, God walked with man in His innocence before the fall. God walked with man, and there was consummate provision there. Everything that Adam and Eve could have needed, everything they could have desired was provided for them by God, and they had God to walk with and commune with.

It's also the same picture that we see at the end of our scriptures in Revelation 22, and in Ezekiel 47, describes the same thing in the restored creation. Here's how Ezekiel describes it. "'By the river on its bank, on one side and on the other will grow all kinds of trees for food.

Their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be food, for their leaves will be for the healing.'.

And then Revelation 22 says,. "'Then He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.

And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.'". So we have at the beginning of God's revelation, tree, the tree of life, planted by rivers in the garden where everything was provided and men walked with God in communion and fellowship with Him.

And then we have at the end of God's revelation, the tree of life planted by the river, which flows from the throne of God, where abundance is provided for all God's people. And He walks with us, just like He did with Adam and Eve in the garden beforehand.

That's the imagery that is used here. A tree that is planted, that is flourishing, and it is well-watered, and it is lavish in its fruitfulness. The imagery of the tree also reminds us of judgments that were promised as sometimes the opposite of the flourishing tree becomes the specific point of the metaphor.

When a nation, when the nation of Israel forsook the law of God and turned from Yahweh's instruction, then scripture likens that nation to a tree that withers and dries up. Isaiah 1, verse 30,. "'Judgment upon Israel is described in these terms, for you will be like an oak whose leaf fades away, or as a garden that has no water.'".

Isaiah 34, one through four, describes the judgment of God upon all the nations at the end of time. And listen to how the judgment upon the nations for their rebellion and their turning away from the law of God is described.

Isaiah 34, verses one to four,. "'Draw near, O nations, to hear and listen, O peoples. Let the earth and all it contains here and the world and all that springs from it. For the Lord's indignation is against all the nations and His wrath against all their armies.

He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over to slaughter. So their slain will be thrown out and their corpses will give off their stench and the mountains will be drenched with their blood. And all the hosts of heaven will wear away and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll.

All their hosts also will wither away as a leaf withers from the vine, as one withers from the fig tree.'". So here's the summary of the Old Testament imagery. The man of God, the blessed man, is like a tree that is firmly planted by multiple streams of water that nourish it and cause it to grow.