FLOURISH LIKE AN OLIVE TREE

“But I am LIKE A GREEN OLIVE TREE in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever” – Psalm 52:8

Every Believer should FLOURISH “like a GREEN OLIVE TREE in the House of God” (Psa.52:8). The olive tree is a great symbol in God’s Word. In Hebrew poetry, the flourishing olive alternates with the vine as an emblem of prosperous Israel (Jer.11:16). The Hebrew word for ‘olive tree’ simply means “tree of oil”. God promised Israel: “His branches shall spread; His beauty shall be like an OLIVE TREE, and His fragrance like Lebanon” (Hos.14:6). This speaks of increase, beauty, and fragrance – qualities that define luxuriance, vibrancy, and lushness. The olive-tree loves fat soil. It attains to finest fruitfulness when its bed is rich in nutrients. Starve its soil; and the tree may remain dwarfed and impoverished. The psalmist alluded to these characteristics of a splendid olive-tree. He himself was like an olive-tree in the richness of his ‘rootage’. God was the soil of his life, and he revelled in the wealth of His resources. Every human being has this possibility to be rooted in God and to flourish like the Olive!

The Psalmist was by inference saying: “Though hunted and persecuted, I am like a green olive tree; a vigorous, well-planted olive. I am safe and unharmed notwithstanding the effort made by my enemy, to ensure my destruction. I shall not be plucked up or destroyed. I am like a flourishing olive, which out of the rock draws oil, and amid the drought still lives and thrives. I am planted and established like an olive tree in the house of God. I am protected in the very courts of the sanctuary – safe under the care and the eye of God. I am full of spiritual vigor, bringing forth evergreen leaves and annual fruit, as the olive does when planted in a proper soil and good conditions. I belong to God’s divine family, and could not be expelled from it. My place is near my God, and there I am safe, secure, and satisfied, despite all the machinations of my foes. I will continue to bear fruit when all the proud enemies are withered like branches trimmed from the tree. Eternal mercy is my current confidence. I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.”

God wants us to be like olive-trees that are rooted in His unlimited resources. The Psalmist saw himself like an olive-tree rooted in the wealth of divine resources, but also flourishing in the vigour of life. Currents of strength rise out of the olive’s resourceful roots, endowing it with vitality. The plan of our God is that there should be nothing weak about our spiritual or moral equipment. He wants everything not only to be beautiful, but to be strong. When we are “rooted” in Him every branch of our being is pervaded by rivers of sap, and every faculty is supplied with divine energy into manifold fruitfulness. Even our normal occupations and drudgery of daily life are imbued with grace for the race. Rooted in God, all the issues of life are saturated by His Spirit, making us like green olive-trees. Interestingly, the color of the Olive leaves is not a bright lively green; but a dark, emerald gray, silver green or yellowish hue, with unique foliage. So, the word “green” does not merely describe color, but the qualities of youthfulness, vigour, and prosperity.

The olive tree is almost indestructible. It seems to flourish best in hostile environments. Of course it grows in fertile valleys, but a tree on a stony slope produces more oil. If an Olive tree is cut, new shoots grow out of the wound. It will not give up. The most beautiful symbolism lies in the olive’s peak productivity coming not in youth but in maturity. The tree begins to bear fruit after six years. It is most fruitful between 80 and 100 years! That’s why the olive branch is a fitting symbol of peace: an area has to have the prospect of being free from warfare for at least a generation for a resident to plant an olive expecting to pick its fruit!