Daily Devotional Podcasts

525_The righteous flourish like a cedar in Lebanon Psalm 92 It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; 2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night, 3 to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre. 4 For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy. 5 How great are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep! 6 The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this: 7 that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever; 8 but you, O Lord, are on high forever. 9 For behold, your enemies, O Lord, for behold, your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered. 10 But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; you have poured over me fresh oil. 11 My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants. 12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, 15 to declare that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. There was a traveler who visited the forests of Lebanon many years ago. He had read about the mighty cedars of the Bible, but he wasn’t prepared for what he saw. Standing before him were towering trees that seemed to touch the heavens, some over a hundred feet tall, with trunks so wide that several men joining hands could barely encircle them. Their fragrance filled the air, their branches spread like arms of strength, and their roots clung firmly to the rocky mountainside, weathering storms that would have destroyed lesser trees. The guide told him that some of those cedars had been alive for more than a thousand years, standing tall and green through countless seasons of change. The traveler later wrote, “It was as if the trees themselves were preaching to me about endurance, strength, and a life firmly rooted in God.” That image of the cedar tree comes alive in Psalm 92, a psalm written specifically as “a song for the Sabbath.” The people of Israel would sing this on their day of rest, not as a duty, but as a delight. Sabbath was not meant to be a burden; it was meant to be a time of corporate worship, a time to lay aside the week’s labors and remember the goodness of God together. And the psalm begins with a call to gratitude: “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High.” The most fitting thing we can do when we gather before God is to give thanks—to recount His goodness,