“God’s planting season”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Friday, May 30, 2025

Psalm 92 (Forward, p. 32) CEV p. 612

For people like us, people who enjoy our garden and its flowers, trees and shrubs, today’s psalm has a special appeal and relevance. It speaks eloquently about growing things, both good and bad.

On the negative side, he speaks of the things that we’d rather not have growing in our gardens. Here I think of quack grass and other stealthy invasive weeds that have runners and tendrils that go forever or that have roots that reach almost to China:

“Though the wicked sprout and spread like grass, they will be pulled up by their roots” (verse 7). Wouldn’t this be great for quack grass to be uprooted like this! And this is what our psalmist says will happen to the wicked.

Now, as for positive growth, good growth, he has this to say:

“Good people will prosper like palm trees, and they will grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. They will take root in your house, Lord God, and they will do well. They will be like trees that stay healthy and fruitful, even when they are old. And they will say about you, ‘The Lord always does right! God is our mighty rock.’” (verses 12-15).

According to a recent National Geographic article, palm trees have long been the mainstay, the anchor and the protector of many oases and desert communities. And the cedars of Lebanon were proverbial for their height, strength, and beauty. Indeed, they were used in the building of the Temple in Jerusalem. It would be great to think of ourselves in light of these two trees, the palm and the cedar—in terms of who we are and what we do.

And, to think of ourselves as always being rooted in God’s presence and always being healthy and fruitful in our dealings, regardless of our age! Wow.

No wonder of psalmist delights in always singing praises to God, for such incredible doings and such incredible promises. Thanks be to God for such as these.

Forward notes: “It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to your Name, O Most High; To tell of your loving-kindness early in the morning and of your faithfulness in the night season” (verses 1-12).

“It was the end of a wonderful night full of laughter and good friends. As we were getting ready to leave, we all gathered in the living room and began to sing the Salve Regina in plainchant. This beautiful and ancient hymn to the ever-blessed virgin Mary asks that we be shown Jesus and made worthy of the work he has done on our behalf.

“I don’t know how the singing started that evening; I just know it wasn’t my idea. But from that point on, it was how we ended each gathering. Our joy in company and conversation was turned over to God in praise and thanksgiving. Through the short and simple song, our social time together was transformed as we remembered that all of our laughter and the heart of our joy was a foretaste of the heavenly party we would one day attend.”

Moving Forward: “What songs do you offer in praise to God?”

The Salve Regina, in English, reads as follows—it is not found in most of our hymnbooks or prayer books:

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.

Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us;

and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Pray for us O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.