Hebrew Word Study – Streams – Peleg פלג Pei Lamed Gimmel

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Do You Feel Like You Are Being Uprooted?  

Psalms 1:3:  “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

Yesterday I took a short break from my disability bus to walk by the Des Plaines river and observe trees planted by the water. It was sort of a spiritual quest. It was so muddy from the melting snow that it was as if the trees were planted upon the water.  This walk was the result of a discussion with one of my passengers who told me that young trees are called saplings and as young saplings a fruit tree farmer may uproot the tree and move it to a location where it will be well nourished and taken care of.  Yet, it will require a lot of water, in fact a constant flow of water to help it reroot into its new location.  But once it takes hold it would be cared for by the farmer, properly pruned and nourished to provide the ultimate production of fruit. 

As soon as I got home, I started to do some research into ancient times to see if they understood this concept. Indeed, the ancient Egyptians actually created fruit farms in a similar way we do today.  This practice soon spread throughout the Mesopotamian regions.  The Egyptians constructed a series of canals to irrigate their land from the Nile River.  They would grow young saplings and at an early stage of development, uproot them and plant them along the canals or actually within or in the ground of the canals to have a constant water supply were they were nourished, pruned and care for to produce the ultimate production of fruit.  These trees were not trees grown in wild like those in Forest preserve but were trees like those on a citrus farm to be watched and cared over for a specific purpose.  Without a constant water supply a  young sapling will die.

I remember as a teenager we used to sing a cleaned up version of a Woody Guthrie song: “I Shall Not be Moved.” We would sing, “I shall not be moved, just like a tree planted by the water, I shall not be moved.”  Now some fifty years later I learn that song was very misleading. The purpose of being planted by the waters was not to be strong and secure but to be able to produce the ultimate production of fruit.

The word for streams in Hebrew is peleg which is really word that was used for ancient irrigation channels.  The passage does not say beside the waters but uses the word ‘al which means upon or on the ground of the waters. I believe the writer is clearly using fruit farming as an illustration in this passage.  He is not referring to trees in the wild that are strong against storms.  But trees that are purposely uprooted and replanted at a location where it will have the best possible opportunity to thrive.

So the writer is telling us that those who do not walk among the wicked but delight and meditate on the Word of God day and night they will by like those special, privledged trees that are carefully tended and protected to bring forth the ultimate production of fruit.   

But say, that uprooting process sounds awfully painful to me.  That poor tree must be removed from its known environment, taken out of its comfort zone and literally it has to start a new life.  To really bear the ultimate fruit the first verse in this Psalm tells us that we must remove ourselves from the counsel of the wicked and our standing among the sinners.  Just as that tree that is rooted in its environment  must be removed we too must we removed from our location or sinful environment where we are rooted so God can plant us in a location where we will produce the most fruit.

We often use the expression of being uprooted where we are moved to a brand new location.  That word has the idea of something unpleasant and even painful, yet necessary for future survival.  When God uproots us we may find it unpleasant or uncomfortable. Change is never easy.  I am forced to go through changes right now and I am finding it very difficult and unpleasant and even painful. I want things to stay as they are, I have grown comfortable with the way things are, but God is saying that I can not produce the most fruit in this situation and so He has to uproot me and bring all types of unpleasant changes and then I have to be replanted and literally start all over again.  

Did that ever happen to you, have you found yourself in a state of change or uprooting?  Are you going through difficult and painful changes.  I believe we have a promise here, that if we delight ourselves in the Word of God and meditate on it, we have a promise from God that this change and uprooting is only to remove us from that which is hindering our production for God.  He will find ourselves planted by the waters and tended by caregivers whose sole purpose will be to bring the best out of us.  Wherever I land and am planted I have the confidence I will be in better situation, a situation where I will be the most productive for God.  Perhaps I may not be doing the things I was planning on doing, I may not be ministering the way I had planned on ministering, but God is simply preparing me to do something that fits who and what I am.

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