The Precious Apple Tree
Merry Monday by Parris Bailey-
“As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men.With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” (Song of Solomon 2:3 ESV)
Ahhhhhh the apple tree in the midst of the woods! There is nothing like it. It’s funny how we can spend our whole lives circling around all the trees of the field and yet miss the one which has been there our whole lives. Why didn’t we ever notice its refreshing shade, it’s fruit that’s so satisfying before? What were we rushing around doing that was so important? Why we were consumed with our own agendas, our dreams and our adventures. Have you ever noticed how a tree can just stand there saying nothing but look so amazing, so quiet yet majestic? If you step in closer it’s branches seem to hug you protecting and concealing whatever that’s within. Even the atmosphere changes under its branches almost as if it wants to tell you a story. The world becomes a barren tree to the soul next to this apple tree. Gill said, “It is not enough to pass by this shadow, but we must sit down under it (here will I dwell, for I have desired it); and we shall find it not like Jonah’s gourd, that soon withered, and left him in a heat, both inward and outward, but like the tree of life, the leaves whereof were not only for shelter, but for the healing of the nations. We must sit down under this shadow with delight, must put an entire confidence in the protection of it (as Judges ix. 15), and take an entire complacency in the refreshment of it. But that is not all: 2. Here is pleasing nourishing food. This tree drops its fruits to those that sit down under its shadow, and they are welcome to them, and will find them sweet unto their taste, whatever they are to others. Believers have tasted that the Lord Jesus is gracious (1 Pet. ii. 3); his fruits are all the precious privileges of the new covenant, purchased by his blood and communicated by his Spirit.”
Christ is to believers “as the shadow of a great tree, of a great rock in a weary land”. Isa. 32: 2; He perfumes our prayers- Christ is full of fruit which are to be reached out to by the hand of faith. For “they that dwell under his shadow shall revive and grow”. Hos. 14:7
The Targum renders it, “the pome citron, or citron apple tree; which is a tree very large and beautiful; its fruit is of a bitter taste, but of a good smell; always fruit on it; is an excellent remedy against poison, and good for the breath, as naturalists {m} observe; and so is a fit emblem of Christ, in the greatness of his person, in the fulness, of his grace, in the virtue of his blood, and righteousness and grace, which are a sovereign antidote against the poison of sin; and whose presence, and communion with him, cure panting souls, out of breath.”
Christ becomes a “tree of life” to those that find it. What is taking you so long?