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Psalms

About this book
Psalm 92

1 A psalm; a song for the Sabbath day. It is fitting to thank the Lord, and to sing praises to your name, O Most High. 2 It is fitting to proclaim your loyal love in the morning and your faithfulness during the night, 3 to the accompaniment of a ten-stringed instrument and a lyre, to the accompaniment of the meditative tone of the harp. 4 For you, O Lord, have made me happy by your work. I will sing for joy because of what you have done. 5 How great are your works, O Lord! Your plans are very intricate! 6 The spiritually insensitive do not recognize this; the fool does not understand this. 7 When the wicked sprout up like grass, and all the evildoers glisten, it is so that they may be annihilated. 8 But you, O Lord, reign forever. 9 Indeed, look at your enemies, O Lord. Indeed, look at how your enemies perish. All the evildoers are scattered.⁠ 10 You exalt my horn like that of a wild ox. I am covered with fresh oil.⁠ 11 I gloat in triumph over those who tried to ambush me; I hear the defeated cries of the evil foes who attacked me. 12 The godly grow like a palm tree; they grow high like a cedar in Lebanon.⁠ 13 Planted in the Lord’s house, they grow in the courts of our God. 14 They bear fruit even when they are old; they are filled with vitality and have many leaves. 15 So they proclaim that the Lord, my Protector, is just and never unfair.

Texts in conversation

Compare Numbers 24:6 and Psalm 92:12

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Numbers 24 describes Israel thriving like watered trees and gardens. Psalm 92 repeats this by comparing the righteous to palm trees and cedars, reshaping the tree and garden language that once had mixed or negative meanings in Genesis.

Passages

Numbers 24:6

Hebrew Bible
3 Then he uttered this oracle: “The oracle of Balaam son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eyes are open, 4 the oracle of the one who hears the words of God, who sees a vision from the Almighty, although falling flat on the ground with eyes open: 5 ‘How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, and your dwelling places, O Israel! 6 They are like valleys stretched forth, like gardens by the river’s side, like aloes that the Lord has planted, and like cedar trees beside the waters. 7 He will pour the water out of his buckets, and their descendants will be like abundant water; their king will be greater than Agag, and their kingdom will be exalted.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Numbers

Psalm 92:12

Hebrew Bible
11 I gloat in triumph over those who tried to ambush me; I hear the defeated cries of the evil foes who attacked me. 12 The godly grow like a palm tree; they grow high like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 Planted in the Lord’s house, they grow in the courts of our God. 14 They bear fruit even when they are old; they are filled with vitality and have many leaves. 15 So they proclaim that the Lord, my Protector, is just and never unfair.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... Beyond the sense of divine protection that is brought out in Numbers 20 and 21, Balaam offers blessing to Israel. Whereas the narrative sections of chapters 22-24 speak primarily of protection from danger, Balaam's oracles hold out the promise of positive elements such as progeny, protection from sin, rootedness, and military success. One implementation of this theme of blessing can be seen in the extended simile in Balaam's third oracle, where Israel's good fortune is likened to a tree planted in a garden (Numbers 24:5-7). The language used here shares in the complex of imagery found in Jeremiah 17:7-8, Ezekiel 47:12, and Psalms 1 and 92. Whereas this symbolism does not originate with Balaam, or even within Israel, the present context provides some interesting contrasts with less positive images in Genesis 2-3 ..."
G. Savran, “Beastly Speech: Intertextuality, Balaam’s Ass and the Garden of Eden,” JSOT 64 (1994): 33–55.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Numbers 24:6 and Psalm 92:12

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