the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
Click here to join the effort!
Bible Dictionaries
Palm Tree
Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary
or This beautiful tree is spoken of in Scripture with so much commendation, that it merits our attention; and the more so because the Lord Jesus, when describing the loveliness of his church, compares her stature to it, and speaks with a degree of fervour and delight while professing his determination to take hold of her. "I said I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as the clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples." (Song of Song of Solomon 7:7-8)
So very highly esteemed in the eastern world was the palm tree, that Jericho, where they chiefly grew, was called by the name, "The city of palm trees." (Deuteronomy 34:3) Engedi was also called Hazazon Tamar, or the village of palm trees, from the number of palm trees which grew there. The Jews called the palm tree Tamar. And not only in Judea, but in all places of the east where palms are found, the branches of it have always been celebrated as the tokens of triumph and victory; hence when the Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem, the multitude, as if overruled by a divine power, "took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna, blessed is the King of Israel, that cometh in the name of the Lord." (John 12:12-13) And hence also, as if to shew the same glorious testimony to the Lord Jesus, the redeemed in heaven are represented as "standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms their hands." (Revelation 7:9) I defy any man upon earth to shew the shadow of a reason wherefore the correspondence between Christ's appearance upon earth, in the day of his unequalled humility, and the day of his supreme power and glory, should have been thus set forth, but from the one certain and unquestionable truth of his almighty power and GODHEAD, and the divinity of his mission. What could have induced the whole multitude to have honoured Christ with those palm trees in the days of his flesh, when in the garb of a poor Jew, but the power of God overruling the whole mind of the people as the mind of one man? And wherefore the same display made in heaven, but to testify the approbation of God?
I cannot prevail upon myself to dismiss our attention to the palm tree before that I have first remarked some of the properties of it, by way of illustrating the beauty of our Lord's comparing his church to it. The Psalmist hath said, (Psalms 92:12) that "the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." And there will appear a striking allusion between the believer in Jesus and the palm tree of Engedi, if we consider a few of the leading particulars. The growth of the palm is very upright and tall; and, as we are told by naturalists, is to old age always in this state of progression. And surely the church of Jesus, and every individual of the church, is in constant tendency upward. Trees of the Lord's "right hand planting are trees of righteousness," always supposed to be looking upward to Jesus, and their branches extending in every direction according to the exercise of his grace in them, by living wholly upon him in his person, blood, and righteousness.
Moreover, the palm tree is very fruitful, and the fruit is both lovely to the eye and delicious to the taste. And such are the followers of the Lord Jesus. What more lovely than to behold a truly regenerated believer in Christ Jesus? and who more blessed in his day and generation? Like the lofty and luxuriant palm tree of Engedi, which forms both a shade to the traveller to protect him from the heat, and fruit to refresh him as he passeth by, so the church of Jesus becomes a blessedness in her Lord to every spiritual traveller, and affords shelter, and nourishment, and every delight.
There is one property yet, if possible, more striking in the palm tree, which serves to open to a spiritual. Improvement, in allusion to Christ and his church, of a very singular nature, and peculiar, as far as I have learned, to the palm; namely, that the chief source of life in this tree is in its top; or, as it is physically called, the brain of the tree. We are told by those who are acquainted with the nature of palm trees, that if by any means this top be cut off, the tree is for ever after barren. Now here the reader will instantly perceive the striking resemblance between the palm tree and the child of God. To be wholly in Jesus is found the source of life and fruitfulness; and were it possible for a believer to be separated from Christ, yea, but for a moment, everlasting barrenness would follow. How blessedly hath Jesus spoken to this point when he said, "From me is thy fruit found." (Hosea 14:8) And so again, (John 15:4) "Abide in me, and I in you; as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me?"
We are told that the palm tree is all evergreen. On the top of the tree is a kind of tuft or coronet, which never falls off, but is continually the same in verdure. A beautiful representation this of the church in Jesus. Many parts of Scripture correspond in speaking of the real disciple of Christ as one whose "leaf shall never fade nor fall;" and certainly, in the unceasing spring and summer of his glorious head, into whom he is ingrafted, there are no wintery dispensations or change.
One property more merits regard in the resemblance of the palm tree to the Christian, namely, the great duration and continuance of the palm. Dr. Shaw, in his travels, relates that the commonly-received opinion of the inhabitants of those countries where palm trees mostly abound is, that for seventy or eighty years the palm will live, bearing fruit to a great extent, even of 300 lb. weight of dates every year. It need not be noticed, by way of shewing the striking similarity to our nature, that the Psalmist represents the age of man as three-score years and ten, and (saith the Psalmist) "by reason of strength sometimes to four-score years." (Psalms 90:10) What a lovely palm tree then is the real follower of the Lord Jesus, if thus living to extreme old age he still brings forth fruit to the praise of the Lord's grace, "some thirty fold, some sixty fold, some au hundred fold!" So speaks the Holy Ghost concerning the faithful: "Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God; they shall still bring forth fruit in old age, they shall be fat and flourishing; to shew that the Lord is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him." (Psalms 92:13-15)
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Hawker, Robert D.D. Entry for 'Palm Tree'. Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance and Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/pmd/p/palm-tree.html. London. 1828.
