Verses 19 through 21 speak of Jeremiah's praise to Jehovah and of Jehovah's acknowledgement of his praise. In his praise Jeremiah said, "O Jehovah, my strength and my stronghold, / My refuge in the day of distress; / To You the nations come / From the ends of the earth and say, / Surely our fathers inherited falsehood / And vanity, in which there is no profit. / Shall a man make gods for himself, / Though they are no gods?" (vv. 19-20). As Jeremiah praised Jehovah, he spoke to Him in a very human way. In His acknowledgement of Jeremiah's praise, Jehovah said, "Therefore behold, I am causing them to know; / At this time I will cause them to know / My hand and My might, / And they will know that My name is Jehovah" (v. 21). Jehovah's speaking here was also quite human. The conversation recorded in these verses is much like a conversation between two human beings.
In 17:1-4 we have a word about Judah's sin and its consequence. Judah's sin is written with an iron pen. With the point of a diamond, it is engraved on the tablet of their heart and on the horns of their altars. God will give their wealth and treasures as spoil, and they themselves will let go of their inheritance. Jehovah will cause them to serve their enemies in a land which they do not know, for they have kindled a fire in His anger which will burn forever.
Jeremiah 17:5-8 is a word about the curse of trusting in man and the blessing of trusting in Jehovah. Concerning the blessing of trusting in Jehovah, verses 7 and 8 say, "Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah / And whose trust Jehovah is./And he will be like a tree planted by water, / Which sends out its roots by a stream, / And will not be afraid when heat comes; / For its leaves remain flourishing, / And it will not be anxious in the year of drought / And will not cease to bear fruit."
These verses can be understood in two different ways—according to the natural understanding and according to God's economy. According to the natural understanding, these verses seem to indicate only that if we trust in God, we will be blessed, mainly in a material way. However, the revelation here includes much more than this. According to God's economy, the one who trusts in God is like a tree planted by water, signifying God as the fountain of living waters (2:13a). The tree grows beside the river by absorbing all the riches of the water into it. This is a picture of God's dispensing. In order to receive the divine dispensing, we as the trees must absorb God as the water.
The thought here is the same as that in 1 Corinthians 3:6, where Paul says, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth." The watering is for the tree's absorbing, and the absorbing is the receiving of God's dispensing. The tree grows with God as the Supplier and the supply. The supply is the riches of the supplying God dispensed into us as the plants so that we may grow into God's measure. Eventually, the plants and God, God and the plants, are one, having the same element, essence, constitution, and appearance.
Jeremiah 17:7 and 8 are not concerned merely with such a shallow matter as trusting in God to receive material blessings. Actually these verses refer to God's economy carried out by His dispensing. God is the living water to be dispensed into our being in order to become our very constituent. We all need to see the crucial significance of absorbing God as the living water that we may be constituted with His element and essence.