Didaskalia De nobili dicto Davidis

Just as the Palm flourishes when pressed under a huge weight,
So do hearts dedicated to God flourish under the cross.

XV.
Palms rejoice in being transplanted, although in Greece they become sterile with a change of place.

The righteous rejoice that they have been translated from death unto life (1 John 3:14). Never, nowhere in the nations, do they become unfruitful, because having been made partners of Christ, they are ruled by His Spirit and are instructed for every good work.

XVI. Of the Cedar.
The second exornation is derived from the Cedar. For thus says the Prophet: "He shall grow with increase like a Cedar in Lebanon." The Hebrews call the Cedar Erez.

XVII. Native soil.
"The Cedar, Larch, Torch-pine, and others from which resin flows love mountains," as Ruellius says.

Thus the righteous man loves that mountain in which he is reborn, concerning which, celebrating the Christian Church, that divine Prophet says: "It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it" (Is. 2:2).

XVIII.
The Cedar is most hard, its wood being closest to the marrow, just as bones are in the body; and, as Pliny says, its wood, when smeared with oil, feels neither moth nor rot, and it does not hold a nail.

The righteous man, anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit, is firm, and immune from the rot and moths of mortal sins; he meditates on and obtains immortality; nor does he admit the nail of reigning sin, but repels and excludes it through the grace of God.