The cedars, which were plentiful in the mountainous areas of Lebanon, were the most massive trees known to the Israelites. A cedar could reach a height of 40 meters with a trunk diameter of approximately 3 meters. It could be hundreds of years old.
Cedarwood was extremely valuable, beautiful, and smelled sweet. They were truly magnificent trees, which beautifully showed God’s work as Creator.
Because of abundant precipitation, the cedars, over the years, get their remarkable and majestic shape. In Psalm 92:12, it is said of the righteous that they grow like a cedar of Lebanon.
They shine, since they are planted in the house of the Lord
(Psalm 92:13). This gives the righteous life’s strength comparable to that of the cedar.
In 1 Kings 6:1–38 we read about the construction of the temple in Jerusalem. Many cedars of Lebanon needed to be used for that. The beautiful and sweet-smelling wood was especially fitting for the house of the Lord.
16 The trees of the LORD are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.