Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40
It is sometimes hard to believe what human beings are capable of doing to other human beings. Sometimes there is no other way to describe the swindlers, scammers, criminals, perpetrators and fabricators other than to say they are pure evil. It is natural to cringe when we think about the wrong-doer out there living it up and prospering. Everything in us cries out, “That’s not fair!” It is comforting to know…time eventually tells and the truth will always rise! King David explains in Psalm 37:1-11; 39-40 that the hay-day for bad guys and girls won’t last forever.
Obviously, David was qualified to give advice on dealing with evil-doers. By the time he wrote this acrostic poem, he was an insightful, older man. He had learned he could not control what other people did, but he could certainly control his response. He shares his wisdom by giving us practical do’s and don’t s.
In verse one, David gives the instruction not to fret and not to envy the wicked. Fretting goes beyond feeling worried. Biblical fretting is described as getting worked up or riled up. And by that I mean the situation consumes our thoughts—it eats us alive, gets under our skin, gets our goat. It keeps us up at night re-living and re-hashing until we have worked ourselves into a slow burn. Envy has a similar root meaning—to burn with jealousy.
In this passage, David repeats himself about not fretting and being envious when we see the wicked prosper and then thankfully he tells us why. David knew it was a waste of time, and that anger would only lead us to doing evil ourselves. The truth is, evil-doers will not last. Their prosperity is short-lived. Soon they fade, wither and will be cut down (vs. 2,9).
Instead of worrying over the temporary success of evil-doers, David tells us to shift our focus to the Lord. “Trust in the Lord and do good” (VS.3a). God is worthy of our confidence. After all, He works with all information and has never lied. He has a perfect, flawless record in faithfulness. The Hebrew word for trust is bāṭaḥ which is different from hoping or believing. It means to rely on with all one’s weight. We are to trust God completely and go about doing the things we know are good.
In verse three David writes, “Dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness” (3b, NKJV). Dwell (shāk̠an) means to encamp; tabernacle; dwell in as a residence the arena in which God has called us. The idea is not to run away, but to stay put and feed on the faithfulness of God. His faithfulness cures insecurity!
In verse 4, David continues with the list of Do’s. “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (VS 4, NASB). Delight means to enjoy as a delicacy! When we center our hearts around fellowship and communion with God, we’ll explore the dimensions of His love. We’ll discover His perspective on life and hear His heart. As our heart aligns with His, He answers our petitions.
I enjoyed Spurgeon’s insightful thoughts about God’s generosity from the Spurgeon Study Bible: “The worldly person says, ‘I thought religion was all about self-denial; I never imagined that in loving God we could have our desires. I thought godliness consisted in killing, destroying and keeping back our desires.’ The religion of most people consists in abstaining from sins they secretly love. Negative godliness is common; it is supposed by most that our religion consists of things we must not do rather than in pleasures we may enjoy….My religion consists in things I love to do and in avoiding things I hate and would scorn to do. I feel no chains in my religion for I am free and no one is more free than He who fears God and is wholly God’s servant. He may live as he likes for he likes to live as he ought. He may have his full desires, for his desires are holy, heavenly and divine.” When we pour ourselves into delighting in God, it pleases Him to grant our heart’s desires.
In verse five, David continues: “Commit your ways to the Lord” (VS 5a). Commit (gālal) means to roll our cares on the Lord. When we trust in Him to handle the situation, He will vindicate us by allowing the truth of our innocence to rise like the dawning sun. The sun is out in the open for everybody to see!
Perhaps verse seven is easier said than done. It is difficult to rest and wait patiently for the Lord to act. It takes great restraint not to come to your own defense. Rest (dāmam) means to be hushed; ceasing outward activity and external distraction (“be motionless”); silenced. Basically David is saying— Stop explaining and defending yourself! Do nothing, say nothing and wait for it. Because David knows this is hard to do, he throws in another reminder… “Don’t fret!”
David continues in verse 8 saying we should refrain from anger—let it go and forsake wrath—drop the raging indignation. Those who expect the Lord to handle the situation will inherit the land (VS 9;11). Interestingly, this is basically the same thing Christ said as the third beatitude in the Sermon on the Mount in Mathew 5:3: “The meek shall inherit the earth.”
In the last two verses, David wraps up the chapter by focusing on the Lord being the sole source of our salvation and the trustworthy refuge in time of need.
There will always be the problem of dealing with wrong-doers and evil doers. Without remorse they will purposefully attack, hurt, swindle, scam and fabricate stories as if it is their life’s work, or as if it gives them pure joy to do so. For a season, it may seem they have everything in life going for them. It isn’t fair. They may appear successful, however God will not allow them to prosper forever. And because of that, we have no reason to waste our time and energy getting worked up and angry about it, nor should we want the things they have. Time really does tell and the truth will rise. Good things do come to those who wait on and delight themselves in the Lord.
References:
The Spurgeon Study Bible; Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, TN