Psalm 37, this one's a long one, hang in there.
Of David, fret not yourself because of evildoers.
! Be not envious of wrongdoers,
for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.
Trust in the Lord and do good.
Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord.
Trust in him and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
and your justice as the noonday.
Be still before the Lord.
Wait patiently for him.
Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices.
Refrain from anger.
Forsake wrath.
Fret not yourself.
It tends only to evil.
For the evildoers shall be cut off.
But those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
In just a little while, the wicked will be no more.
Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant peace.
The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him.
But the Lord laughs at the wicked,
for he sees that his day is coming.
The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows
to bring down the poor and needy,
to slay those whose way is upright.
Their sword shall enter their own heart.
Their bows shall be broken.
Better is the little that the righteous has
than the abundance of many wicked.
For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,
but the Lord upholds the righteous.
The Lord knows the days of the blameless,
and their heritage will remain forever.
They are not put to shame in evil times.
In the days of famine, they have abundance.
But the wicked will perish.
The enemies of the Lord,
they're like the glory of the pastures.
They vanish.
Like smoke, they vanish away.
The wicked borrows and does not pay back,
but the righteous is generous and gives.
For the blessed by the Lord shall inherit the land,
but those cursed by him shall be cut off.
The steps of a man are established by the Lord
when he delights in his way.
Though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,
for the Lord upholds his hand.
I have been young, and now I'm old,
and yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
or his children begging for bread.
He's ever lending generously.
His children become a blessing.
Turn away from evil and do good.
So shall you dwell forever,
for the Lord loves justice.
He will not forsake his saints.
They are preserved forever,
but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
The righteous shall inherit the land
and dwell upon it forever.
The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom.
His tongue speaks justice.
The law of his God is in his heart.
His steps do not slip.
The wicked watches for the righteous.
He seeks to put him to death.
But the Lord will not abandon him to his power
or let him be condemned when he's brought to trial.
Wait for the Lord and keep his way,
and he will exalt you to inherit the land.
You will look on when the wicked are cut off.
I've seen a wicked, ruthless man spreading himself like a green laurel tree,
but he passed away.
Behold, he was no more.
Though I saw to him, he could not be found.
Mark the blameless and behold the upright,
for there is a future for the man of peace.
But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed.
The future of the wicked shall be cut off.
The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.
He is their stronghold in the time of trouble.
The Lord helps them, delivers them.
He delivers them from the wicked and saves them
because they take refuge in him.
Amen.
Psalm 36, if you remember from last Sunday,
concluded with a provocative vision of the end for the wicked.
Just look back at the very last verse of Psalm 36.
There, look, David says,
the evildoers lie fallen.
They're thrust down.
They're unable to rise again.
It was a glorious statement of God's triumph over the wicked.
Set in contrast to the steadfast love that he shows to his own people.
Though the wicked are thrust down, unable to rise,
yet those who belong to him will rise as their king has risen.
It's a big moment at the end of the Psalm.
Psalm 37 is written to concerned believers
who are trying to do what David says to do in that last verse,
which is to look there.
Look and behold the wicked.
They lie fallen.
They're struggling.
God has defeated them.
They're looking around and they're trying to see it,
but everywhere they look,
it doesn't seem like any of that is actually happening.
The wicked aren't cast down.
They actually seem to be thriving.
They're not only thriving,
they're thriving on the backs of the righteous.
Everywhere this Christian looks,
this believer looks,
the one who's being addressed in Psalm 37,
everywhere he looks,
the wicked just seem to be winning.
They disregard the law of God
and yet they still prosper.
Their abuses of others,
even of the righteous,
those who belong to the Lord,
seems to go unpunished.
They just get by with it.
They increase in power.
They increase in wealth.
They increase in all the successes
that we as just humans desire to have
and to flourish in
and they succeed in those things
often by mistreating the less fortunate,
the poor and the needy
and the upright, David says.
This scenario is disorienting, isn't it?
You don't have to look far to see
that this is true all around us.
It's disorienting.
And not only is it disorienting,
it's potentially devastating,
spiritually speaking.
It seems to call into question
the truthfulness of God's word.
What are we to do at the end of Psalm 36
when we're living in the place
of the person of Psalm 37?
Is God really just?
Is he really watching?
Are the wicked really defeated?
It calls into question
the truthfulness of his word.
It seems to call into question
the righteousness of his own character,
perhaps even his very existence.
And it's not just a problem for believers.
If you're here today
and you're not a Christian,
I want to first say that
I'm just so glad that you're here.
You are welcome here
and we are happy that you're here.
But perhaps this very scenario
is what has kept you
from embracing Christianity.
If this God that Christians speak of
really is good,
you may ask,
why is it that bad people seem to increase
and good people seem to keep suffering?
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Why do good things happen to bad people?
We're wrestling with the problem of evil
in Psalm 37 in some way.
Unfortunately for us,
the Bible doesn't ignore this question.
Many Christians try to ignore this question.
They're not really sure what to do with it.
The Bible doesn't do that.
And Psalm 37 confronts it head on.
Helps us to process it.
Not only the reality
of what is happening around us,
but it helps us to process that reality
with actually tremendous hope
and hopefulness and trust.
It's a wisdom Psalm,
which means that the content here,
it looks a little more like the book of Proverbs
than it does many of the other Psalms
that we've been studying together.
And that's important for us to recognize
because we might stumble over
some of the statements that David makes here,
thinking that there's contradiction here,
that it's just not true.
We need to think for just a moment,
what exactly is a proverb
and how are we to process?
A proverb is,
it's really just a,
it's a wise principle of life.
It's wise principles of life and godliness.
We might call them general rules of thumb.
It's not saying that there are explicit guarantees
in every situation,
that there aren't exceptions that may come around.
One of the key verses in the Psalm is verse 25.
I've been young and now I'm old
and I've not seen the Lord forsake the righteous.
But then David throws in this one statement
that you may stumble over just a little bit.
He says,
I've never actually seen even the children
of the righteous begging for bread.
We might come to that and say,
well, that almost sounds like David is saying
that if you really just have enough faith
and you live the right way
and you say your prayers at the end of the day,
that you won't go through hardships,
that your children won't suffer
and won't struggle in any way.
And that's when we need to understand
exactly what he's doing here.
These are proverbial statements.
It's not saying that hardship doesn't come.
Of course it does.
The Psalm is clear that the righteous here
are experiencing tremendous hardship.
But what he's saying is that generally
when we do what God says,
we reap the consequences and blessings of obedience
and of God's faithfulness in our lives.
We need to get that right.
This is a wisdom Psalm.
This is what David is doing here.
He's passing on wisdom for those of us
who are trying to wrestle with this issue
of the prosperity of the wicked.
We find Psalm 37, God's king,
is leading his people in godly wisdom
on just such occasions.
Time is a major feature in the wisdom
that David conveys.
He doesn't talk about time explicitly,
but it's all woven throughout
all of these proverbs here.
He writes as an older man, for instance,
he's an older man who's been around long enough
to see how these things tend to play out.
Whereas a younger man might lose control
a little faster emotionally
at the prosperity of the wicked.
He's been around long enough to see
that what you see in the immediate
is not really all there is to see.
And as he reflects on his years,
he has come to understand
that the Lord is always faithful.
He always preserves the righteous.
He's good.
So time features in that way.
It features in a different way.
He's constantly pointing us
away from present circumstances
in order that we might look further down the road
at future realities and promises.
With great wisdom, David,
and of course, ultimately,
Jesus is teaching us here
not to obsess over what we see now
and ignore the promises that God has
for our future and for the future of the wicked.
So time, it's featuring in that way.
But there's another way that it's featuring,
maybe a little more subtle.
Time features somewhat in the structure of the psalm.
It's an acrostic poem
compiling all of these proverbial statements,
which means that there's not a clear structure here.
Rather than moving thematically and systematically
from one theme to the next,
working as our minds like to work,
just through one truth
that builds upon another truth throughout,
David's not doing that in this psalm.
Rather, he's got these primary principles,
these themes that he's interweaving together
throughout the whole thing.
And what that's telling us to do is slow down.
Stop just trying to reach for a quick answer
in this situation.
He's trying to get us to meditate on a few things,
to meditate on some wise principles
that we need to consider in such moments.
So what are we to do then
when we look around
and we observe that the wicked are winning?
I think there's four crucial responses
that we can pull from David's wisdom here
that will help us in these moments,
whether you're in one now
or we'll be in one later.
Four crucial responses.
Here's the first one.
First thing to do
is learn to control your frustrations by faith.
Learn to control your frustrations through faith.
Now this is woven, like I said,
all throughout the psalm.
It seems to be emphasized in the first 11 verses.
And right from the beginning,
David highlights two emotional responses
to the prosperity of the wicked
that we need to actually beware of.
We need to watch out for.
Look at verse one.
Fret not yourself because of evildoers.
Be not envious of wrongdoers.
Fret not yourself.
It's an interesting word.
We typically use that to refer to anxiety and worry.
Underlying this word here
is not really the idea of worry.
It's a little more nuanced than that.
It literally means to burn with anger.
To get hot under the collar, so to speak.
Some translations will render it agitated.
Don't be agitated at evildoers.
Don't be incensed by the prosperity of the wicked.
It's more than a righteous anger.
Of course, we all would possess that as God's people.
We see that modeled even in Jesus himself.
No, this is more than a righteous anger.
This is a kind of unbridled fury
that we're told tends only to evil.
And we see that filled out with a little more clarity
in verses seven and eight.
David repeats it.
Be still before the Lord.
Wait patiently.
The contrast to that would be fretting again,
he says in verse seven.
Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
the prosperity of the wicked.
Fret not yourself over the man
who carries out evil devices.
Instead, refrain from anger.
Forsake wrath.
Fret not yourself, he says.
It will only lead you to evil.
You becoming the evildoer
because you haven't learned with this question
and with this issue
to control your emotional responses.
Don't fret, he says.
This unrestrained anger,
it doesn't trust God to deal righteously with the wicked.
It attempts to take matters into one's own hands.
David says when the wicked prosper and you notice it,
one of the things you're gonna immediately feel is anger.
And he says you need to get a grip on that anger.
You need to submit that anger to the Lord.
You need to trust the Lord.
You need to wait on the Lord.
And of course, the scriptures repeat this for us.
James tells us, James chapter one,
let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
Why, James?
Because the wrath of man, the anger of man,
it doesn't work the righteousness of God.
David seems to be saying the same thing here.
Fret not yourself.
It tends only to evil behavior on your part.
It doesn't work God's righteousness
even though you think you're working for God's righteousness.
But that's not the only emotional response
that David highlights here.
The second one is envy.
Look again at verse one.
Fret not yourself because of evildoers.
Be not envious of them.
This one is one that perhaps we maybe feel
a little more personally and a little more continually.
It involves craving the worldly successes of the wicked
so that your temptation is to abandon God's principles
and God's wisdom and God's law
to adopt the ways of sin
and to adopt the ways of the wicked.
And this is all over this psalm.
A couple of different places,
David is highlighting the issue of wealth.
We read it a moment ago.
We'll see it again in just a minute.
He says, look, it's better to just have a little bit
as a faithful one who's living a life that pleases the Lord
than it is to throw away faithfulness
and live a life of sin
and have all that the wicked has.
We see that repeated again and again.
There is generosity of the righteous
that's later contrasted with the stinginess
and the selfishness of the wicked.
That's cluing us in on something
that this envy is something that's real for us.
We look and we see that.
Here I'm trying to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.
I'm trying to be faithful to Him
and I'm kind of struggling a little bit.
But I look at my friends and my family members
who they've cast aside faithfulness.
They don't care to live in a way that's pleasing to the Lord.
And it seems like they're just so happy.
They just seem so fulfilled.
And I just would like to have a little bit of that.
Do you see the danger there?
David's getting on to that danger right here from the very beginning
because envy doesn't consider what's right.
Envy just considers what's effective.
And it can quickly become our fatal response
when we observe the prosperity of the wicked.
Now the reason we're to avoid these things is clear in verse 2.
David tells us right off the bat,
don't fret, don't be envious
because those that you're envying,
those you are angry over,
they're going to fade.
They're going to fade like the grass.
God will deal with them.
They're going to wither like the green herb.
He echoes that later in 9 to 11.
The evildoers will be cut off
while those who wait for the Lord will inherit the land.
Just a little while, the wicked will be no more.
You're going to look at his place
and suddenly you'll be gone.
But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in the abundance of God's peace.
Don't miss this language.
This is covenant language.
Did you notice when we read the whole psalm,
there's this refrain of the righteous inheriting the land
and the wicked being cut off.
If you've been reading in your Old Testament
very much this year,
you're going to see that over and over and over,
this idea of promise and covenant promise in the land.
When David writes about this here,
he's not talking about a piece of dirt in Middle East.
Israel already has the land when David writes this psalm.
It's already their inheritance.
That's not what he's referring to.
He's referring to the covenant blessings of God.
He's looking beyond a piece of dirt in the Middle East.
He's looking at eternity.
He's looking at eternal blessings.
He's looking at the new creation
that all who belong to Christ will inherit.
And he's saying those who are faithful to the Lord,
those who are blessed of the Lord,
will receive that eternal inheritance.
But all the wicked, they're going to be cut off.
He says, don't fret.
Don't be envious of them.
Don't be like them.
They're all going to be judged.
How then are we to control those fatal responses?
Well, the answer is through faith.
In verses 3 to 7, over and over,
he's giving us this answer.
Trust in the Lord's sovereignty, verse 3.
Trust in Him.
Then he says, obey His word by doing good in verse 3.
Trust in the Lord and do good.
Commit your way to Him.
Trusting that He is going to work for your good.
We see that in verse 5.
Commit your way to the Lord.
Trust in Him.
He will act for you in time, in His time.
Have faith that He will vindicate your righteousness
and bring justice to the ungodly.
We see that in verse 6.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
your justice as the noonday.
Isn't that what we long for?
Vindication.
Justice.
David says, look, don't get worked up.
Trust the Lord.
He will do it.
And then we have verse 4 is so wonderful.
Delight yourself in the Lord.
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Now, we need to be careful not to stumble over that.
We could misunderstand that.
That's why I said at the beginning,
we need to understand these proverbial statements
and how they're working.
But look at the contrast that he's making here.
It begins with the Lord being your greatest desire
and your greatest delight.
And when He is your greatest delight
and your greatest desire
and your greatest satisfaction,
you have all that you need.
He holds nothing back.
Now, that's helpful when we're struggling
with envy over worldly goods
and worldly successes, isn't it?
We can work and work and work
and do all the things
and still never have what we want.
But David says,
if God is what you want,
you'll never be disappointed.
You'll never lack.
He'll never hold back.
He'll give you the desire of your heart.
Faith and obedience,
they're not just alternatives
to anger and envy.
They're the antidotes.
No one ever fretted over evildoers
whose trust was transfixed
on the righteousness of God
and the goodness of the Lord.
No one ever envied the wrongdoer
whose greatest desire
was to know and to please God
with their lives.
So what do we do
when the wicked are winning?
David, I think, says in wisdom,
the first thing that you're probably
going to have to do
is get a grip
on your emotional responses.
Offset those things.
Overcome those things
by trusting the Lord
and doing what is right.
But there's a second thing we're to do.
Another crucial response
we should do is
we should consider
the end of the wicked.
Consider their end.
And again, we've already talked about that
in some extent.
It seems like in verses 12 to 22,
David is really leaning
into the description
of the wicked
and what will come of them
in their future.
12 and 13,
they plot against God's righteous one.
A callback, no doubt,
to Psalm 2,
but they will not finally
be successful.
God laughs at them.
He laughs at their pride
knowing that
he will bring them to an end
at his appointed day
of judgment.
That's their end.
Verses 14 and 15,
we see the wicked
are abusing the poor
and the needy
and the upright
to have their way now.
But then,
we have this promise
that what's coming for them
is that God's going to take
even their own devices.
He's going to trap them
in their own devices.
Their own sword
will pierce
through their heart
as God breaks their bows,
their instruments
of sin
and wickedness
against the vulnerable
and the upright.
It makes me think
of the book of Esther
and you remember
Mordecai and Haman.
Haman has these massive
gallows built
thinking that
he has the favor
of the king
and he's going to be able
to destroy
righteous Mordecai
who has refused
to bow to him
and what ends up happening?
Haman gets hung
on the gallows
that he's built
for the righteous.
It's a picture
of what will come
of all the wicked.
David wants us
to think about that.
He wants us to see it,
consider it,
meditate on it.
We get to verses 16 and 17.
Those who envy
the wicked's prosperity
are warned here.
You're better off
with just a little
as one who is faithful
to the Lord
because the Lord
is going to break
the strength
of the wicked.
But in contrast
to that,
those who trust
and obey the Lord
will find him
to be their strength
and their provision.
In 18 to 20,
we're reminded
of God's omniscience.
He's not blind
to any of our ways.
He sees the quiet
righteousness
of your life
and he also sees
the wickedness
of the unfaithful.
And it's according
to that divine knowledge
that he moves
toward judgment,
namely a final judgment
where all will be exposed
and even the things
that you don't see
and you don't understand,
maybe you look
and you see
that righteous person,
but God knows
there's wickedness there.
Or perhaps you're seeing
the wickedness
of that other person
and you're just wondering
what's ever going
to come of this
and it's all moving
somewhere.
It's all moving
to a final judgment
where God will expose
it all
and he will deal
decisively
with each of us.
The wicked will perish.
He blesses the faithful
even though
he ordains
evil times
and famine
that they must endure.
He upholds them
but the wicked perish
like the grass.
They vanish
like a drought.
And then we get
to 21 and 22
and David repeats
this promise
of land
and being cut off.
There's blessing
and there's cursing
and if we read
those two verses
backward
we might get
the sense
of why he's
suddenly introducing
this idea
of generosity.
He's saying
that those
who understand
or believe
themselves
not to have
a real future
that this is really
the only life
there is to live for
you only live once
right?
So do all
that you can
gain all
that you can
it's a selfish
way of life
that that mindset
produces
but the faithful
they understand
there's far more
than this life
and in fact
things get
far greater
therefore that
affects the way
that they live now
rather than
hoarding
and gaining
they're generous
they're giving
and giving
because they know
their future
is secured
in the blessing
of God.
As noted
last week
remembering
the end
of the wicked
is what kept
Asaph
in Psalm 73
from slipping
when he observed
the prosperity
of the wicked
wisdom
it demands
that we look
beyond our
present circumstances
to future realities
if we're going
to remain faithful
ourselves
but there's
there's a warning
here that we can't
miss
there's a warning
here for the
unbeliever
that this is not
the only life
that there is
to live
and that there
is indeed
a judgment
that's coming
unless you receive
God's mercy
by faith
you will perish
with the wicked
you will be
counted
as wicked
and the cares
of this world
and of this life
they are not
worth
an eternity
cut off
from God's grace
and goodness
so God
as we've
just sang about
in his marvelous
love
he sends his son
Jesus
who bears
that curse
for us
he bears
the curse
for all
who will turn
from sin
to trust in him
Paul said
to the Galatians
Christ redeemed
us from the curse
of the law
becoming a curse
for us
so that we might
receive the promised
spirit
through faith
see the righteous
in the psalms
ultimately
are not
sinless people
they're not
people whose
good outweighs
their bad
they're counted
righteous
because they
believe God
because they
trust his mercy
because they
wait on his
promises
because they
believe in his
promised king
and that faith
produces a life
of righteousness
as we read
about in 1 John
just a few
moments ago
and if you
come to God
by faith
in Christ
and his
Messiah
his provider
of salvation
you will then
be counted
righteous
even though
you're not
you'll be
counted righteous
by faith
and won't
perish
says John
in his
gospel
the famous
verse
God so
loved the
world
he gave
his only
son
so that
whoever will
believe in
him
his son
won't
perish
as do the
wicked in
Psalm 37
they'll have
eternal life
they'll inherit
the land
so what is
David telling
us to do
well we need
to get a grip
on our initial
emotional responses
to this issue
we need to take
some time to
contemplate
the future
what will
actually come
of the wicked
in the end
we need to
lean into that
there's a third
thing I think
we find
and that is
we need to
count
on God
to be
faithful
we need to
count on God
to be faithful
and again
it's all over
the psalm
but maybe
it's highlighted
and underscored
in verses
23 to
33
David almost
contrasts the
description of
the wicked
and the end
of the wicked
with a description
of the righteous
and God's
blessing on the
life of faith
verse 23
they delight
in God's way
and verse 26
they're intent
on blessing
others
even their kids
are a blessing
to others
verse 30
they speak
truth and wisdom
verse 31
God's law
is near
to their
heart
28 to
29
verse 33
the Lord
is preserving
them
God is being
faithful to
them
special emphasis
though here
is being given
to the Lord's
faithfulness
verse 25
may be the key
verse of the
whole psalm
as an old
man with many
years to reflect
on David
says he's never
seen God
forsake his
own
I've been
young
now I'm
old
I've not
seen the
righteous
forsaken
verse 28
for the Lord
loves justice
he will not
forsake his
saints
verse 33
the Lord
will not
abandon
his people
to the power
of the wicked
in other words
David's saying
the Lord
is faithful
he will be
faithful
count on him
to be
faithful
fall
is summarized
so well
perhaps best
in verse 24
though he
fall
he shall not
be cast head
long
for the Lord
upholds his
hand
fall there
is not sin
it's hardship
it's trouble
it's difficulty
the promise
is not that
you won't
fall
the promise
is not that
things won't
get hard
for you
the promise
is that
God will
uphold you
even when
they are
hard
and even
when you
are in
trouble
and even
when you
are struggling
Charlie's
at that
age where
you have
to hold
her hand
everywhere
you go
because if
you don't
there's no
telling what
might happen
we can go
to the store
and we'll
walk around
Target
or something
like that
and I'll
be on
one side
and Julie
will be
on the
other side
and she'll
grab each
of our
hands
and she's
learned that
if she's
got each
of our
hands
she can
play a
game with
us
which is
when mom
and dad
aren't paying
attention
I can just
lift my
feet up
and hope
that they
are holding
on
and as long
as we're
holding her
hand it's
great
and she
loves it
her feet
go up in
the air
sometimes
she gets
a little
bit more
risky
and it's
not when
both of us
have our
hand it's
just when
one of us
has her
hand and
she hasn't
processed yet
that it
doesn't work
exactly the
same way
when I don't
have stability
on this
side
she'll
suddenly lift
up her
legs and
I'm walking
down the
sidewalk with
her and
sometimes she
skins her
knee but
as long as
dad has
her hand
she's safe
as long
as dad
has her
hand
she's not
ultimately
going to
fall
he's got
her
she's
going to
be okay
that's how
the lord
holds his
people
see what he
says in
verse 24
he establishes
their steps
even though
they fall
he upholds
them by
the hand
can I just
tell you
you may be
struggling right
now for one
reason or
another maybe
it's it's
the prosperity
of the wicked
actually that
is the reason
for your
trouble right
now can I
just tell you
the lord has
you and you
may feel
fallen but
he's got your
hand and
he's faithful
and he's
going to be
faithful and
you can count
on that he
will always be
faithful there's
a fourth thing
it's at the
very end
what do we
do when we
look around
and the wicked
are prospering
well we
wait we
just wait
but we
wait in
faith and
in obedience
again it's all
through the
psalm seems
to be highlighted
here at the
end
give verse
34
wait for the
lord and
keep his
way
do you know
what the
instruction to
wait means
that there are
going to be a lot
of times that you
look around and
you're thinking
lord where's
this promise
you said that the
wicked life
fallen
I don't see
it
the bible's not
hiding from
that
at present
things are not
as they ought
to be
the promise is
that one day
one day soon
god's gonna make
all things
right
therefore
wait
just wait for
him
just stay
faithful
just keep
going
wait for the
lord keep
his way
he will
exalt you
to inherit
the land
again that's
it's not a
promise for you
to inherit a
piece of dirt
in the middle
east that's
that's a
promise of
an eternal
country
that's the
new heavens
and the new
earth he will
exalt you
there you
will look
on in that
judgment and
you will see
the wicked
perish
not that you'll
delight in it
but you'll
delight in the
justice of
god for all
who will not
turn to him
verse 35
david speaks
again of
experience i've
seen a wicked
ruthless man
spreading himself
like a green
laurel tree
but he died
he passed
away
he was no
more i
sought him
and he could
not be found
but wicked
are not
immortal
we get a
taste even
now of
god's
judgment that
will be brought
to completion
in their
future but
then he tells
us as we're
waiting that
there's another
group to pay
attention to
verse 37
mark the
blameless
behold the
upright for
there is a
future for the
man of peace
though transgressors
are altogether
destroyed the
future of the
wicked will be
cut off
there's a
different future
for the
blameless one
for the
upright one
and it's
salvation in
verse 39
the salvation of
the righteous is
from the lord
he is their
stronghold in
that time of
trouble the lord
helps them and
delivers them he
delivers them from
the wicked he
saves them because
they take refuge in
him so david says
as you're waiting
on the lord watch
the wicked and see
what actually comes
of them in time
they won't prosper
the way that you
think but don't
just look at the
wicked he says
watch the righteous
ones that god has
put in your life
watch their way of
life watch their
faith watch their
patience watch their
holiness and their
righteousness lived
out watch the
peace that god
gives them see how
things end for
them what do we
do we wait and
while we wait we
watch we watch what
the lord does
it's a real issue
isn't it and it's
going to be a common
issue for each of
us where does jesus
fit into all of
this we talk about
that all the time
that the psalms are
are uniquely
christological they're
pointing us forward
to a greater king
and a greater david
but jesus not only
lived this wisdom he
taught it he quotes
an earlier verse in
the beatitudes the
meek shall inherit the
earth he taught us
this wisdom he taught
us to do this he he
lived this out he
modeled it but he but
he does more than
that jesus fulfills the
wisdom of the psalm he
fulfills the experience
of the psalm jesus is
the righteous one
persecuted by the
wicked ones in his
day it was the wicked
that seemed always to
win
israel as a nation is
under oppression from
pagan rome and even
within israel there was
great wickedness abuse of
the spiritual leaders
jesus has the full
experience of that but he
remains faithful he knows
their end and he counted
on the father to vindicate
his righteousness and he
did his vindication came in
his resurrection from the
dead in other words god
has proven his
faithfulness he has he
has proven the
faithfulness of psalm 37
through the work of jesus
christ and his death and
in his resurrection all of
us who thus hope understand
that because jesus has been
vindicated and because his
detractors have been judged
so will ours and our
vindication will come as well
not because there's something
unique about us but because
we're in him and we're his
people by faith so when you
see the wicked winning be like
jesus
don't fret or envy
remember their end relish god's
faithfulness and wait for him to
act for he surely will let's pray
you