Psalm 37
Pastor David Groendyk

In preparation for this devotional, I glanced at four different outlines of this psalm by four different authors, and not a single author agreed on how this psalm should be divided! Fortunately, the one main theme of this psalm is loud and clear. Once again, we are dealing with the problem of the prosperity of the wicked and the deprivation of the righteous. Evildoers have abundance; believers have nothing, and often because of the evildoer. What should we make of a world that looks topsy-turvy and looks as though God is doing nothing to turn it right-side-up? I see three overarching commands throughout Psalm 37: fret not, do good, and wait patiently.

First, fret not. Surely when you think of fretting, you think of being anxious or nervous (unless you’re a guitar player!). However, this is not your typical anxiety that David has in mind. In the original Hebrew, “fret” is the same word as “burn” or “be angry”. David is not commanding us not to be worried; he’s commanding us not to get all riled up or hot in the face. Verse 8 makes much more sense in this light: “Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.” Fretting over the prosperity of the wicked leads us to taking matters into our hands to try to even the score. Fretting leads to anger, wrath, evil, revenge, and sin. The opposite of fretting is trusting. Trusting the Lord calms our hearts, cools our anger, and allows us to respond to injustice in an appropriate way. Guard your hearts against sinful anger when you see the abundance of evildoers, and trust that the Lord is taking care of it.

Second, do good. Scattered throughout this psalm are exhortations to live a holy and loyal life to the Lord in the face of adversity—be content; be generous, give, and lend; speak wisely, justly, and honestly; be humble and meek. One author points out that David is most definitely not urging believers to be passive or not care. Rather, he is calling believers to care so much that they burn with the desire to actively prove their loyalty to the Lord and thereby demonstrate to the world that it is truly better to have the Lord than to have riches. Now, of course, prosperity and faithfulness to God are not mutually exclusive, but seeking the Lord himself and his glory must be the greatest desire of our hearts. To put it another way, we do not abandon the Lord because our circumstances look bleak. True faith in God will show itself by living a holy life in the face of adversity just as you would in the face of prosperity.

Third, wait patiently. The Lord will make all things right in the end, but we have to wait. Evildoers will be judged, punished, wither like the grass in summertime, and vanish like smoke one day. Full and public vindication and justice will shine like the sun at noonday one day. The meek will inherit the earth and have abundance and peace one day. Here we find another call, as we’ve seen so many other times in these psalms, to keep the right perspective and remember the future. The Lord is the great refuge that we can hide ourselves in from this time forth and forevermore.