Kootenai Church Morning Worship

Psalm 37. If you will, in your Bible, turn to Psalm 37 if you're not there already. We’re going through the Psalms, and somebody asked me if 37 was a typo. They said it should be 3 because we did 1, we did 2, and next of course would be 3. But as I announced a couple of times in each of those psalms, we're not doing this sequentially, and we're not even going through all of the Psalms in this series because I'd end up burying probably everybody here by the time that we got through doing that, if we went through all 150. So we're not doing that.
Instead, we've worked our way through Psalm 1, Psalm 2, and as I mentioned at the very beginning, I plan on doing for certain Psalm 37 and then Psalm 49, and then I've been thinking about a couple of possible other ones. I'm kicking around the idea of doing either Psalm 16 or Psalm 30 in and around Resurrection Sunday because those two psalms kind of deal with that subject of deliverance from death and resurrection. Psalm 16, of course, is the psalm that Peter and Paul both quoted from in their sermons in Acts 2 and Acts 13, that Peter quoted from on the Day of Pentecost regarding David and his promise of bodily resurrection. So we might jump into Psalm 16, and then I'm kind of kicking around the possibility of doing Psalm 89, which deals with the Davidic covenant and the end of the Davidic kingdom, and so I might do that. I'm not putting that out there to take a vote or to get any feedback. I'm just telling you where we might or might not be in the coming months or years or decades.
Today, we're doing Psalm 37, and I think I mentioned this in the introduction to the Psalms. I've been wanting to preach through this psalm since May of 2014, and I know that that is oddly specific. I remember that because in May of 2014 I preached through Psalm 73, which ended up becoming the book—those two sermons ended up becoming the book The Prosperity of the Wicked. Lord willing, this series of messages and my study here is going to be another book that I'm going to call The Prosperity of the Righteous because it deals with the same subject but from two different perspectives. Psalm 73 attacks that issue, deals with that issue of the prosperity of the wicked from one vantage point. Psalm 37 kind of tackles it from a different perspective, not so much talking about what the wicked have but more what the righteous are promised, and so we're going to call that The Prosperity of the Righteous if the Lord should grant me that grace.
Interestingly, and you didn't pay for this bit of information, but it just occurred to me as we're sitting here singing the last song, and Josh, it wasn't that I wasn't worshipping or paying attention, but this occurred to me during the last song, that when I wrote the book The Prosperity of the Wicked, I remember it was over the 2016 election. I took seven days off, or actually ten days off with travel, to go to a place and lock myself in a room, and I wrote that book in a week, and I remember in the process of writing that book I shut myself off from the outside world and came out of my hole long enough to find out that Donald Trump had won the 2016 presidential election. So I wrote The Prosperity of the Wicked around the time of the 2016 presidential election, and I'm preaching on the prosperity of the wicked around the time of the 2024 presidential election. Entirely coincidental probably, but for some reason every four years I start thinking about this theme, and so here we are in the book of Psalms and Psalm 37.
And by the way, just because your candidate may have won does not mean that we're not still ruled by wicked people. At every level of government, these truths hold. Not that that means that every person in government is inherently wicked. You understand what I'm saying. But these are things that we need to be reminded of constantly because we live in a fallen world where the wicked are in power all over the place, and so these truths apply.
Now I have to give something of an introduction to this psalm. I did it with Psalm 1 and Psalm 2, kind of giving a few words of introduction to each of those two psalms before we jumped into the text, and with each of those psalms, because they're smaller, much more simple psalms, I could kind of just take five or ten minutes at the beginning of that to introduce each of those psalms. You kind of need an introduction with each psalm because though each particular psalm is part of a collection of psalms that have its own theological and chronological structure, purpose, and everything—it's not a random collection of songs just all collected together. There's a pattern to it. There's a theology. There's a theme that is woven throughout all of the Psalms, and yet each psalm really kind of stands alone in a sense. It's connected to everything else, but it stands alone as its own independent unit of thought with its own theology, sometimes its own author, its own structure and outline, etc.
So coming into Psalm 37, I want to give something of an introduction to Psalm 37. This is going to be longer than the previous two, Psalms 1 and 2, simply because this is a longer psalm. And so there's a lot more to cover here in terms of sort of laying the groundwork and building a foundation that we can rest upon for the rest of our study.
So Psalm 37, the author—you'll notice in the superscript, it says, “Of David,” or, “A Psalm of David.” This is one that is written by David. This is toward the end of what we would call the first book of the Psalms. I don't know if you've ever noticed it or not, but there are five books in the Psalter. The book of Psalms was originally five separate books, which is why if you just turn a couple of pages in your Bible to the end of Psalm 41, the beginning of Psalm 42, you'll notice that it says “Book 2” there between Psalm 41 and Psalm 42. Psalm 73 ends Book 2 of the Psalter. Psalm 74 begins Book 3, and so it is. There's these divisions in the Psalter. Each book has its own structure, its own purpose, its own kind of place in the canon and in the Psalter. And the theme of each book kind of builds upon each other, and there's a development there that we covered when we talked about the Psalms in the adult Sunday school class at the beginning of this year. And if you want an insight into the structure of the Psalms as a whole, I would just refer you back to those first couple of lessons in that series that I taught in adult Sunday school class.
So there are five separate books in the Psalms. The first two, we think, we don't know for certain because history doesn't tell us this, but the indication seemed to be that the first two books in the Psalms were composed by David. David put them together. Most of the psalms in Book 1 were written by David, the king of Israel. And a lot of the Psalms in Book 2 were written by David, king of Israel. So you get to the end of Book 2 and it says the songs or the psalms of David the king of Israel are ended. But you get to the end of Book 2, there's more psalms by David after Book 2, but that seems to be an indication that David himself, as basically the worship leader for the nation of Israel, compiled or composed or collected those first two books in the Psalms and put them together and that by the time David died, that was where the Psalms stood. You had those first two books, Psalm 1 through Psalm 73, that existed at the time of David.
So David was the king of Israel. God had made a covenant with David, which we read about in 2 Samuel 7. It’s important to keep that in mind because a number of things in Psalm 37, as we get into it, are going to go back and be tied to that covenant that God made with David. And you're going to see some of that even here today. So it's important to keep in mind who the author is, what is intended in the psalm. There are some biographical details, a couple of them, and I'll just highlight them. And just in case you're wondering if we are ever actually going to get to the Psalm, we will. I promise you at the very end of this message today, we're going to read through the whole psalm together. But until then, I want to highlight a few things to draw your attention to a couple of items in the psalm.
There are some biographical details. There are few, but they do exist. Look, for instance, at verse 25. David writes, “I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.” So there we have an indication at when in the life of David the psalm was written. “I have been young and now I am old.” So he is obviously older than I am because I wouldn't call myself old. So David, if he calls himself old, must be past fifty at least, we would think. So this psalm then is the observations of an aged sage. These are reflections on life from somebody who has a little bit of salt in their beard, a little bit of salt in their hair, some wrinkles around their skin. He has observed some things in life, and he begins now to reflect upon the position of the wicked in the land, the position of the righteous, and what God has promised to both the righteous and the wicked.
Look down at verses 35–36. Here's another self-reflecting reference that David makes. “I have seen a wicked, violent man spreading himself like a luxuriant tree in its native soil. Then he passed away, and lo, he was no more; I sought for him, but he could not be found.” So there's David just referencing himself, what he has observed in this life. So this psalm is not entirely a detached perspective from the realities of life in this world. This is somebody who has seen some things. He has been here, he's been young, he's been old, and now he's giving us wisdom's reflection upon the state of the wicked and the state of the righteous.
Now there are a couple of notable things about Psalm 37 that you should be aware of. Number one—and I'll give you four of them here—number one, it is an acrostic psalm, an acrostic psalm. That's not obvious in the English translation. Because you go from one language to another, you don't notice these things. But as the psalm is laid out, it works its way through the Hebrew alphabet, and it is an acrostic. The first two verses of Psalm 37 begin with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The next two verses begin with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And that's how it goes all the way through the psalm, not necessarily every two verses. Occasionally only one verse is on a letter, and then it goes to the next letter. That happens a couple of times in the psalm.
And the only exception to this, interestingly and oddly, and we don't know why, is down in verse 32. The author does not use what would be the next letter. Instead, he uses a different letter for the beginning of that verse. And interestingly, it is a letter that looks very much like the letter that you would naturally expect in that place, but it's not. It's a letter that he has already previously used a couple of verses earlier. That's the only exception. So there's just one letter from the Hebrew alphabet that is not used here. We don't know why David did that. It's just a curiosity. And by the way, when I say letters that look alike, like our G and our Q look alike or our M and our N look alike. Trying to think of other examples of that, but that's kind of the idea. And why David did that, we don't know. But the reason for acrostic psalms is it makes memorization very easy, or I shouldn't say very easy. It makes it easier if something is laid out as an acrostic.
Second, this is an imprecatory psalm, at least in the broadest sense of being an imprecatory psalm, and by imprecatory psalm we mean a psalm that describes or talks about God's judgment on the wicked. So we did the series on imprecatory psalms in adult Sunday school class. We saw that imprecatory psalms are not rare. In fact, two-thirds of the psalms out of the 150, two-thirds of them have imprecatory elements, meaning they're either asking God to judge and curse the wicked and do justice or describing the justice that God is going to do upon the wicked or mentioning it or promising it or in some way anticipating it. And Psalm 37, though it does not have any pleas to God to judge the wicked, there are multiple references, as you will see, to the wicked being cut off and destroyed and then perishing. So it has an imprecatory element. For instance, look at verse 38: “But transgressors will be altogether destroyed; the posterity of the wicked will be cut off.” Things like that we see quite frequently in the psalm.
Third, Psalm 37 is a proverbial psalm, meaning that it reads very much like a chapter out of the book of Hebrews. Sorry. The book of Hebrews. Hebrews is on my mind still. Out of the book of Proverbs. It has the Hebrew proverbial structure to it where you have contrasts and truisms and observations and parallelisms that are drawn. It sounds like it could come right out of the book of Proverbs.
For instance, look at verse 13: “The Lord laughs at him, for He sees his day is coming.”
Verse 21: “The wicked borrows and does not pay back, but the righteous is gracious and gives.” That sounds like a proverb out of the book of Proverbs.
Verse 23: “The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way.”
Verse 30: “The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice.”
Notice the reference there to speech and speak and the use of the tongue and the mouth of the righteous and the reference to justice. That's the type of stuff that you read in the book of Proverbs. In fact, if you read verse 1—just look at verse 1 of Psalm 37. You look at verse 1, and I'm going to read to you Proverbs 24:19. Proverbs 24:19 says, “Do not fret because of evildoers or be envious of the wicked.” It sounds as if verse 1 of Psalm 37 is taken right out of there and borrowed by Solomon and put into the book of Proverbs.
So Psalm 37 is littered with these kinds of contrasts between the proud and the humble, the wicked and the righteous, life and eternity, good and bad, judgment and salvation, righteousness and wickedness, etc. It's the type of contrast that you get in the book of Proverbs in large sections of that book. So it has a proverbial structure.
Fourth, the fourth notable feature of Psalm 37 is its placement in the Psalter. I'm going to spend a little bit more time on this. As I said at the beginning, the Psalms are not a random collection of songs. Like, you know, Sovereign Grace comes out with a new song and we say, “That's a good one. Let's just add that one. That sounds inspired. Let's add that one to the canon.” That's not how it was. There was a theological, chronological, thematic intention in the way the Psalms are collected and the way they lead one into another. There is a magnificent structure there that is the product of a brilliant human mind but also the product of a brilliant divine mind behind the collection of Psalms. There is evidence there in the Psalms of structure and intention.
So I'm not going to zoom out to the entire first book of the Psalms but just Psalm 36, 37, and 38, and I want you to see these three psalms together just briefly. Psalm 36 deals with the themes of sin and worship. In fact, Psalm 36 contrasts the way of the wicked and the way of the righteous. Does that sound like a contrast we're familiar with in Psalms 1 and 2 yet? Right? So Psalm 36 contrasts the way of the wicked and the way of the righteous. It talks about the wicked and the lives that they lead and the righteous and the lives that they lead. Look for instance at Psalm 36:1–4. Watch how he describes the sin and the sinner, the transgressions.
1 Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.
2 For it flatters him in his own eyes concerning the discovery of his iniquity and the hatred of it.
3 The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; he has ceased to be wise and to do good.
4 He plans wickedness upon his bed; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he does not despise evil. (NASB)
So there he's just simply describing the sinner and the path that the sinner walks and takes. Then he contrasts that with the delights of worshiping Yahweh and the way and the path of the blessed man or the Yahweh worshipper in verses 7–10. Look down at psalm 36:7.
7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; and You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.
9 For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.
10 O continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You, and Your righteousness to the upright in heart. (NASB)
And notice the reference there to—what is it?—in verse 7, the reference to the refuge in the shadow of Your wings. Remember Psalm 2: “Blessed are all who take refuge in [the Son].” So this theme of refuge is one that comes up here and in Psalm 37 and Psalm 38 as well. So Psalm 36 deals with the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked and contrasts those two things.
And then in Psalm 37, it works out the implications of those two ways. As you see in Psalm 37, the wicked actually oppress the righteous and harm the righteous, and they seem to flourish in this life. So yes, the wicked and the righteous live side-by-side in this world, and we have to deal with each other and live with each other and relate to one another, and yet here is the inequity that seems to happen in this world. Psalm 37 wrestles with that, but then Psalm 37 ends with this statement that the hope of the righteous is ultimately in the deliverance that God will give to them from the wicked and their salvation. So look at Psalm 37:39. The very end of the psalm, Psalm 37:39–40: “But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in Him.”
So Psalm 36, way of the righteous, way of the wicked, they have to live together. This is what they look like. Psalm 37, they live together and the wicked oppress the righteous. What is the hope for the righteous? What is God's promise to the righteous? That's what Psalm 37 deals with. What is going to happen to the wicked? Ultimately the hope of the righteous is in the salvation that God grants and the deliverance that He gives to those who take refuge in Him.
Now Psalm 38. Psalm 38 is an appeal to God for the very salvation that ends Psalm 37. In Psalm 38, it's a prayer for God to deliver them. So in Psalm 38, we won't read the whole thing, but in verses 1–8 he talks about sin and recaps basically what he said in Psalm 36 or what is said in Psalm 36. And then in verses 9–16 he talks about the wicked and them being his personal enemies. That's Psalm 37. And then in Psalm 38, he appeals to God for the salvation from his enemies and the sin. So Psalm 37 ends with a mention of salvation. Ultimately, the hope of the righteous is in his deliverance from the wicked and the salvation which Yahweh will bring to him. Psalm 38 reviews Psalm 36—the wicked is like this, yeah, we wrestle with it (Ps. 37)—and then Psalm 38, the author asks for that salvation to be given to him. So read verses 17–22.
17 For I am ready to fall, and my sorrow is continually before me.
18 For I confess my iniquity; I am full of anxiety because of my sin.
19 But my enemies are vigorous and strong, and many are those who hate me wrongfully.
20 And those who repay evil for good, they oppose me, because I follow what is good.
21 [Here's the prayer] Do not forsake me, O Lord; O my God, do not be far from me!
22 Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation! (NASB)
All right, so Psalm 36, the way of the wicked, the way of the righteous. Psalm 37, here's how it looks in this life. The wicked oppress the righteous. What is our hope? Salvation. Psalm 38—O Lord, grant me that salvation. These three psalms go together. They flow one from another as the theme is developed there over those three psalms, and Psalm 37 is right in the middle of that.
Now let's look at some of the themes of Psalm 37. One of the major themes is this theme about the wicked. You see the anxiety of that expressed in verses 12–15. So look at Psalm 37:12–13: “The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him.” Does that sound familiar by the way? Remember that was Psalm 2. “The Lord laughs at him, for He sees his day is coming. The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow to cast down the afflicted and the needy, to slay those who are upright in conduct. Their sword will enter their own heart, and their bows will be broken” (Ps. 37:13–15). So there he describes the conduct of the wicked, their war against the righteous, their flourishing in this life, and then the lament of the righteous in the light of that wicked, and that is the lament that Psalm 73 gives explicit voice to. Psalm 73:2–3: “But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” Verse 16 of Psalm 73 says, “When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight.” So Psalm 37 wrestles with the same issue that Asaph wrestles with in Psalm 73 dealing with the prosperity of the wicked. And in Psalm 37, he does ask the question, though not as explicitly, why do the wicked prosper? That's really the question at the heart of Psalm 73 and Psalm 37. Why do the wicked prosper? Psalm 37 also teaches us how we are to think about this and how we are to respond to it.
A second theme of Psalm 37 is not just the wicked and the prosperity of the wicked, but also the fate of the righteous compared to the fate of the wicked. And not just in this life, but also in the next, and I would say especially in the next. That seems to be the overarching emphasis of all of Psalm 37 is that the true prosperity of the righteous is not found in this life. The true prosperity of the righteous is found in the life to come. But the psalm does show the providential and good, kind care of God for His people in the now. “I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread” (Ps. 37:25). You see there in the psalm, the psalmist deals with, David deals with, God's provision for His own people in this life. It's not just that God promises us things and provision in the life to come, but He does meet our needs in this life. He mentions that but also describes the peace and the prosperity ultimately that the righteous have in the life that is to come.
There's a contrast there between the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. Psalm 1:6 says, “The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” Do you remember that statement? The Lord knows the way of the righteous. He is intimately acquainted with the way, the footsteps, and the life of the blessed man, of the righteous man. And He knows that way and He cares for it. It is the apple of His eye. It is the object of His attention and His focus. He is not distracted by anything that goes on in this world, but the way of the righteous man is under the constant observation of the Lord, and the way of the wicked will perish. Psalm 37 is an explanation and an exposition of Psalm 1:6: “The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” And Psalm 37 is just forty verses on that one theme, that the way of the righteous, the Lord knows, and the way of the wicked, the Lord judges.
A third theme of this psalm is how do the righteous respond to this prosperity of the wicked. And this is really the first part of the psalm. Look at verse 1: “Do not fret because of evildoers, be not envious toward wrongdoers.” Look down at verses 7–8: “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger and forsake wrath; do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.” Do not fret (v. 1). Do not fret (v. 7). Do not fret (v. 8). Now the theme is not about fretting. It's only mentioned those three times. But there in the first eight verses is really the response of the righteous toward the prosperity of the wicked. With all that the wicked do, it is trust in the Lord, delight yourself in the Lord, wait upon the Lord, be patient with the Lord, don't fret, don't be anxious. Verses 1–8 is all about our response to the prosperity of the wicked.
And a fourth theme that is what woven all the way through this psalm is the theme of the righteous inheriting the land. That is mentioned six times in this psalm, and it is one of the main themes. Other than the prosperity of the wicked, it is one of the main themes of the entire psalm. The righteous inheriting the land, I said it’s mentioned six times. It's sprinkled throughout the psalm. And I'm going to read to you—we're going to read together here all six of them. I want you to notice that sometimes the land is mentioned as a command. It's given to us as something we are to do in the land. And then sometimes it is a promise about the land that is given to us, and sometimes there is a contrast regarding the land.
So look first at a command. Verse 3. Psalm 37:3: “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate [it].” That's the first reference to the land. Look at the land as a promise. Verse 9: “For evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.” That's a promise. Verse 11: “The humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.” Then there is a contrast in verse 22: “For those blessed by Him will inherit the land, but those cursed by Him will be cut off.” That's like a proverbial statement. It's that contrast between the blessed man and the cursed man, the wise man and the fool, etc. Look at verse 29: “The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.”
Then look down at verse 34. Here you'll see a reference to the land in a verse that gives us a command. It also contains a promise, and it also gives us a contrast, as if all three ways that the land is mentioned in this psalm are now sort of combined into one verse. Verse 34: “Wait for the Lord and keep His way [that's the command], and He will exalt you to inherit the land [that's the promise; and now notice the contrast]; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.” A command, a promise, and then a contrast. And this theme of the land and the righteous inheriting the land, it is a significant promise all the way through the psalm. And at some point early on in the psalm, we're not going to be too far into it, we're going to take a Sunday just to answer this question, what is this promise about? What land is he talking about? What is the significance of this? What does David mean when he describes the righteous inheriting and possessing the land?
It seems to be that this idea of the land and inheriting the land, the meek or the humble, the righteous or blessed man inheriting the land, this seems to be behind Jesus's statement in Matthew 5 when He says that the meek will inherit the earth. I think Jesus has in mind Psalm 37 when He says that. The meek and the humble will inherit the earth. He's thinking of Psalm—well, I shouldn't put myself in the place of knowing what the Lord is thinking, but it sure sounds from His language as if He is alluding to Psalm 37 in that statement.
Now we have enough time to talk about the outline for the psalm. We're going to read it here in just a moment, the entire psalm. As I said, there is a proverbial structure to the psalm which makes outlining this much more difficult than doing so with Psalm 1 and Psalm 2. Those were very easy to outline. How do you know that they were easy to outline? Because I actually had a good outline for both of those psalms. So that means that the work was very light to do that in that way. Not like Psalm 1 and 2; this is more difficult to outline simply because, again, of its proverbial structure. It's difficult to outline some sections of Proverbs. Some sections of Proverbs are easy to outline because they're all kind of written together, but some sections of Proverbs are difficult to outline because the author kind of just does go from one subject to another, and sometimes it's difficult to sort of find how the whole passage itself can be structured in a coherent way. Spurgeon said of this psalm, “This psalm can scarcely be divided into considerable sections.” In other words, it tries to defy organizing in any kind of a memorable fashion, but I'm going to try.
I'm going to give you a couple of ways that the psalm has been outlined by others, and these are good ways as far as they go, but these are not my ways. I'll give you my outline when we read through it here in just a moment. But it has been outlined around the commands or precepts. In fact, this is how Spurgeon outlines the psalm. After saying the psalm can scarcely be divided into considerable sections, he then goes on to basically say that the only way you can do this is to sort of make note of the precepts or commands. And he identifies eight precepts or commands in the psalm, and so he just goes through and says, “Here's one command and here's another command,” and that's kind of how he outlines it, just noticing the commands, not really an outlined structure like we would think of an outlined structure. And for instance, Spurgeon would have verse 1, do not fret; verse 3, trust the Lord; verse 27, depart from evil; and a bunch between those. Those are kind of the first and the last. He would just organize them around the commands or the precepts of how to deal with the wicked. And I know I'm going to see Spurgeon at some point in eternity, but I would just say, I think that's a lazy outline. It is. And listen, if I'm calling your outline lazy, that's something. That's like Joe Biden calling you cognitively impaired. It's lazy.
Second, it's been outlined around what's called a chiastic structure. If you're not familiar with what this is, it means that sort of the psalm would sort of take a stair-step approach like this. You'd have this line, then you kind of indent it and come down. So you'd have like one, two, three, four, five, like this, and then working backward through the rest of the psalm, it would kind of step down the other direction, meaning that the top section and the bottom section would parallel each other, those next indented sections would parallel each other, the next two, and then the middle one would stand alone. Sometimes there's two in the middle that parallel one another. So they kind of, if you think of it, you have the essence of it at the middle, and then you kind of work out in steps in both directions to the front, these parallel tracks, and I think you get it.
So, James Hamilton, in his commentary on the Psalms, I think gives kind of a good chiastic structure for the psalm. He sees the first part and the last part of the psalm dealing with the outcomes of the righteous and the wicked, the way that they handle, the way that the righteous trust in the Lord and God's dealing with the righteous and the wicked. That's sort of the outside sections. And then moving in from that, there's a section on violence at the top of the psalm and a section on the violence of the wicked sort of toward the bottom of the psalm. And then moving in a step from that, you have mention of God's provision in two parallel ways. And then the central part of the psalm is verses 21–24, which describes inheriting the land or being cut off from the land. So he would take verse 22 as being sort of the central idea of the psalm, which I agree with, and he would say from there it sort of unfolds like this, where each unfolding page sort of parallels, and there is that structure there. It's an obvious structure and it's a good outline.
A third way of outlining the psalm is around the references to the land. So James Johnston in his commentary, and it's a good commentary—and by the way, since we're talking about Psalms and commentaries, if you can only buy one commentary on the book of the Psalms, buy Charles Spurgeon's The Treasury of David. I have a three-volume set. I think they sell them in one-volume sets, but they're not as easy to read. But if you could only get one book on the Psalms, one commentary on the Psalms, The Treasury of David by Spurgeon I think is the best thing in the English language on the Psalms. Other people may disagree with me, but it's fantastic. So James Johnston in his commentary on the Psalms structures Psalm 37 around five sections, as it were, all relating to the land. So he takes the mentions of the land that we've already noted, and he says each one of these kind of has a section revolving around it that teaches us something about how to deal with the wicked. So he would say verses 3–9 tell us that we should look to God. He calls these strategies for dealing with the wicked, or I guess, better put, strategies for dealing with the temptation to envy the wicked. So you need to look to God (vv. 3–9), remember the fate of the wicked (vv. 10–12), believe God will bless His people (vv. 23–29), trust God to defend you (vv. 30–34), and then consider the evidence or the outcome of those things (vv. 35–40). And I think that that is a good outline as well.
Now here is mine. The psalm—I wanted to drop something quirky like I don't have an outline, so let's pray and be done, but I actually do have an outline for the psalm. The emphasis of the psalm is not so much on the wicked. I mean, the mention of the wicked is ever present. It's the background of the psalm, really. That's the issue that the psalmist is dealing with. But the emphasis is not on so much the wicked and what they have, or so much the wicked and what they are going to suffer, or how God is going to deal with them. Really the emphasis of the entire psalm is what God provides for the righteous. And that's where it flips from Psalm 73. You see, Psalm 73 deals with the same issue. Why do the wicked prosper? I almost stumbled. I almost tripped over this, Asaph says, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Their bodies are fat. They die in comfort. Everything goes well for them. And I'm chastened every morning, Asaph says. So I get to the point, Asaph says, where I start to wonder, “Have I washed my hands and made myself pure in vain? Do I purify my heart and pursue holiness—is that in vain? If the wicked get all of the lush treatment and all the lavishness that this world has to offer and yet I, as a righteous man, I get chastening and I get the rod and I'm disciplined, and all my suffering is very real, and I don't see them suffering at all.” Psalm 73 wrestles with that.
And Asaph says, “I almost stumbled over this until I came into the sanctuary of God.” “Then,” Asaph says, “I got, as it were, a bird's eye view, and I saw the end of the wicked. I fast-forward and saw their destruction.” And Asaph says, “Surely You have placed them in slippery places. You bring them down in an instant.” And Asaph's answer to the question of why do the wicked prosper is this: The wicked really do not prosper. The riches that God allows the wicked to have is not a blessing to them. It is God preparing them for their judgment. The wealth of the wicked is their preparation for their judgment. And therefore you do not envy them.
Psalm 37 deals with the issue from a slightly different perspective. Rather than looking so much at the end of the wicked—he does mention that throughout the psalm, but really the focus of the psalm is on what God gives to the righteous. So rather than being envious of the wicked and saying, “Why do they get so much stuff?” the psalmist reminds us, hey, hold on a second, back up, here's all the things that God provides for His people. And ultimately you get to inherit the land. That's the ultimate provision.
So now with all of that in mind, let's read through the psalm and I'll give you my outline as we work our way through it. And we're going to read through it with a couple of comments on each section, and then we will be done today. Beginning in verse 1, we see in verses 1–8 the peace of the righteous. God gives to His people peace. Beginning in verse 1:
1 Do not fret because of evildoers, be not envious toward wrongdoers.
2 For they will wither quickly like the grass and fade like the green herb.
3 Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday.
7 Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath; do not fret; it leads only to evildoing. (NASB)
So in those first eight verses, you have the peace that God gives to His people. Do not fret, be not envious, trust, delight yourself. Verse 5, trust; verse 7, rest; verse 7, wait patiently, do not fret; verse 8, cease from anger, do not fret. There is a peacefulness and a repose that the righteous can have in this world because God gives them that. That's verses 1–8.
Second, verses 9–11 is the promise to the righteous. Here's the promise.
9 For evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.
10 Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; and you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there.
11 But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity. (NASB)
Notice there it is the prosperity of the righteous that the author mentions in verse 11. So that is God's promise to the righteous. The wicked will be cut off, and the righteous will inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant prosperity.
Third, verses 12–15, the protection for the righteous. Verse 12:
12 The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth.
13 The Lord laughs at him, for He sees his day is coming.
14 The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow to cast down the afflicted and the needy, to slay those who are upright in conduct.
15 Their sword will enter their own heart, and their bows will be broken. (NASB)
That's God's protection for the righteous. The wicked, yes, they do target the righteous. They're coming after him, they have him in the crosshairs. But here is the promise. God Himself sovereignly protects His people. So you wonder, what does God give to the wicked? Compare that to God's promise of protection for His righteous ones. And there in verses 12–15, God turns the evil intention of the wicked against themselves. There's poetic justice there, which we have seen in the previous psalms. We talked about the poetic justice. God takes the plans of the wicked and thwarts them and turns them back upon the wicked himself.
And then notice also in verse 13 there the mention of God laughing. That is parallel to Psalm 2:4, which also deals with the wicked. The rulers of the earth and the kings of the earth take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “We'll tear off their fetters and cast their cords from us,” and He who sits in the heavens laughs. And here you have the same thing in Psalm 37:12. The Lord laughs at them because He sees that his day, the wicked's day, is coming. He sees the day of judgment approaching, and so God laughs at the plans of the wicked and protects His own.
Then in verses 16–26, this is the provision for the righteous. Verse 16:
16 Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many wicked.
17 For the arms of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord sustains the righteous.
18 The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their inheritance will be forever.
19 They will not be ashamed in the time of evil, and in the days of famine they will have abundance.
20 But the wicked will perish; and the enemies of the Lord will be like the glory of the pastures, they vanish—like smoke they vanish away.
21 The wicked borrows and does not pay back, but the righteous is gracious and gives.
22 For those blessed by Him will inherit the land, but those cursed by Him will be cut off.
23 The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way.
24 When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.
25 I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.
26 All day long he is gracious and lends, and his descendants are a blessing. (NASB)
There you see the provision that God gives to the righteous. God promises them abundance and provision as long as it is His purpose to provide for them. They can trust in Him. David says, “I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.” The righteous are gracious and they lend, and their descendants are a blessing, but not so the wicked in an eternal sense for sure.
Notice the language there in those verses of provision and blessing and abundance. And verse 22 I think is the central verse of the entire psalm. In fact, I would commend that you memorize verse 22: “Those blessed by Him will inherit the land, but [the wicked] those cursed by Him will be cut off.” That really is the central idea upon which the entire psalm hinges. Everything kind of flows to that central verse and everything after it comes out of that. That is the central idea. That is the entire psalm in one statement, verse 22.
Then notice, fifth, verses 27–29 is the preservation of the righteous. Verse 27: “Depart from evil and do good, so you will abide forever. For the Lord loves justice and does not forsake His godly ones; they are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked will be cut off. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever” (Ps. 37:27–29). There's preservation promised in verse 28. And notice in verse 27, “You will abide forever,” in verse 28, “They are preserved forever,” and in verse 29, they will dwell in the land forever. There is eternal preservation of the righteous.
And then sixth, verse 30–34, the pondering of the righteous. This deals with the meditation of the righteous upon the law of the Lord. Verse 30:
30 The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice.
31 The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip.
32 The wicked spies upon the righteous and seeks to kill him.
33 The Lord will not leave him in his hand or let him be condemned when he is judged.
34 Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it. (NASB)
There in verses 30–31 notice the references to uttering and speaking and the law of God being in the heart. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the way of the wicked, stand in the path of sinners, sit in the seat of scoffers, but what? “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:2). You see the connections between Psalm 1 and Psalm 2? The law of God is central to the counsel, the speech, and the life of the righteous man. That's what verses 30–34 are describing.
And then finally, verse 35–40, the posterity, not prosperity, the posterity of the righteous. Verse 35:
35 I have seen a wicked, violent man spreading himself like a luxuriant tree in its native soil.
36 Then he passed away, and lo, he was no more; I sought for him, but he could not be found.
37 Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; for the man of peace will have a posterity.
38 But transgressors will be altogether destroyed; the posterity of the wicked will be cut off.
39 But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in time of trouble.
39 The Lord helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in Him. (NASB)
I want you to notice a couple of things in that passage. In verse 35, notice the reference to the wicked man spreading himself like a luxuriant tree. Have we seen that imagery come up before? Psalm 1: “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” So there in Psalm 1, the righteous man is compared to a tree planted by streams of water. Here in Psalm 37, the wicked man is compared to a luxuriant tree planted in its native soil. Hold on a second. The same image used for the righteous in Psalm 1 and here for the wicked in Psalm 37, what's going on with that? Is it the righteous man who is like a luxuriant tree or is it the wicked man that is like a luxuriant tree? Well, yes. In Psalm 37:35, the wicked are compared to the luxuriant tree, who what? In its native soil, but what is that luxuriant tree doing? Spreading itself out, right? It appears luxuriant for a period of time, but the drought comes and that tree may be in its native soil, but it is not planted by the streams of water which feed that tree the Word of God continually. And so when the drought comes, that tree perishes, but the righteous man does not perish. He is like a tree that no matter what comes his way, he endures and flourishes and prospers forever. That's the difference between those two.
Notice also the contrast or the mention of refuge in verse 40. Psalm 37:40: “The Lord helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in Him.” Remember we looked last week at Psalm 2:12: “Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!” So you see the connections in Psalm 37 to Psalm 1 and Psalm 2. I told you Psalm 1 and 2 are the gateway to the Psalter. They tell us what the book of Psalms is about. Here we have Psalm 37, which really is more unfolding. It’s a luxuriant picture of those themes that we saw developed in Psalm 1 and Psalm 2.
So what is ultimately the prosperity of the righteous? What does God give to the righteous? In verses 1–8, peace; verses 9–11, a promise; verses 12–15, protection; verses 16–26, provision; verses 27–29, preservation; verses 30–34, a pondering; and verses 35–40, a posterity. That is what the Lord gives to the righteous. So I ask you, who is truly blessed? Not the wicked. Who truly prospers? From the eternal perspective, it is the righteous who prosper, never the wicked. That's the point of Psalm 37. Lord willing, we’ll jump in next week at verse 1 and start unpacking it in greater detail.