Kootenai Church Morning Worship

Jesus said in Matthew 16:26, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” If you have ever watched the street preaching or the evangelism encounters of Ray Comfort with Living Waters, then you have probably seen him, after going through the law and presenting the truth of the gospel and then pressing the responsibility for repentance and faith upon the person that he is talking with, you have probably seen him give an illustration of the importance of repenting and trusting Christ. He will ask the person, “Would you pluck out one of your eyes and give it to me if I gave you a million dollars?” And most people to that question will say no. And then he'll say, “Would you give”—somebody who lost one of their eyes just raised their hand. You would take a million dollars right now, wouldn't you, Jenny? OK, so apart from that one person—I mean, if offered before that, you probably would have said no. OK, so back to my illustration, which was going swimmingly until somebody raised their hand. So most people would say no to that. Now, after it's been plucked out, you might say, “I wish I had a million dollars for that.” It'd be nice to be paid for it on the receiving end of that.
OK, but then he will ask them, “What if I gave you $10 million for both of your eyes when you pluck them out?” And most people to that—right?—would say no. And once they say no to that, then he will say to them, “Your eyes are merely the windows of your soul through which you observe and live life. And if you would not give me your eyes for $10 million, what will you exchange your soul for? What is your soul worth if your eyes are worth more than $10 million and they're merely the windows through which your soul lives its life and sees the things around them?” It really highlights the importance of his appeal that if you don't turn from your sin and you embrace that and hold on to that, you will lose your soul, and not for $10 million. You will lose your soul for the pittance of this world and lose your soul for all of the world that is to come.
What would a man give in exchange for his soul? Would you give me your soul for $10 million? You know how many people are willing to trade their souls for $10 million? You know how many people are willing to trade their souls for a lot less, for the passing pleasures of sin in this world? Ray's question is just another way of asking the same thing that Jesus asked, and if we were to put it into the language of Psalm 37, we would say this: what good is it to be a luxuriant tree spreading itself out in its native soil? And after last week, that's quite the imagery, isn't it? What good would it be to be a luxuriant tree spreading itself out in its native soil, enjoying all of the blessings of this world, if in the end you are cut down and cut off and perish everlastingly? What does it profit a man to have eighty years of prosperity in this life and then to pass away under God's judgment and to be altogether forgotten and destroyed forever?
That is the contrast of this final section in Psalm 37:35–40. It is the final comparison here between the righteous and the wicked, a section that I've titled “The Posterity of the Righteous” because it is the contrast between the posterity or the end, the future, of the righteous and the wicked that is at the heart of this section in verses 37–38. “Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; for the man of peace will have a posterity. But transgressors will be altogether destroyed; the posterity of the wicked will be cut off” (vv. 37–38). He's contrasting the righteous and the wicked, the life in this world of the righteous and the wicked, and the life that is to come in the world that is to come, the future of both the righteous and the wicked. And we see in these verses, 35–40, that the wicked perish forever while the righteous find eternal refuge and salvation in Yahweh.
And today is our last sermon in Psalm 37. We looked last week at verses 35–36 and then verse 38, which describe the wicked. And then today we're looking at verses 37 and 39–40, which describe the righteous. So rather than just dealing with the passage verse-by-verse as it comes, we've kind of divided it up, shifted the verses just a little bit so we could group what is describing the wicked and group what is describing the righteous because really it is that comparison between the righteous and the wicked that is at the center of these closing remarks of the psalm.
And to say that we're done with Psalm 37 doesn't mean we're done with the Psalms. There's going to be one more psalm after this. Next week we're going to start into Psalm 16. So if you want a little bit of a jump ahead so you can familiarize yourself with where we're going to be next week, read through Psalm 16 a couple of times in the week that is to come. And that psalm ends with the promise of resurrection. And it's the promise of resurrection that Peter and Paul both quoted in Acts 2 and Acts 13 to show that Jesus was the Christ and He fulfilled that promise to David that God would not allow His Holy One to undergo decay. So we're going to be finishing up that psalm with that promise and that prophecy of resurrection on Resurrection Sunday. I point that out just to show you that I do have the ability to plan sermons a couple of weeks out. This is working out providentially for us.
So last week we focused on what we are told here regarding the wicked. We saw that the wicked go from flourishing to forgotten. In verse 35, they flourish. In verse 36, they fade. And then in verse 38, they are forgotten. Their posterity, their future, the memory of them is cut off. And today we're looking at verses 37 and 39–40—the righteous find their refuge and reward in Yahweh. Let's read them again. We'll skip over verse 38. Read 37 and 39–40. Verse 37:
37 Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; for the man of peace will have a posterity.
39 But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in time of trouble.
40 The Lord helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in Him. (NASB)
We're going to notice four things here that mark the righteous. First, in verse 37, we're going to look at the renown of the righteous. They have a memory that lasts, a posterity that goes on. Then in verse 39, we're going to notice the redemption of the righteous, that their salvation is from the Lord. Then in verse 40, the rescue of the righteous. He delivers them from the wicked and saves them. And then finally, the refuge of the righteous at the very end of verse 40—“Because they take refuge in Him.” The renown, the redemption, the rescue, and the refuge of the righteous.
Let's look first at the renown of the righteous in verse 37. And read it with me again. “Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; for the man of peace will have a posterity.” Now, here we kind of pick up where we left off last week. Last week, we ended with the reference to the wicked and their posterity being cut off. And just to remind you of what is meant here by posterity, the word posterity there doesn't necessarily always mean simply descendants or those who come after. It was a word that meant “future” or “end” or what remained or what was to come in the end. That was the idea. And it would, in the Jewish mind, refer not just to descendants, those who would come after, but also to one's name, your legacy, your reputation, the memory of you, your possessions, your renown, your future.
In Jewish culture, they would value the posterity or what was to come, the memory of somebody and the carrying on of that name, probably more so than we do even in our culture. In our culture, it's somewhat something that you would have a name that would come after you and live on after you. But in Jewish culture, the inheritance was attached to the name, to the tribe, to your lineage. Your identity was attached to those things. Who came before you was very important. Who would come after you and what they would do was very important. And so when it talks about the posterity of the wicked being severed, cut off, and judged, and taken away, and forgotten forever, that was one of the most horrific things that a Jewish mind could think of. When it comes to the posterity of the righteous enduring and lasting forever, that was a precious blessing and an evidence of God's favor and goodness upon somebody.
Well, to the righteous belongs a lasting and everlasting posterity, a memory. Their renown will continue on because to the righteous belongs the kingdom, eternal life, a new creation. When Christ returns and sets up His kingdom in this world and rules on the throne of David everlastingly, a thousand years in this world and then forever in the new creation that is to come, we will possess the eternal heavens and the eternal earth for we are the sons and daughters of God through Jesus Christ, and we will receive not just an inheritance, but the entire inheritance belongs to every one of us. We will share fully and share equally all that belongs to the Father and all that He has given to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that inheritance will be an everlasting inheritance.
And you, dear believer, will be glorified and will enjoy the glory that is to come forever and ever and ever in a new creation. Your citizenship is there. It is currently in Heaven where your name, if you are in Christ, is written in the Lamb's book of life, and it can never be blotted out or taken out. You have treasures waiting for you in Heaven, and you have a new creation that is secured and promised to you that will never die and never be corrupted, and no impure or unholy thing will ever enter into it. And you will live in a glorified body to rejoice in the presence of other saints in glorified bodies forever and ever and ever in a new creation of physical things. It will be this creation, resurrected, purified, made new, and sin will be forever taken away and done away with. That is your legacy. That's your renown.
And you will never be forgotten there. Your name will never be forgotten. The wicked will be forgotten. They will be no more. Nothing impure will ever enter into that, but the name of the righteous will never be forgotten. Because you will be able to go and look at the Lamb's book of life, and there is your name written in there. You have your citizenship and that new creation secured for you through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so God will never forget your name. He will hold you fast. He knows your name. You are His sheep. He died for you. He rose for you. He will secure you everlastingly and bring you to that inheritance. And He will never forget you, and your name will never be forgotten by any saint in that new creation. That is the renown of the righteous. Your name will endure forever, your works will endure forever, your life will endure forever, your inheritance will endure forever.
Contrast that with the wicked. Psalm 34:16: “The face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.” Cut off their memory. If you are wicked and you are not in Jesus Christ, you will be cut off and you will be forgotten forever. And the only one that will remember your name will be the people you share eternal damnation with. The righteous, however, will have a posterity. That is a precious promise. Don't skip over verse 37. You will have a posterity.
Notice the description of verse 37. Notice how the righteous man or the righteous are described here. “Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; for the man of peace will have a posterity.” He's described as a blameless and upright person, a man of peace. And this is a good time to return back to this reminder that I've mentioned a couple of times in Psalm 37. When Psalm 37, when Scripture describes the righteous, they're not talking about perfect people. If you say, “Look, I got short with my wife before we even came to church today. I'm certainly not a righteous person,” your conduct is not indicative of your standing before God when you sin or you fall or you are tempted or you're not perfect. It's not describing the perfect man.
It's describing one against whom the Lord does not account their sin. It's describing one who walks blamelessly in the sense that they walk in obedience to the Lord. It doesn't mean you are perfect, but it does mean that you are redeemed and that God does not count your sins against you. He doesn't number them against you and put them on your account. Why? Because another has taken them out of the way, saved you and redeemed you, taken away your sin so the Lord does not see you under your sin. Instead, He sees you under the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
The righteous man is one who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. He doesn't tread there. He doesn't continue there. He doesn't stand in the path of sinners. You remember Psalm 1? He doesn't sit in the seat of the scoffer, but instead “his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” (v. 2). That's the righteous man. It's not the perfect man, but he is one who has been saved and redeemed. And the Lord does not count your transgressions against you if you are indeed righteous through the work, the doing and the dying, of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what righteousness is.
Observe here the language that is used to describe looking upon the righteous. We are to mark the righteous and behold the righteous. I’ll remind you of something I mentioned last week. Our eyes naturally catch the wicked and observe them, mark them, and think upon them because they are the luxuriant tree that spreads itself, and it's unavoidable. It's there. Everybody sees it. They make their business your business. That is in fact what their business is. And they want to be known, and they want their shame and their wealth and their luxuriousness to be right there in your face all of the time. It's hard to avoid them.
But it is as if David is saying, instead of fixing your eyes upon that luxuriant tree, the wicked, which are nigh unto unavoidable, instead mark and observe the blameless man, the righteous man. Observe not only his life in this world, but his moral character, his standing before God, the fruit of his life, the legacy that he is promised. If you spend your time fixating on all of the wicked around us and how they prosper in their wickedness and prosper in their sin, then you will be undone by the seeming moral inequity of their existence. But if instead you look upon and observe the righteous man, then you will see not the ease and the violence and the wickedness of the wicked, but instead you will see by the eye of understanding, with the eye of faith, what God has promised to the righteous. We are to look upon the righteous and observe not just their present but their present with an eye to their future, the eye of understanding. We look to the righteous and say, “New heavens, new earth, new bodies, glory, inheritance forever, the renown of the righteous.”
Observe the end of the wicked and observe the end of the righteous for that is really what tells the story, when we compare those two things. Remember this is what Asaph said in Psalm 73: I almost stumbled. When I saw the prosperity of the wicked, I almost stumbled. “Then I perceived their end” (v. 17). You see Asaph, in Psalm 73 when he wrestles with the prosperity of the wicked, he sees two things. He sees the wicked at ease, and then he sees their end. And when he sees the wicked at ease, he says, “My feet had almost stumbled. I had almost slipped when I saw the arrogance of the wicked and the prosperity of the wicked. I looked upon them. Here are all the things that I saw. Then I perceived their end.” It's looking at the end that is the solution for our quandary regarding the prosperity of the wicked.
Notice the outcome of the faith of the righteous. Observe it, note it, imitate it. In the words of Hebrews 13, consider the result of their conduct and imitate their faith. Look instead upon the righteous. Blameless—Psalm 37:37—upright. Next description—“The man of peace will have a posterity” (v. 37). There's a little bit of a difference of translation here, depending on what version you are using. The ESV and the NIV says this: “There is a future for the man of peace” (ESV). The NASB, similar idea: “The man of peace will have a posterity [or a future].” The King James and the New King James says, “The end [or the future] of that man is peace” (KJV). You can hear the difference there. The man of peace will have a future or the future of that man, the blameless and upright man, is peace.
So is it a man of peace who has a future or a man who has a future of peace? And I would suggest to you, though the language is different, the meaning really is not all that different. It is the righteous in this world that are known for being at peace. We have peace with God. We have peace with one another. We ought to walk in peacefulness and enjoy the peaceful fruits of righteousness and manifest the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, and peace. That should be something that characterizes the life of the righteous. And at the same time, the future of that man, the blameless and the upright, is a future of complete peace.
In this world, we have trials and tribulations. That's what Jesus promised us. In this world, we are beset on every side with conflict, and there's conflict all around, sometimes conflict within. We seek to walk in peace and be peacemakers, but this world does not offer us any peace. But in the future, the man of peace will have a future of peace, because we are marked by peace in this life, and I promise you, we will be marked by peace in the life that is to come.
One of the things that I'm looking forward to—in fact, I was telling some friends about this on Friday morning. One of the things I'm looking forward to in Heaven is the reality that standing in the presence of the new heavens and the New Earth with all of the glory that that promises and the peace that that promises, there will never, ever be even the thought that there is a possibility of anything ever coming into that that will disrupt my peace or my joy. See, all of my joy in this life is constantly overshadowed by the reality that something could come in and spoil that joy. But in the life that is to come, that will never, ever be a possibility. Yesterday I held my fifth grandchild, born on Friday evening. Joy. Joy, delight, joy. Joy, joy, joy, down in my heart. But there is always the shadow hanging over that reality in this life that that child could come down with leukemia, that child could die, that child could suffer, that child will experience pain. All the realities of that are also there at the same time.
Now if that's all I thought of, then all I would experience is the discouragement of that, living under the cloud of that. In this life we have joy mixed with sorrow. In the life that is to come, it will be joy and there will be no possibility that anything will ever come in and diminish that or take that away or in any way overshadow it. Never the possibility of it. That is the inheritance that we get. The righteous are not forgotten; that is the renown of the righteous.
Now look at verse 39. Look at the redemption of the righteous. Verse 39: “The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in time of trouble.” Now verse 40 seems to suggest that the salvation that David is describing here is a salvation from physical peril, from physical danger or from physical enemies. Look at verse 40: “The Lord helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them.” There is the reality that salvation or save or deliver, that those words, those nouns and those verbs, in the Old Testament can describe either salvation from sin or salvation from physical peril. For instance, Psalm 68:19–20: “Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, the God who is our salvation. [What kind of salvation? Well, the next verse] God is to us a God of deliverances; and to God the Lord belong escapes from death.”
So there is primarily in the Old Testament—when salvation and deliverance and redemption are described or mentioned, the authors have most of the time, not all the time but most of the time, the idea of being delivered from physical peril, physical death, physical dangers, etc. In the New Testament, the emphasis is a little bit different. To give you an illustration of that, the exodus out of Egypt in the time of Moses is described as redemption, as salvation, and as deliverance. And yet the people who came out of Egypt were by and large not believers in Yahweh, as evidenced by the fact that that very generation was judged in the wilderness for rejecting Yahweh. There were believers that came out of Egypt in the exodus, but that was describing a physical deliverance. That physical deliverance was a picture that pointed forward to a greater reality that you and I are delivered from sin, from our bondage to sin, from the enemy of our soul through the work of the Passover Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the whole exodus narrative is intended not just to tell us about a physical deliverance from physical peril and suffering but also to point forward to a much greater reality, a spiritual deliverance that we have through our Passover Lamb, who is Christ.
But in the New Testament, the idea of salvation and deliverance and redemption, it's kind of flipped. More predominantly what is being described there is a deliverance from sin, from the power of sin, the penalty of sin, from the devil, from guilt and condemnation. It describes forgiveness and righteousness and adoption and the indwelling of the Spirit. Many Old Testament references were references to physical deliverance. And though salvation was a very real thing in the Old Testament in a spiritual sense, that is not most of the time how it is used. But let me give you some examples of how salvation and redemption is used in the Old Testament that speaks of forgiveness of sins and actual salvation.
Psalm 51:14: “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.” David is praising God for God's righteousness and for His salvation and God delivering him from bloodguiltiness. How did that happen? How was David saved? He was forgiven of his bloodguiltiness and also given the righteousness of God. David praises God for His forgiveness and for a righteousness that comes from Yahweh.
Psalm 79:9: “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; and deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name's sake.” Notice the references to deliverance, to salvation, the forgiveness of sins.
And of course in the Old Testament, God is called “a righteous God and a Savior” (Isa. 45:21).
Psalm 3:8 says, “Salvation belongs to Yahweh.”
Isaiah 12:2 says, “God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and song, and He [that is, God, Yahweh] has become my salvation.”
So for the righteous, if you are spared from physical danger and death, then it is by God's hand. And David certainly seems to mean that in verse 40. But it is also true if you are saved from eternal damnation and divine wrath, that is also by God's hand and by His free grace. So, whether David is referring here to spiritual salvation or physical salvation, he is saying the same thing. Ultimately, this comes from God by His free and sovereign grace. And I think that David likely means both here, the salvation not only of his soul, the redemption for the righteous, but also any deliverances from the wicked in this life come because God by His grace and His providence delivers the righteous.
God grants to unworthy sinners repentance that leads to life and the faith that comes to trust in Christ for salvation, and to gain with that everlasting glory and righteousness, so that no sinner can boast before God of his contributions to his salvation in any way. He can only boast in God his Savior because the unworthy sinner knows full well that apart from God's grace, he would be just as depraved and lost and hopeless and helpless as the worst of the wicked.
What is it that makes the righteous to differ from the wicked? Is it because you are more pious, that you are more spiritually inclined? Is it because you were smarter or wiser or you come from better lineage, better stock? Is it because of your upbringing? Or is it nothing else than the free and sovereign mercy and grace of God, who looks down upon unworthy sinners and redeems them? And if it were not for that free and sovereign grace, you and I would get exactly what we deserve, damnation and punishment right along with the wicked.
To quote Ray Comfort, he said, “Justice made Hell my destiny, but mercy made Heaven my home.” Justice made Hell what I deserve, God's mercy and undeserved grace made Heaven my home. There is nothing that makes the righteous to differ from the wicked other than the free grace of God. It is nothing in the sinner. If it were something in you or me, then we would have something of which to boast before God for our salvation. But you'll notice what David says here in verse 39: “The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.” Not from your upbringing, not from your parentage, not from your piety, not from your wisdom, not from your ability to discern truth from error, to figure all of this out. Salvation is from the Lord.
You and I are no more worthy of salvation than the worst of the wicked. Our lies deserve Hellfire, our blasphemy is worthy of death, our lust, our greed, our idolatry deserve God's eternal wrath, and even one of those sins is worth eternal damnation. And you and I have not committed one of those sins, we have committed all of those sins and many more. And we have not just committed them once, we have committed them repeatedly for our entire lives. We are guilty of those sins. And if you're outside of Jesus Christ, you need to know that even one act, one sin, one lie is an act of treason against Heaven's most benevolent King. And that act of treason could only be paid for if He were to cast you into Hell and punish you there everlastingly for all of eternity outside of Christ.
But if you are in Christ, the good news of the gospel is that through His doing and through His dying, through His life and through His death, there is forgiveness of sins and there is righteousness to be given to the guilty sinner. God's law demands perfect righteousness and we are unable to do that. We cannot live up to that standard and we can never undo our debt. But One has lived and One has died who has undone that debt and given us grace, free and sovereign grace. And thus God gives to His people a treasure that is greater than anything this world could provide—the redemption of the righteous.
So yeah, you might notice the lavish, luxuriant tree spreading itself in its native soil, unavoidable to you in this life. You might notice them in their sin, prospering in it, and wonder to yourself, Is there ever going to be judgment? Is there ever going to be justice? Are the scales ever going to be righted? And that is a true and right sentiment to wonder that.
But then look at the righteous and realize that because of the doing and dying of Jesus Christ, the very righteousness that you need to inherit that eternal glory and that eternal state has been given to you through another, a Man unworthy of death who died in our stead. The justice of God called out for our blood, but instead another shed His blood in our place. And because of Him, we can be forgiven and declared righteous so that all our transgressions are taken out of the way. The death of our Substitute in our place has paid the price for our sin, and our crimes against God have been atoned for. Our bloodguiltiness has been removed, the price has been fully paid, and the demands of justice that cried for our blood have been satisfied and propitiated by the blood of our Substitute, whose death is counted by Yahweh as our death.
So you and I are dismissed then from the courtroom of God on the day of judgment and the declaration reads innocent. Now, is that because there's not enough evidence to convict us in God's court on the day of judgment? Oh no, there's plenty of evidence, probably video evidence in Heaven, plenty of evidence to call for our damnation. But we are declared righteous and innocent because just as the judge's gavel is coming down to pronounce our sentence, our Advocate, whom we didn't even ask to do this, steps into the courtroom and offers Himself as our payment for justice, and then pleads our case before the Father. That is what makes the righteous to differ from the wicked. Grace freely given, mercy poured out, and justice and judgment satisfied.
So the wicked have their gold, and the righteous have their God. The wicked have this world and the righteous have the world that is to come. And would you trade the world that is to come for a few farthings? You would be a fool to do that. What will a man give in exchange for his soul? Are you perplexed about the righteous? Are you perplexed about the wicked in this life? Mark the blameless man, mark the upright, and observe the outcome of their faith.
Now look at the rescue of the righteous in verse 40. He does seem to describe physical deliverance, and that is part of this obviously. Verse 40: “The Lord helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them.” There are mentions of physical deliverance in this psalm. I'll just remind you of a few verses.
In verse 12, the righteous are delivered from the wicked, who plot against the righteous.
Verse 14: The wicked draw the sword and the wicked bend the bow. The wicked “slay those who are upright in conduct.”
Verse 32: the wicked spy upon the righteous and seek to kill the righteous.
There's physical danger that is described in the psalm, a reality that we've dealt with as we've kind of gone through the psalm. And the psalmist here is saying, in the event that God should deliver the righteous from the hand of the wicked, that deliverance, that salvation, comes from God's hand. Psalm 37:6 says that God “will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday.” And you and I are to wait upon God, a God who will break the arms of the wicked, verse 17, and sustain the righteous. We are to “wait for the Lord”—Psalm 37:34—“and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.” But if the Lord does not deliver us in this life, then we have to be willing to say, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in Daniel 3, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us, but if He does not, let it be known to you, O world and O wicked, that we will not bow down to the statue that you have made because we have an inheritance that is greater than anything that can be offered to us in this life.”
So the rescue of the righteous from the wicked comes from Yahweh. Eventually, He will deliver you from the wicked. He may use the wicked killing you to deliver you from the wicked and take you to your eternal inheritance. Right? That's always a possibility. Would that be so bad? No, it wouldn't. If the wicked were to be the instruments through which we are delivered to eternal glory, it would still be by the hand of a gracious God who delivers us from every danger. Eventually, if the Lord should return or if you should die, however that might happen, eventually you will be delivered from every foe, every danger, every trial, every tribulation, temptation, evil, sin, oppressor, and opponent. You will be delivered. The enemies of your soul will be forever destroyed eventually. That's our hope.
Verse 40, notice the refuge of the righteous. We have looked at the renown, the redemption, the rescue, and now verse 40, the refuge of the righteous. “The Lord helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in Him.” That word refuge, when it's the verb form, describes to take confidence in or to place your hope in something, to make something your refuge or to confide in something, to trust in it. Verse 39 says, “The salvation of the righteous is from Yahweh.” In verse 40, Yahweh helps and protects them. And so it is Yahweh who is the “Him” at the very end of verse 40—“They take refuge in Him.” They take refuge in Yahweh. They take refuge in Yahweh, who is their salvation and their help.
And this idea of refuge is repeated in the Psalms. It's a common and oft repeated refrain in the Psalms. Remember that two-thirds of the Psalms describe the wicked and the judgment that is to come on the wicked in some way. Two-thirds of the Psalms either are praying for God's judgment to fall upon the wicked, describing God's judgment falling upon the wicked, or just reminding the righteous that this is eventually going to happen, or warning of God's judgment falling upon the wicked. Two-thirds of the Psalms describe that. And twenty-five times in the Psalms, this word for refuge is used, or this verb for taking refuge is used. Let me give you a couple of examples.
Most notably, Psalm 73 ends with this idea of taking refuge in God as well. Remember Psalm 37 and 73 are the two psalms that wrestle with this issue of the prosperity of the wicked. Both psalms kind of end the same way in describing taking refuge in Yahweh. Psalm 73:28: “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.” And there in Psalm 73 at the end of that, it is a different word that is used, but the idea is the same. In Psalm 73, it says God Himself is our refuge, and it uses a noun that describes something in which you take shelter. And here in Psalm 37, it tells us to take refuge in Yahweh, in the sense that God Himself is the one who saves all who take refuge in Him. There are a couple other places where this same word is used.
Psalm 46:1: “God is our refuge and strength.”
Psalm 34:8: “O taste and see that the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”
And not insignificantly, Psalm 2:12—do you remember that we talked about the gateway to the Psalter? Psalm 2 ends with that reference to taking refuge in the Son. “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 this idea of taking refuge in Yahweh as a sinner is something that is mentioned at the very beginning of the Psalms, and it is here something that David returns to now in wrestling with the prosperity of the wicked. How blessed is the one who finds his refuge in Yahweh. In Psalm 2, the refuge is found in the one who is the Son of Yahweh. It is the one to whom Yahweh says—that is, the Father says—“You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance. . . . You shall break them with a rod of iron” (vv. 7–9). And then David in Psalm 2 says to the kings of the earth, “Take warning, O kings, and do homage to that Son, lest you perish in the way, and His wrath be kindled.” Blessed are all who take refuge in whom? In the Son, the King, against whom the kings of the earth are at war.
And here is the irony of this whole situation. The one that we are to take refuge in is the one against whom we have sinned. The one that we are to take refuge in for the sake of our soul is the one who we are at war with and who is at war with us in our unbelieving state. In other words, we are to come to the one we have offended, and we are to come to the one whose wrath is kindled against us, and we are to find our refuge in Him. That is, at the same time, one of the most terrifying realities and one of the most comforting realities, that we have to come to the one against whom we have sinned, the one whose anger righteously and justly burns against us. And we have to come to Him on His terms, which are repentance and faith, and to turn from the very rebellion that warrants His wrath and turn to the very one who has paid the price for that rebellion.
The one who trusts in His Word and comes to that Son as a guilty sinner, He will receive and He will save and He will exalt you to inherit the land. Every blessing in this psalm, Psalm 37, every blessing that is promised to the righteous comes to the righteous because of that last phrase of the psalm—“Because they take refuge in Him.” That's it. Not because we are better, not because we have done more, not because we deserve more. Every blessing in Psalm 37 comes to the righteous for one reason and one reason only, because they take refuge in Him. And because they take refuge in Him, Yahweh is their salvation, Yahweh is their righteousness, Yahweh is their blessed one. “The wicked is thrust down by his wrongdoing, but the righteous has a refuge when he dies” (Prov. 14:32).
So now I come full circle back to the beginning of this psalm and I ask you one last time as we're comparing now the righteous and the wicked, have you taken refuge in Him? Here's God's promise to you. If you take refuge in that Son, you will never be disappointed. But here's also God's promise to you. If you refuse to take refuge in that Son, you will be cut off and you will perish everlastingly.
What does it mean to take refuge in Him? It's actually what is described in the first eight verses of this psalm. Trust in Yahweh (v. 3), delight yourself in Yahweh (v. 4), commit your way to Yahweh (v. 5), and then rest in Yahweh (v. 7). This is how the righteous live in a world where the wicked prosper. Yahweh is our refuge. The righteous will trust Him, and someday when the wicked are cut off and you are exalted to inherit the land, your eyes will see the justification for everything that has happened in this life.