Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 37:27

Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell forevermore.

27. Once more the teacher addresses his disciple, as in Psa 37:3 ff. The first line is identical with Psa 34:14 a (see note): the second line is virtually a promise, and might be rendered so shall thou dwell &c. But as Delitzsch observes, the imperative retains its force in constructions of this type, as an exhortation to participate in the blessing by the fulfilment of the duty. Peaceable occupation of the land by successive generations is meant (cp. Psa 37:29). The individual lives on in his descendants.

28 a . Cp. Psa 33:5. For saints see note on Psa 4:3.

28 c , d , 29. Stanza of Ayin. The verses are wrongly divided. It is evident from the regular structure of the Psalm that the last two lines of Psa 37:28 together with Psa 37:29 should form a stanza commencing with the letter Ayin. If the Massoretic text is sound, the Ayin is represented by the second letter of the word l’lm, ‘for ever’, the prefixed preposition l being disregarded, as is the prefixed and in Psa 37:39. But a comparison of the LXX makes it all but certain that the first word of the verse has been lost, and a further corruption taken place in consequence [14] ; and that the original reading was:

[14] The LXX reads thus: ( B ), , ‘They shall be preserved for ever; but the lawless shall be driven out ( B, the perfect shall be avenged), and the seed of the ungodly shall be destroyed.’ The reading of the Sinaitic and Vatican MSS. appears to be a correction or corruption, and must be abandoned in favour of that found in (apparently) all other MSS., and supported by the Vulg., iniusti punientur. We have then the words , but the lawless shall be driven out, in addition to a rendering of the Massoretic text. These words might represent an original If the original reading (written defectively) was the unrighteous are destroyed for ever, the process of corruption is easily intelligible. was omitted, either accidentally, from its resemblance to , or because the transcriber did not recognise a somewhat rare word, and supposed it to be an erroneous repetition. When once it had disappeared, the change of ( destroyed) into ( preserved) followed as a matter of course, ‘his saints’ in the preceding line being the only possible subject. The word does not occur elsewhere in the Psalter, but is found four times in the Book of Job, with which this Psalm is so closely connected. Cp. too the substantive in Psa 37:1. A case like this, in which the acrostic structure of the Psalm demands a correction for which the LXX supplies clear evidence, is a convincing argument for the temperate employment of the LXX for the correction of the Massoretic Text. This or some similar correction is adopted by most editors.

The unrighteous are destroyed for ever,

And the seed of the wicked is cut off.

With this reading a full stop must of course be placed after saints, and the couplet forms the antithesis to Psa 37:29. The perfect tenses, as in Psa 37:20 c, express the Psalmist’s conviction of the certainty of the event. Cp. Psa 37:38. The addition in the P.B.V., the unrighteous shall be punished, comes from the LXX through the Vulgate. See note below.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Depart from evil, and do good – This is the sum of all that is said in the psalm; the great lesson inculcated and enforced by all these references to the effects of good and evil conduct. All these results – all that people experience themselves, and all the effects of their conduct on their posterity, enforce the great practical lesson that we should do good and avoid evil. These results of conduct are among the means which God employs to induce men to do right, and to abstain from what is wrong.

And dwell for evermore – That is, dwell in the land: meaning (in accordance with the general drift of the psalm) that righteousness will be connected with length of days and with prosperity; that its effects will be permanent on a family, descending from one generation to another. See the notes at Psa 37:3.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Psa 37:27

Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.

Mans grand concern

I. Eschewing evil and doing good. Depart from evil and do good. Evil and good are correlative and coextensive terms. They are antagonistic principles, they are both in the world, and both incessantly working. Both are incarnate. Good in its perfect form is in Christ. Depart from evil. You are in it, as in a poisonous atmosphere, as in a foul disease, as in a miserable captivity; struggle to get out of it, leave the moral district, and strive after a more salubrious air. Do good. Good is a practical thing, not a thing for mere poetry or discussion, but a thing for practice. What is it to do good? Not the performance of any particular thing, for we have a thousand things to accomplish, but to do everything from a good motive–supreme love to God.

II. Speaking wisdom and judgment. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. It is the characteristic of a righteous man that his speech is wise and just. He allows no corrupt communication to proceed out of his mouth. Mans speech has always a moral quality, it is always wise or foolish, just or unjust, good or bad.

III. Rectitude in heart and life. The law of his God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide. It is one thing to have the law of his God in the book or the brain, and another thing to have it in the heart; to have it in the heart implies that it is cherished with love and obeyed with loyalty. It is in the heart as the moral monarch, holding empire over all the faculties of being and activities of life. Being in the heart, it directs the life. None of his steps (or goings ) shall slide. There will be an unswerving adherence to the path of right.

IV. Waiting on the lord and keeping his commandments. Wait on the Lord and keep His way.

1. Waiting on the Lord implies

(1) Realization of His presence;

(2) Expectation of His commands, and

(3) Readiness to obey.

V. The special favour of heaven.

1. The special guardianship of God. The Lord loveth judgment and forsaketh not His saints, they are preserved for ever.

2. Deliverance from the power of the wicked. The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged. The truth of this is realized in the experience of all good men after death.

3. Exaltation and long life. (Homilist.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 27. Depart from evil, and do good] Seeing the above is so, depart from all evil-avoid all sin; and let not this be sufficient, do good. The grace of God ever gives this two-fold power to all who receive it; strength to overcome evil, and strength to do that which is right.

Dwell for evermore.] Be for ever an inhabitant of God’s house. This may be also a promise of return to their own land, and of permanent residence there. See Ps 37:9; Ps 37:11, &c.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Having therefore these glorious promises and privileges, let no man do any evil or unjust thing to enrich or secure himself, nor abstain from pious and charitable actions for fear of undoing himself by them; but let every man live in the conscionable discharge of all his duties to God and men, committing himself and all his affairs to Gods fatherly care and providence, and confidently expecting his blessing thereupon.

Dwell, i.e. thou shalt dwell, as before, Psa 37:3, to wit, in the land, as is expressed, Psa 37:3, and afterwards in heaven.

For evermore; either properly; or for a long time, of which that word is oft used.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

27-29. The exhortation issustained by the assurance of God’s essential rectitude in thatprovidential government which provides perpetual blessings for thegood, and perpetual misery for the wicked.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Depart from evil, and do good,…. Depart from evildoers, and their evil ways; join not with them, nor fret and be envious at them; but do acts of beneficence, and all good works; since righteous men, and their seed, are not forsaken, but blessed of God;

[See comments on Ps 34:14];

and dwell for evermore; or “thou shalt dwell for evermore” z; see

Ps 37:3; that is, in everlasting habitations, in the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, Lu 16:9. The Targum is, “that thou mayest dwell in everlasting life”.

z “et habitabis in seculum”, Pagninus, Vatablus, Piscator; so Aben Ezra & Kimchi.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Psa 37:27-28

The round of the exhortations and promises is here again reached as in Psa 37:3. The imperative , which is there hortatory, is found here with the of sequence in the sense of a promise: and continue, doing such things, to dwell for ever = so shalt thou, etc. ( , pregnant as in Ps 102:29, Isa 57:15). Nevertheless the imperative retains its meaning even in such instances, inasmuch as the exhortation is given to share in the reward of duty at the same time with the discharge of it. On Psa 37:28 compare Psa 33:5.

Psa 37:28-29

The division of the verse is wrong; for the strophe, without any doubt, closes with , and the eht dna strophe begins with , so that, according to the text which we possess, the of this word is the acrostic letter. The lxx, however, after has another line, which suggests another commencement for the strophe, and runs in Cod. Vat., incorrectly, , in Cod. Alex., correctly, (Symmachus, ). By the lxx translates in Isa 29:20; by , in Job 27:4; and by , , the synonym of , in Psa 101:5; so that consequently this line, as even Venema and Schleusner have discerned, was . It will at once be seen that this is only another reading for ; and, since it stands side by side with the latter, that it is an ancient attempt to produce a correct beginning for the strophe, which has been transplanted from the lxx into the text. It is, however, questionable whether this reparation is really a restoration of the original words (Hupfeld, Hitzig); since ( ) is not a word found in the Psalms (for which reason Bttcher’s conjecture of more readily commends itself, although it is critically less probable), and forms a continuation that is more naturally brought about by the context and perfectly logical.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

27 Depart from evil, and do good. In this verse David argues, that, in order to realize the blessedness of which he has spoken, we must abstain from all evil, perform the duties of humanity, and exert ourselves in doing good to our neighbors. This doctrine is at variance with the dictates of corrupt human nature; but it is, notwithstanding, certain that many of the troubles and distresses in which the whole human race are involved, proceed from no other cause than this, that every man respectively, in his own sphere, being given to injustice, fraud, extortion, and evil-dealing, contemptuously rejects the blessing of God. Thus, it is in consequence of the barriers which men throw in their own way, that they do not attain happiness in this world, and that every man in his own place does not possess the peace and quietness which belong to him. It is then with the highest propriety that David passes from the doctrine of the preceding context to this exhortation: for if the meek possess the earth, then every one, as he regards his own happiness and peace, ought also to endeavor to walk uprightly, and to apply himself to works of beneficence. It should also be observed, that he connects these two things, first, that the faithful should strictly do good; and, secondly, that they should restrain themselves from doing evil: and this he does not without good reason: for as we have seen in the thirty-fourth psalm, it often happens that the same person who not only acts kindly towards certain persons, but even with a bountiful hand deals out largely of his own, is yet all the while plundering others, and amassing by extortion the resources by means of which he displays his liberality. Whoever, therefore, is desirous to have his good offices approved by God, let him endeavor to relieve his brethren who have need of his help, but let him not injure one in order to help another, or afflict and grieve one in order to make another glad. Now David, under these two expressions, has briefly comprised the duties of the second table of the law: first, that the godly should keep their hands free from all mischief, and give no occasion of complaint to any man; and, secondly, that they should not live to themselves, and to the promotion merely of their own private interests, but should endeavor to promote the common good of all according to their opportunities, and as far as they are able. But we have already said, that the blessing which is promised to the righteous, that “they shall inherit the earth,” is not always realised in an equal degree as to all the people of God; and the reason we assigned for this is, that God cannot find among men an example of such great uprightness, but that even the most perfect procure to themselves much misery by their own fault: and therefore it need not surprise us though God withdraw, at least in some measure, his blessing even from his own. We know too to what excess the lusts of the flesh run riot, unless the Lord lay a restraint upon them. Besides, there is no one who is ready cheerfully to engage in meditation upon the divine life, who is not urged and encouraged to it by various motives. Hence it is that the possession of the earth, which David here assigns to the children of God, does not (as the lawyers would define the term) always consist in having the feet planted within it, and in being securely established in it; for there are many sources of disquietude and affliction here to trouble them. And yet it does not follow that it is a mere fiction or imaginary thing which he promises. For although daily experience shows us that the children of God do not as yet inherit the earth, yet, according to the measure of our faith, we feel how efficacious the blessing of God is, which, like a spring that cannot be drained, flows continually. They are indeed more than blind who do not perceive that the righteous have at present this reward, that God defends and upholds them by his power.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

27, 28. Dwell for evermore In Psa 37:27-29 the reward of the righteous is three times set forth by two of the strongest words in the Hebrew language to express endless duration. Thus, “for evermore,” , ( le’olam,) to eternity; Septuagint, , for ever and ever; Vulgate, in seculum seculi; Jerome, habita in sempiturnum. They [ his saints ] are preserved for ever Hebrew, le’olam, to eternity; Septuagint, , for ever; Vulgate, aeternum; Jerome, in aeturnum.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments