Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 37:34
Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see [it].
34. Stanza of Qoph. The Psalmist again addresses his disciple.
For a while he may be crushed and down-trodden, but ultimately he will be exalted and the wicked cut off.
keep his way ] Cp. Psa 37:33, note; Psa 18:21.
thou shall see it] With satisfaction at the vindication of God’s righteous government. Cp. Psa 52:6; Psa 58:10-11. See Introd. p. xci.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Wait on the Lord – See the notes at Psa 37:9. Let your hope be from the Lord; depend wholly upon Him; have such confidence in Him as to expect His gracious interposition in your behalf.
And keep his way – Or, walk in the path which He commands. Do not turn from that at any thee. Do not allow any temptation, or any opposition, to cause you to swerve from that path.
And he shall exalt thee to inherit the land – See Psa 37:3, Psa 37:9,Psa 37:18.
When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it – This implies that they would certainly be cut off, and that the righteous would be permitted to see the result of a course of righteousness and one of wickedness. It is not necessarily implied that they would have any satisfaction in seeing the punishment of the wicked; but the meaning is, that they would be permitted to live so as to see that one course of life tended to secure the favor of God, and another to incur His displeasure; that there was an advantage in virtue and religion in this life; and the certainty that they would see this is adverted to as a motive for leading a life of piety. The result is so sure that a man may, if he live long, see it himself; and the fact that this is so should be an inducement for his leading a holy life. The psalmist proceeds, in Psa 37:35-36, to illustrate this idea from his own observation.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 37:34
Wait on the Lord and keep His way, and He shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.
A twofold admonition and promise.
I. The admonition.
1. Wait on the Lord. Do you thus wait? Now, in the present time, and at all times?
2. Keep His way. This is beautifully connected with the former. Wait–and work. Wait–and walk. Get grace–and exercise it.
II. The promise.
1. He shall exalt thee to inherit the land. God is the source of all elevation and honour.
2. When the wicked are cut off, thou, etc. And they will be cut off from all they enjoy here, and from all hope hereafter. And as the saint will see the destruction of the sinner, so the sinner will see the salvation of the righteous, and not partake of it. This must be a source to him of the keenest anguish, for it might have been his own. (W. Jay.)
Obedience the remedy for religious perplexity
To some persons it may sound strange to speak of difficulties in religion, for they find none at all. But this arises, in many cases, from ignorance of religion itself. They observe forms, but their heart is not in the work. But when they are awakened, and earnestly seek the right way, then, from time to time, they are troubled with doubts and misgivings, and oppressed with gloom. To all those who are perplexed, one precept must be given–obey. It is obedience which brings a man into the right path; it is obedience keeps him there and strengthens him in it. Under all circumstances, whatever be the cause of his distress–obey. Apply this exhortation to those who have but lately taken up the subject of religion at all. Every science has its difficulties at first; why, then, should the science of living well be without them? And others are impatient with themselves, forgetting that a Christian spirit is the growth of time, and that we cannot force it upon our minds, however desirable and necessary it may be to possess it; that by giving utterance to religious sentiments we do not become religious–rather the reverse; whereas if we strove to obey Gods will in all things, we actually should be gradually training our hearts into the fulness of a Christian spirit. But, not understanding this, men are led to speak much upon sacred subjects, in the hope of its making them better: and they measure their advance in faith and holiness, not by their power of obeying God in practice, but by the warmth and energy of their religious feelings. And then, when these fail, and when, as sometimes is the case, their old sins revive, they are discouraged, and tempted to despair. But let them wait on the Lord, this is the rule; keep His way, this is the manner of waiting. Go about your duty; mind little things as well as great. Do not pause, and say, I am as I was; day after day passes, and still no light; go on. (J. H. Newman.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 34. Wait on the Lord, and keep his way] This is the true mode of waiting on God which the Scripture recommends; keeping God’s way-using all his ordinances, and living in the spirit of obedience. He who waits thus is sure to have the farther blessings of which he is in pursuit. kavah, to wait, implies the extension of a right line from one point to another. The first point is the human heart; the line is its intense desire; and the last point is GOD, to whom this heart extends this straight line of earnest desire to be filled with the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of peace.
And he shall exalt thee to inherit the land] If ye keep his way, and be faithful to him in your exile, he will exalt you, lift you up from your present abject state, to inherit the land of your fathers. See before, Ps 37:9; Ps 37:11, c.
When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.] They did see the destruction of the Babylonish king, Belshazzar, and his empire and it was in consequence of that destruction that they were enlarged.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Wait on the Lord; seeking and trusting to him, and to him only, for help and deliverance.
Keep his way; continue in the practice of thy duty, or in those ways which God hath prescribed to thee in his word, and do not use indirect and irregular means to deliver thyself.
Thou shalt see it; thou shalt not only escape the destruction which they design for thee, but shalt live to see their ruin.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
34. On the contrary, the goodare not only blessed, but made to see the ruin of their foes.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Wait on the Lord,…. In the way of his appointments and ordinances; where may be learned the design of his providences, and of the prosperity of the wicked, and their end, Ps 73:16; and in a providential way, for the performance of his promises, in which he never fails; and patiently bear whatever he is pleased to lay upon them; waiting for a deliverance out of every affliction, which will be in his own time. The Chaldee paraphrase
“trust in the word of the Lord;”
and keep his way: which he has pointed out in his word, and has directed his people to walk in; though tempted by Satan to turn aside to the right hand or the left; though wicked men reproach, persecute, and seek to pervert it; and though a narrow and rough way, yet keep constantly in it, in which there are both pleasure and profit; good comes of it, and in it peace is had, and the presence of God enjoyed;
and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: that is, shall raise out of a low and uncomfortable situation of life to a more comfortable one; or however, hereafter, to dwell in the new heavens and new earth, to reign with Christ upon his throne, and to enjoy the eternal inheritance;
when the wicked are cut off; as in Ps 37:9;
thou shall see [it]; with joy and pleasure; not as exulting: in the destruction of the wicked, simply considered; but as the glory of divine justice is displayed therein; see Ps 52:5.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Let the eye of faith directed hopefully to Jahve go on its way, without suffering thyself to be turned aside by the persecution and condemnation of the world, then He will at length raise thee out of all trouble, and cause thee to possess ( , ut possidas et possideas ) the land, as the sole lords of which the evil-doers, now cut off, conducted themselves.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Exhortations and Promises. | |
34 Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. 35 I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. 36 Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. 37 Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. 38 But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off. 39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD: he is their strength in the time of trouble. 40 And the LORD shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.
The psalmist’s conclusion of this sermon (for that is the nature of this poem) is of the same purport with the whole, and inculcates the same things.
I. The duty here pressed upon us is still the same (v. 34): Wait on the Lord and keep his way. Duty is ours, and we must mind it and make conscience of it, keep God’s way and never turn out of it nor loiter in it, keep close, keep going; but events are God’s and we must refer ourselves to him for the disposal of them; we must wait on the Lord, attend the motions of his providence, carefully observe them, and conscientiously accommodate ourselves to them. If we make conscience of keeping God’s way, we may with cheerfulness wait on him and commit to him our way; and we shall find him a good Master both to his working servants and to his waiting servants.
II. The reasons to enforce this duty are much the same too, taken from the certain destruction of the wicked and the certain salvation of the righteous. This good man, being tempted to envy the prosperity of the wicked, that he might fortify himself against the temptation, goes into the sanctuary of God and leads us thither (Ps. lxxiii. 17); there he understands their end, and thence gives us to understand it, and, by comparing that with the end of the righteous, baffles the temptation and puts it to silence. Observe,
1. The misery of the wicked at last, however they may prosper awhile: The end of the wicked shall be cut off (v. 38); and that cannot be well that will undoubtedly end so ill. The wicked, in their end, will be cut off from all good and all hopes of it; a final period will be put to all their joys, and they will be for ever separated from the fountain of life to all evil. (1.) Some instances of the remarkable ruin of wicked people David had himself observed in this world–that the pomp and prosperity of sinners would not secure them from the judgments of God when their day should come to fall (Psa 37:36; Psa 37:35): I have seen a wicked man (the word is singular), suppose Saul or Ahithophel (for David was an old man when he penned this psalm), in great power, formidable (so some render it), the terror of the mighty in the land of the living, carrying all before him with a high hand, and seeming to be firmly fixed and finely flourishing, spreading himself like a green bay-tree, which produces all leaves and no fruit; like a native home-born Israelite (so Dr. Hammond), likely to take root. But what became of him? Eliphaz, long before, had learned, when he saw the foolish taking root, to curse his habitation, Job v. 3. And David saw cause for it; for this bay-tree withered away as soon as the fig-tree. Christ cursed: He passed away as a dream, as a shadow, such was he and all the pomp and power he was so proud of. He was gone in an instant: He was not; I sought him with wonder, but he could not be found. He had acted his part and then quitted the stage, and there was no miss of him. (2.) The total and final ruin of sinners, of all sinners, will shortly be made as much a spectacle to the saints as they are now sometimes made a spectacle to the world (v. 34): When the wicked are cut off (and cut off they certainly will be) thou shalt see it, with awful adorations of the divine justice. The transgressors shall be destroyed together, v. 38. In this world God singles out here one sinner and there another, out of many, to be made an example in terrorem–as a warning; but in the day of judgment there will be a general destruction of all the transgressors, and not one shall escape. Those that have sinned together shall be damned together. Bind them in bundles, to burn them.
2. The blessedness of the righteous, at last. Let us see what will be the end of God’s poor despised people. (1.) Preferment. There have been times the iniquity of which has been such that men’s piety has hindered their preferment in this world, and put them quite out of the way of raising estates; but those that keep God’s way may be assured that in due time he will exalt them, to inherit the land (v. 34); he will advance them to a place in the heavenly mansions, to dignity, and honour, and true wealth, in the New Jerusalem, to inherit that good land, that land of promise, of which Canaan was a type; he will exalt them above all contempt and danger. (2.) Peace, v. 37. Let all people mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; take notice of him to admire him and imitate him, keep your eye upon him to observe what comes of him, and you will find that the end of that man is peace. Sometimes the latter end of his days proves more comfortable to him than the beginning was; the storms blow over, and he is comforted again, after the time that he was afflicted. However, if all his days continue dark and cloudy, perhaps his dying day may prove comfortable to him and his sun may set in brightness; or, if it should set under a cloud, yet his future state will be peace, everlasting peace. Those that walk in their uprightness while they live shall enter into peace when they die, Isa. lvii. 2. A peaceful death has concluded the troublesome life of many a good man; and all is well that thus ends everlastingly well. Balaam himself wished that his death and his last end might be like that of the righteous Num. xxiii. 10. (3.) Salvation, Psa 37:39; Psa 37:40. The salvation of the righteous (which may be applied to the great salvation of which the prophets enquired and searched diligently, 1 Pet. i. 10) is of the Lord; it will be the Lord’s doing. The eternal salvation, that salvation of God which those shall see that order their conversation aright (Ps. l. 23), is likewise of the Lord. And he that intends Christ and heaven for them will be a God all-sufficient to them: He is their strength in time of trouble, to support them under it and carry them through it. He shall help them and deliver them, help them to do their duties, to bear their burdens, and to maintain their spiritual conflicts, help them to bear their troubles well and get good by them, and, in due time, shall deliver them out of their troubles. He shall deliver them from the wicked that would overwhelm them and swallow them up, shall secure them there, where the wicked cease from troubling. He shall save them, not only keep them safe, but make them happy, because they trust in him, not because they have merited it from him, but because they have committed themselves to him and reposed a confidence in him, and have thereby honoured him.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
34 Wait upon Jehovah, and keep his way David again returns to the style of exhortation, in order that the faithful, trusting to God’s promises and sustained by them, may not suffer themselves to be drawn hither and thither by any temptations through devious and sinful ways, but may persevere steadfastly in the service of God. In the first place, he exhorts them to hope and patience, as if he wished them, amidst the tumults and troubles of life, to trust in God, and hold their peace till he again show them his countenance, which for a time he had hid from them. Hence arises, in the second place, another exhortation, that they should not turn aside from the way of the Lord; for wherever hope and patience prevail, they will so restrain the minds of men that they will not break out into any thing unlawful and wicked. It will doubtless be found, that the reason why every man endeavors to promote his own advantage by wicked practices is, that no one depends upon God, or else that he thinks, if fortune do not quickly smile upon him, that it is vain for him to persevere in the practice of equity and uprightness. Moreover, we may learn from this place, that if many, even of the good and the upright, are subjected to poverty, and lead a life of protracted affliction and trial, they suffer their punishment justly, because, so far from being firmly persuaded that it belongs to God as his proper office not only to lift up his servants from the dunghill, but also to bring them forth even from their graves, scarcely one in a hundred of them patiently waits upon God, and continues perseveringly in the right course. Nor is it without good reason that David makes use of the word exalt, that we may know that God often stretches forth his hand to the faithful when they appear to be overwhelmed by the weight of their calamities. He then adds, that the wicked shall perish before the eyes of the godly. If their end were not very different from that of the righteous, the state in which the reprobate now rejoice for a time would easily allure even the best of men to evil. And, indeed, God would make us daily to behold such sights if we had eyes to behold his judgments. And yet, although the whole world were blinded, God does not cease to render a just reward to the wickedness of men; but by punishing them in a more private manner, he withdraws from us that fruit of which our own dulness deprives us.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Psa 37:34 Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see [it].
Ver. 34. Wait on the Lord ] Bind him not to a day, wake not the Beloved till he please.
Keep his way
When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Wait: Kawah, to wait, implies the extension of a right line from one point to another. The first point is the human heart; the line is its intense desire; and the last point is God, to whom the heart extends this straight line of earnest desire. He who, while he waits on God, keeps his way, is sure to have the further blessings of which he is in pursuit. Psa 37:3, Psa 37:7, Psa 37:9, Psa 27:14, Pro 20:22
keep: Job 17:9, Job 23:10-12, Pro 4:25-27, Pro 16:17, Mat 24:13
exalt: Psa 92:10, Psa 112:9, Luk 14:11, 1Pe 1:7, 1Pe 5:6
when: Psa 52:5, Psa 52:6, Psa 91:8, Psa 92:11
Reciprocal: Est 8:2 – Esther set Psa 25:3 – wait Psa 54:7 – and mine Psa 62:5 – wait Psa 94:15 – and all Pro 29:16 – but Isa 8:17 – I will Isa 40:31 – they that Lam 3:25 – good Lam 3:26 – quietly Zep 3:8 – wait Mat 5:5 – they Rom 2:7 – patient Rev 14:10 – in the
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 37:34. Wait on the Lord Seeking and trusting to him, and to him only, for help and deliverance. And keep his way Continue in the practice of thy duty, or in those ways which God hath prescribed to thee in his word, and do not use indirect and irregular means to deliver thyself. When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it Thou shalt not only escape the destruction they designed for thee, but shalt live to see their ruin.