Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 37:1
[A Psalm] of David. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
1. Fret net thyself ] Lit., incense not thyself: be not angry or indignant or discontented.
neither be thou envious &c.] Neither be envious of them that do unrighteousness, and for the time prosper ( Psa 37:7). The severity of the temptation is attested by Psa 73:3. The warning, repeated in Psa 37:7-8, is found again in Pro 24:19. Cp. Pro 3:31; Pro 23:17; Pro 24:1. The phrase rendered in A.V. workers of iniquity is a different one from that in Psa 36:12. It is the opposite of doing good ( Psa 37:3 ; Psa 37:27). The LXX rendering is , words which occur in Mat 13:41 in a context which should be compared with this Psalm. Cp. 1Jn 3:4.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1, 2. Stanza of Aleph, stating the theme of the Psalm; an exhortation against discontent and envy at the prosperity of the wicked, on the ground that it is only transitory.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 11. Warnings and counsels for times of temptation.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Fret not thyself – The Hebrew word here means properly to burn, to be kindled, to be inflamed, and is often applied to anger, as if under its influence we become heated: Gen 31:36; Gen 34:7; 1Sa 15:11; 2Sa 19:43. Hence, it means to fret oneself, to be angry, or indignant. Compare Pro 24:19. We should perhaps express the same idea by the word worrying or chafing. The state of mind is that where we are worried, or envious, because others are prosperous and successful, and we are not. The idea is, therefore, closely allied with that in the other part of the verse, neither be thou envious.
Because of evil-doers – Wicked men:
(a) at the fact that there are wicked men, or that God suffers them to live;
(b) at their numbers;
(c) at their success and prosperity.
Neither be thou envious – Envy is pain, mortification, discontent, at the superior excellence or prosperity of others, accompanied often with some degree of malignant feeling, and with a disposition to detract from their merit. It is the result of a comparison of ourselves with others who are more highly gifted or favored, or who are more successful than we are ourselves. The feeling referred to here is that which springs up in the mind when we see persons of corrupt or wicked character prospered, while we, endeavoring to do right, are left to poverty, to disappointment, and to tears.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 37:1-12
Fret not thyself because of evil-doers.
Fret not
There are many who suppose that it is well-nigh impossible to pass the time of our sojourning here without some degree of anxiety and depression of spirit. I grant you these feelings will come to us, but we are not obliged to welcome them. Luther quaintly said that, whereas we cannot prevent the birds from hovering over and flying round about our heads, we can prevent them from building their nests in our hair. The Lord will net hold us accountable for the suggestions that the devil makes, or our own evil hearts produce, but He does hold us responsible for yielding to those suggestions, and nourishing them.
I. A description of the complaint. Worrying, murmuring, or fretting, is certainly a malady. It must not be regarded as a mere circumstance that afflicts us from without. It is a deep-seated complaint that reigns within. One of the old Puritans says, of one who was always complaining, that he was sick of the frets. He recognized that it was an inward ailment, affecting both soul and body. The root of the mischief was in the rebellious heart.
1. What is the nature of this complaint? It is of the nature of a fever. Fret not thyself, or as it might be read, Do not grow hot, inflame net thyself, because of evil-doers. Leave to the sea to fret, and fume, and rage, and roar. Leave to the wicked, of whom the troubled sea is so apt an emblem, to toss to and fro, and cast up mire and dirt. Leave to the caged bird, that has no wisdom, to beat itself against the bars and make its incarceration still more unendurable; but for you who are already Gods, who have such a Father and Friend, and such a home, to which you are each moment coming nearer, for you to fret is clean contrary to the spirit of the Gospel; and to the grace which is in Christ Jesus.
2. What are the causes of this complaint?
(1) The prosperity of the wicked. I do not know of anything more likely to contribute to envy–which is nearly always an accompaniment of fretting–than a view of the prosperity of the wicked, that is if that view is a one-sided and short-sided one, as it generally is. The wicked spreads himself like a green bay tree, everything seems to go well with him. But he is a stranger to the one thing needful. He is altogether unacquainted with the joys we know, and what shall his end be? Have you ever found it in your heart to envy the apparent riches of the stage king, who struts his little hour behind the footlights with crown, and robes, and sceptre, and I know not what?
(2) The care that seems inseparable from daily life. So long as we dwell in the land there must be the question of being fed and clothed. I had almost said that religion is a farce and a fraud unless it stoops with me to such matters as these. It does so.
(3) There is another matter that mightily troubles some people, viz. the safeguarding of their reputation. Well, but let not this give rise to fretting and to distrust of God (Psa 37:5-6). What reputation we have is due to Gods grace. If He has made it, He will keep it. Your reputation is not of half so much account as are Gods cause, etc.
3. What are the symptoms of this disease.
(1) It is generally accompanied by envy–neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. Be on the look-out against that green-eyed monster jealousy, for it works havoc in the heart, and havoc everywhere.
(2) It is accompanied also by loss of appetite that is, for the things of God. If we give way to repining, we shall not care for Gods Word, prayer will become almost impossible, the Gospel itself will lose its zest.
(3) Accompanying this fever there is, of course, a very high temperature. It is very easy, when you are in this state of mind, to get angry, and very difficult to cease from wrath.
(4) There is a consuming thirst with this fretting fever, a longing for something one has not got, a parching of the tongue and a drying of the lip, almost unbearable.
(5) The vision is impaired; we do not see things clearly.
(6) There is loss of memory, for we forget the mercies which have gone before, a recollection of which would help us to bear the troubles of the present.
II. The prescription.
1. The first item is trust in the Lord. Faith cures fretting. I believe in the faith cure–not as some administer it, but as God administers it. It is the only cure for worrying. If thou trustest all shall be well.
2. Do good. This is the second ingredient in the prescription. Do not give up, do not yield to fear. Do good; get to some practical work for God; continue in the path of daily duty, take spiritual exercise.
8. Diet is a very important matter in fever cases. It reads in the original, Thou shelf be fed with truth. Oh, the patient begins to get better at once, if he is fed on faithfulness. If you eat Gods truth and live on His Word, and drink in His promises, recovery is sure.
4. Delight thyself also in the Lord. Joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit. God writes straight on crooked lines; delight in Him if you cannot delight in anybody else; delight in Him if you find no joy in yourself.
5. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Not merely petition the King and then go on worrying, but roll the burden upon the Lord. Then the matter becomes His rather than yours; He accepts the responsibility which is too heavy for you. Too often we shoulder the load again.
6. Rest in the Lord. Any doctor will prescribe rest in a case of fever; without it the patient is not likely to pull through. You must have rest; be still and see the salvation of the Lord, sit silent before God. Rubbing the eye is not likely to bring the mote out. Even if it does it will only inflame the optic more, and fretting is something like rubbing the eyes–it only increases the inflammation. Do not strive and struggle.
7. Wait patiently for Him. The buds of His purposes must not be torn rudely open. They will unfold of themselves if you will let them. If you try to expedite matters you will spoil the whole business. Gods time is the best time.
8. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Ah, I have heard of some people down with the fever who have been foolish enough to do things and to take things which are only calculated to add fuel to the fire. You cannot give up fretting until you begin to forgive. (T. Spurgeon.)
Fretting
1. Fretting in many cases supposes envy. Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious, etc. Asaph did this, and ha forcibly describes this painful and injurious process in the seventy-third psalm. It became too painful for him. He questioned the rectitude of Providence and the wisdom of God. Just then he was stopped; like Job, he said, Once have I spoken, but I will proceed no further; he fell on his face, confessing, I am foolish, I was envious! and soon the scene changed from darkness to light, from complaining to communion, from fretting to rest in God.
2. While the fretting mood lasts, while we are troubled because God withholds certain things from us which He gives so abundantly to others, expectation from God is excluded. Hope pines when the heart frets, and peace flutters outside that soul which care corrodes, and which complainings fill with discord.
3. Yet many excuses are often made for this line of conduct; and the more it is indulged in, the more it is justified. Wherefore should a living man complain? If a sinner, he has no right to do so; if a saint, no reason: for a sinner deserves hell at any moment, and a saint, though most unworthy, is on his way to a glorious heaven; and his very trials and deprivations are a means of preparing and training him for that better world. (John Cox.)
Fretting
I. The sin. Fretfulness is a sin against,–
1. Ourselves. Destroys peace of mind; the mother of bitterness, harshness, fault-finding.
2. Others. Robs homes of their happiness.
3. God. John Wesley once said, I dare no more fret than curse and swear. To have persons at my ears murmuring and fretting at everything, is like tearing the flesh from my bones. By the grace of God I am discontented at nothing. I see God sitting on His throne, and ruling all things.
II. The causes.
1. Envy.
2. Covetousness.
3. Want of faith in God. I have read that one of Cromwells friends was a fretting Christian, to whom everything went wrong. On a certain occasion, when unusually fretful, his sensible servant said, Master, dont you think that God governed the world very well before you came into it? Yes; but why do you ask? Master, dont you think God will govern the world very well after you go out of it? Of course I do. Well, then, cant you trust Him to govern it for the little time you are in it?
III. The cure.
1. Look on the bright side of things.
2. Look not merely at the present, but think of the future.
3. Have faith in God. Then you will welcome whatever comes, knowing that He can help, even by adverse circumstances. (J. Scilley.)
The cure for care
1. Fret not thyself. Do not get into a perilous heat about things. Keep cool! Even in a good cause fretfulness is not a wise helpmeet. Fretting only heats the bearings, it does not generate the steam. It is no help to a train for the axles to get hot; their heat is only a hindrance; the best contributions which the axles can make to the progress of the train is to keep cool.
2. How, then, is fretfulness to be cured? The psalmist brings in the heavenly to correct the earthly. The Lord is the refrain of almost every verse, as though it were only in the power of the heavenly that this dangerous fire could be subdued.
(1) Trust in the Lord. Trust! It is, perhaps, helpful to remember that the word which is here translated trust is elsewhere in the Old Testament translated careless. Be careless in the Lord! Instead of carrying a load of care let care be absent t It is the carelessness of little children running about the house in the assurance of their fathers providence and love.
(2) Delight thyself in the Lord. How beautiful the phrase! The literal significance is this, Seek for delicacies in the Lord. Yes, and if we only set about with ardent purpose to discover the delicacies of the Lords table, we should have no time and no inclination to fret. But this is just what the majority of us do not do. The delicacies of music are not found in the first half-dozen lessons; it is only in the later stages that we come to the exquisite. And so it is in art, and so it is in literature, and so it is with the things of the Lord. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. Let us be ambitious for the excellent! God has not yet given to us of His best. He always keeps the best wine until the last. When we sit at the table of the Lord, tasting of His delicacies, fretfulness will be unable to breathe.
(3) Commit thy way unto the Lord. Thy way! What is that? Any pure purpose, any worthy ambition, any duty, anything we have got to do, any road we have got to tread, all our outgoings. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Let us commit our beginnings unto Him, before we have gone wrong., let us have His companionship from the very outset of the journey. If I am going out alone, fretfulness will encounter me before I have gone many steps in the way; if I go out in the company of Jesus I shall have the peace that passeth understanding, and the heat of my life will be the ardour of an intense devotion:
(4) Rest in the Lord. Having done all this, and doing it all, trusting in the Lord, delighting in the Lord, committing my way unto the Lord, let me now just rest. Dont worry. Whatever happens, just refer it to the Lord! If it be anything injurious he will suppress it. If it be anything containing helpful ministry He will adapt it to our need. This is the cure for care. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
Discontent
David was peculiarly qualified to admonish the righteous as to their demeanour in relation to the ungodly. Never, perhaps, had man hotter conflicts with evil-doers and workers of iniquity, and never were more signal triumphs gained over malignant hosts. We need words of soothing such as are breathed in the text. There is enough in society, both profane and professedly religious, to vex the spirit and trouble it with bitterest grief.
I. That there has ever been a generation of evil-doers. All ages have been blackened with the shadow of evil-doers. Not a single century has been permitted to complete its revolution without being marred by their deadly presence! I ask you to mark the terrible energy implied in the designation workers of iniquity. Reference is not made to men who make a pastime of iniquity, or who occasionally commit themselves to its service, but to those who toil at it as a business. As the merchantman is industrious in commerce, as the philosopher is assiduous in study, as the artist is indefatigable in elaboration, so those slaves of iniquity toil in their diabolic pursuits with an ardour which the most powerful remonstrance seldom abates! They are always ready to serve their master.
II. That the servants of God are not to be moved from their course by the generation of the unrighteous. Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, etc. This language does not sanction carelessness as to the moral condition and destiny of the parties indicated. We need to mourn over it. But we are not to fret over evil-doers, though it be natural to do so, when we think of the terrible harm they do. You punish such men more severely by taking no notice of their malignity–they would rejoice in provoking retaliation. And these evil-doers are often prosperous in their way, whilst the good are often exposed to social hardships. Imagine not that secular prosperity is a pledge of Divine favour.
III. That a terrible doom awaits the generation of evildoers. For they shall soon be cut down, etc. Know ye of any such miserable spectacle as that of a human being cut down? As travellers have wandered over the ruins of classic temples, they have mourned their departed glory, but what are such ruins compared to the ruins of manhood? The heart that might have expanded with holiest emotion–wasted! The image of God an irrecoverable wreck! Imagination can paint no horrors so appalling. Though God uses not our chronometers in the measurement of time, yet the wicked themselves will have occasion to exclaim, We are soon cut down! You wrong your own souls in reasoning that to-morrow shall be as this day and more abundant. The hour of your fullest joy is the hour of highest danger. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.—
Fretful envy
I. A painful passion. There may be fretfulness where there is no envy. One may fret because of the tardy advancement of a cause dear to his heart, or because of the troubles of those in whom he is interested. There is a great deal of fretfulness that is almost constitutional, and therefore innocent and free from all envy; but there can be no envy where there is not fretfulness. What is envy? It is not merely a desire to possess that good which another has: that is emulation. To crave after that which gives power, and worth, and happiness is a laudable ambition. We are commanded to covet earnestly the best gifts. But envy is a malicious desire to possess what others have: it means their deprivation. Jealousy is a dread lest another shall possess what we wish for ourselves; envy is a dislike for another because he actually possesses the good desired; and because it is so impregnated with the malign it is always fretful. It is a grudging, growling passion; it is never at rest.
II. It is a foolish passion. It is directed against the most unenviable of characters. The workers of iniquity will be cut down like the grass.
III. Envying the wicked. Shall the imperial eagle, whose undazzled eye drinks in the splendours of a cloudless sun, envy the worm that never rose an inch beyond its native dust? Shall the sun itself envy the flickering rush-light which the feeblest breeze can extinguish? Shall the heaving ocean, bearing on its bosom the richest merchandise, and reflecting from its deep blue eye the glories of the firmament, envy the little summer pool, which a passing cloud has poured into a foot-print? Sooner shall such envy be called into existence than the true child of God envy the workers of iniquity. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM XXXVII
Godly directions for those who are in adversity not to envy the
prosperity of the wicked, because it is superficial, and of
short duration, 1-22;
to put their confidence in God, and live to his glory, as this
is the sure way to be happy in this life, and in that which is
to come, 23-40.
NOTES ON PSALM XXXVII
In the title this Psalm is attributed to David by the Hebrew, and by most of the Versions: but it is more likely it was intended as an instructive and consoling ode for the captives in Babylon, who might feel themselves severely tempted when they saw those idolaters in prosperity; and themselves, who worshipped the true God, in affliction and slavery. They are comforted with the prospect of speedy deliverance; and their return to their own land is predicted in not less than ten different places in this Psalm.
This Psalm is one of the acrostic or alphabetical kind: but it differs from those we have already seen, in having two verses under each letter; the first only exhibiting the alphabetical letter consecutively. There are a few anomalies in the Psalm. The hemistich, which should begin with the letter ain, has now a lamed prefixed to the word with which it begins, leolam; and the hemistich which should begin with tau (Ps 37:39) has now a vau prefixed, utheshuath. It appears also that the letters daleth, caph, and koph, have each lost a hemistich; and ain, half a one. The manner in which this Psalm is printed in Dr. Kennicott’s Hebrew Bible gives a full view of all these particulars. To the English reader some slighter differences may appear; but it should be observed, that the verses in our English Bibles are not always divided as those in the Hebrew. In all the Psalms that have a title, the title forms the first verse in the Hebrew; but our translation does not acknowledge any of those titles as a part of the Psalm, and very properly leaves them out of the enumeration of the verses.
Verse 1. Fret not thyself because of evil doers] It is as foolish as it is wicked to repine or be envious at the prosperity of others. Whether they are godly or ungodly, it is God who is the dispenser of the bounty they enjoy; and, most assuredly, he has a right to do what he will with his own. To be envious in such a case, is to arraign the providence of God. And it is no small condescension in the Almighty to reason with such persons as he does in this Psalm.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Fret not thyself, give not way to immoderate grief, or anger, or impatience,
because of evil-doers; because they prosper in their wicked enterprises, whilst thou art sorely afflicted.
Neither be thou envious, esteeming them happy, and secretly wishing that thou wert in their condition.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1, 2. The general sentiment ofthe whole Psalm is expressed. The righteous need not be vexed by theprosperity of the wicked; for it is transient, and their destinyundesirable.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Fret not thyself because of evildoers,…. The saints may be grieved at them and for them, because of their evil doings, and may be angry with them for them; yet are not to show any undue warmth, at least in an indecent way, by calling them opprobrious names; for the words may be rendered, “do not show thyself warm” or “angry” i: in a sinful way; or fret not at their outward prosperity, as it is explained
Ps 37:7. The Targum adds, “to be like them”, which agrees with
Ps 37:8;
neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity; that is, at their present temporal happiness; see Ps 73:3. The Targum adds, as before, to be joined with them; which sense some parallel places seem to incline to, Pr 3:31.
i “ne accendaris ira”, Junius Tremellius “ne exardescas”, Gejerus, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Olshausen observes, “The poet keeps entirely to the standpoint of the old Hebrew doctrine of recompense, which the Book of Job so powerfully refutes.” But, viewed in the light of the final issue, all God’s government is really in a word righteous recompense; and the Old Testament theodicy is only inadequate in so far as the future, which adjusts all present inconsistencies, is still veiled. Meanwhile the punitive justice of God does make itself manifest, as a rule, in the case of the ungodly even in the present world; even their dying is usually a fearful end to their life’s prosperity. This it is which the poet means here, and which is also expressed by Job himself in the Book of Job, Job 27:1. With , to grow hot or angry (distinct from , to emulate, Jer 12:5; Jer 22:15), alternates , to get into a glow, excandescentia , whether it be the restrained heat of sullen envy, or the incontrollable heat of impetuous zeal which would gladly call down fire from heaven. This first distich has been transferred to the Book of Proverbs, Pro 24:19, cf. Pro 23:17; Pro 24:1; Pro 3:31; and in general we may remark that this Psalm is one of the Davidic patterns for the Salomonic gnome system. The form is, according to Gesenius, Olshausen, and Hitzig, fut. Kal of , cognate , they wither away, pausal form for like , Psa 102:28; but the signification to cut off also is secured to the verb by the Niph. , Gen 17:11, whence fut. = ; vid., on Job 14:2; Job 18:16. is a genitival combination: the green ( viror) of young vigorous vegetation.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Exhortations and Promises. | |
A psalm of David.
1 Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. 2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. 3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. 4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. 5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. 6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.
The instructions here given are very plain; much need not be said for the exposition of them, but there is a great deal to be done for the reducing of them to practice, and there they will look best.
I. We are here cautioned against discontent at the prosperity and success of evil-doers (Psa 37:1; Psa 37:2): Fret not thyself, neither be thou envious. We may suppose that David speaks this to himself first, and preaches it to his own heart (in his communing with that upon his bed), for the suppressing of those corrupt passions which he found working there, and then leaves it in writing for instruction to others that might be in similar temptation. That is preached best, and with most probability of success, to others, which is first preached to ourselves. Now, 1. When we look abroad we see the world full of evil-doers and workers of iniquity, that flourish and prosper, that have what they will and do what they will, that live in ease and pomp themselves and have power in their hands to do mischief to those about them. So it was in David’s time; and therefore, if it is so still, let us not marvel at the matter, as though it were some new or strange thing. 2. When we look within we find ourselves tempted to fret at this, and to be envious against these scandals and burdens, these blemishes and common nuisances, of this earth. We are apt to fret at God, as if he were unkind to the world and unkind to his church in permitting such men to live, and prosper, and prevail, as they do. We are apt to fret ourselves with vexation at their success in their evil projects. We are apt to envy them the liberty they take in getting wealth, and perhaps by unlawful means, and in the indulgence of their lusts, and to wish that we could shake off the restraints of conscience and do so too. We are tempted to think them the only happy people, and to incline to imitate them, and to join ourselves with them, that we may share in their gains and eat of their dainties; and this is that which we are warned against: Fret not thyself, neither be thou envious. Fretfulness and envy are sins that are their own punishments; they are the uneasiness of the spirit and the rottenness of the bones; it is therefore in kindness to ourselves that we are warned against them. Yet that is not all; for, 3. When we look forward with an eye of faith we shall see no reason to envy wicked people their prosperity, for their ruin is at the door and they are ripening apace for it, v. 2. They flourish, but as the grass, and as the green herb, which nobody envies nor frets at. The flourishing of a godly man is like that of a fruitful tree (Ps. i. 3), but that of the wicked man is like grass and herbs, which are very short-lived. (1.) They will soon wither of themselves. Outward prosperity is a fading thing, and so is the life itself to which it is confined. (2.) They will sooner be cut down by the judgments of God. Their triumphing is short, but their weeping and wailing will be everlasting.
II. We are here counselled to live a life on confidence and complacency in God, and that will keep us from fretting at the prosperity of evil-doers; if we do well for our own souls, we shall see little reason to envy those that do so ill for theirs. Here are three excellent precepts, which we are to be ruled by, and, to enforce them, three precious promises, which we may rely upon.
1. We must make God our hope in the way of duty and then we shall have a comfortable subsistence in this world, v. 3. (1.) It is required that we trust in the Lord and do good, that we confide in God and conform to him. The life of religion lies much in a believing reliance on God, his favour, his providence, his promise, his grace, and a diligent care to serve him and our generation, according to his will. We must not think to trust in God and then live as we list. No; it is not trusting God, but tempting him, if we do not make conscience of our duty to him. Nor must we think to do good, and then to trust to ourselves, and our own righteousness and strength. No; we must both trust in the Lord and do good. And then, (2.) It is promised that we shall be well provided for in this world: So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. He does not say, “So shalt thou get preferment, dwell in a palace, and be feasted.” This is not necessary; a man’s life consists not in the abundance of these things; but, “Thou shalt have a place to live in, and that in the land, in Canaan, the valley of vision, and thou shalt have food convenient for thee.” This is more than we deserve; it is as much as a good man will stipulate for (Gen. xxviii. 20) and it is enough for one that is going to heaven. “Thou shalt have a settlement, a quiet settlement, and a maintenance, a comfortable maintenance: Verily thou shalt be fed.” Some read it, Thou shalt be fed by faith, as the just are said to live by faith, and it is good living, good feeding, upon the promises. “Verily thou shalt be fed, as Elijah in the famine, with what is needful for thee.” God himself is a shepherd, a feeder, to all those that trust in him, Ps. xxiii. 1.
2. We must make God our heart’s delight and then we shall have our heart’s desire, v. 4. We must not only depend upon God, but solace ourselves in him. We must be well pleased that there is a God, that he is such a one as he has revealed himself to be, and that he is our God in covenant. We must delight ourselves in his beauty, bounty, and benignity; our souls must return to him, and repose in him, as their rest, and their portion for ever. Being satisfied of his loving-kindness, we must be satisfied with it, and make that our exceeding joy, Ps. xliii. 4. We were commanded (v. 3) to do good, and then follows this command to delight in God, which is as much a privilege as a duty. If we make conscience of obedience to God, we may then take the comfort of a complacency in him. And even this pleasant duty of delighting in God has a promise annexed to it, which is very full and precious, enough to recompense the hardest services: He shall give thee the desires of thy heart. He has not promised to gratify all the appetites of the body and the humours of the fancy, but to grant all the desires of the heart, all the cravings of the renewed sanctified soul. What is the desire of the heart of a good man? It is this, to know, and love, and live to God, to please him and to be pleased in him.
3. We must make God our guide, and submit in every thing to his guidance and disposal; and then all our affairs, even those that seem most intricate and perplexed, shall be made to issue well and to our satisfaction, Psa 37:5; Psa 37:6. (1.) The duty is very easy; and, if we do it aright, it will make us easy: Commit thy way unto the Lord; roll thy way upon the Lord (so the margin reads it), Pro 16:3; Psa 55:22. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, the burden of thy care, 1 Pet. v. 7. We must roll it off ourselves, so as not to afflict and perplex ourselves with thoughts about future events (Matt. vi. 25), not to cumber and trouble ourselves either with the contrivance of the means or with expectation of the end, but refer it to God, leave it to him by his wise and good providence to order and dispose of all our concerns as he pleases. Retreat thy way unto the Lord (so the LXX.), that is, “By prayer spread thy case, and all thy cares about it, before the Lord” (as Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh, Judg. xi. 11), “and then trust in him to bring it to a good issue, with a full satisfaction that all is well that God does.” We must do our duty (that must be our care) and then leave the event with God. Sit still, and see how the matter will fall, Ruth iii. 18. We must follow Providence, and not force it, subscribe to Infinite Wisdom and not prescribe. (2.) The promise is very sweet. [1.] In general, “He shall bring that to pass, whatever it is, which thou hast committed to him, if not to thy contrivance, yet to thy content. He will find means to extricate thee out of thy straits, to prevent thy fears, and bring about thy purposes, to thy satisfaction.” [2.] In particular, “He will take care of thy reputation, and bring thee out of thy difficulties, not only with comfort, but with credit and honour: He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noon-day.” (v. 6), that is, “he shall make it to appear that thou art an honest man, and that is honour enough.” First, It is implied that the righteousness and judgment of good people may, for a time, be clouded and eclipsed, either by remarkable rebukes of Providence (Job’s great afflictions darkened his righteousness) or by the malicious censures and reproaches of men, who give them bad names which they no way deserve, and lay to their charge things which they know not. Secondly, It is promised that God will, in due time, roll away the reproach they are under, clear up their innocency, and bring forth their righteousness, to their honour, perhaps in this world, at furthest in the great day, Matt. xiii. 43. Note, If we take care to keep a good conscience, we may leave it to God to take care of our good name.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 37
GOD’S CARE FOR THE RIGHTEOUS
Seven words that are strongly emphasized in the Hebrew language appear in this Psalm as stepping stones from doubt to faith are: 1) Verse 1, “Fret not;” 2) Verse 3, “Trust;” 3) Verse 4, “Delight;” 4) Verse 5, “Commit;” 5) Verse 7, “Rest;” 6) Verse 8, “Cease;” 7) Verse 9, “Wait.”
Verses 1-40:
Temporary Care For The Righteous
In old age David wrote this Psalm explaining that the prosperity of the wicked was for but a short time in comparison with eternity. His prosperity does not extend beyond death. In this life he may glory, but in death horrors of fear and hell grip him, in which torment he shall exist forever, in a state of conscious self-condemnation Luk 16:25; Joh 3:36; Mar 16:16; Rev 14:11. But the blessed state of the righteous shall be one of glory and safety, Ecc 8:12-13; Pro 29:25. Heaven’s mathematics certify that “a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches and dividends of the wicked,” by investing both their lives and material possessions with view to honoring God, 1Ki 17:14; Pro 11:24; Luk 6:38.
Verse 1 admonishes one to “fret not” or avoid fretting because of evil-doers and continual workers of iniquity. Nor should one become envious of them for their seeming prosperity. For at the house of God, from the word of God, one may learn that their end is not well, Psa 73:3; Psa 73:16-17; One must not linger always among the wicked, Ecc 12:13-14; Pro 23:17; Pro 24:19.
Verse 2 adds that “they shall soon be cut down and wither like the grass and a green herb,” when struck by the sunshine and wind; The idea is that earthly prosperity, glory, and fame is a fading thing; Laughter and prosperity, without God, is vanity and a mockery. For it is the Lord who “giveth thee power to get wealth,” to whom gratitude must be returned, Deu 8:18; 1Pe 1:24-25; Jas 4:14-17.
Verse 3 calls for trust in the Lord, then “doing good,” out of gratitude for His salvation, with assurance “so shalt thou be fed,” Mat 6:33; For God “witholdeth no good thing from those who walk uprightly,” Psa 84:11. Doing good is an antidote to fretting, Jas 1:22.
Verses 4, 5 call upon one to delight himself in the Lord with assurance that He will give him the desires of his heart, Isa 58:14; Job 22:26; Job 27:10; Psa 20:5; Psa 21:2.
Verse 5 adds “commit,” thy way or roll your burden on the shoulder of the Lord, trust also in Him and He will bring it to pass,” as expressed 1Pe 5:7; Psa 16:3. See also Mat 6:25; Luk 12:22.
Verse 6 assures that with delightful commitment of ones soul and life to the Lord he will bring forth ones righteousness to be as helpful as the light; and his judgment will the Lord vindicate, from false charges of the ungodly, a thing that will make them shine like the noonday sun, Mic 7:9; Mat 5:15-16; Job 11:17; Isa 58:8; Rev 22:12.
Verse 7 admonishes one to “rest,” be silent or patient in the Lord, in His will, and wait patiently for Him. Do not take things in to your own hands, until you know you are in His will, Joh 7:17; Do not fret because of the prosperity of the wicked, v.1, or the one who engages in wickedness. To entertain such thoughts is sin, v.1, 8; Pro 24:9; Jer 12:1.
Verse 8 calls on one to cease or refrain from anger, and turn his back, or walk away from wrath. Let these no more live in your life than you would have snakes in your bedroom, rats in your cupboard, or termites in the foundation and walls of your home, Eph 4:30-32. As in verses 1, 7, a third time he appeals, “fret not thyself in anywise, under any circumstance, to do evil,” because others are doing it, seem to be immune for a brief time from suffering for it, Eph 4:26. See also Col 3:8; Gal 3:19-20; Pro 25:28.
Verses 9, 10 warn that evil doers, those going on in sin shall be cut off. In a little while they will no longer prosper in their sins, but come to a grim day of reaping, Num 32:23; Ecc 12:14. Their days shall be cut short or limited, as declared Psa 55:23. But those who wait upon the Lord shall inherit the earth, Gal 6:9; Heb 10:36-37; Psa 25:13; Rom 8:17-18.
Verse 11 assures that “the meek shall inherit (have an heritage in) the earth; and delight themselves (or have pleasure) in the abundance of peace,” as declared Mat 5:5; through Jesus, the promised Prince of Peace, Isa 2:4; Isa 9:6; Hos 2:18; Zec 9:10. It will be after “the wicked are cut off,” v.9, 10; Joh 14:27; Joh 16:33; Col 3:15.
Verses 12, 13 assert that tho the wicked continually plot against the just and ferociously gnashes upon and against him with his teeth, the Lord shall “laugh at him,” with scorn and derision, because of his insolence. For the Lord sees that the day of the wicked’s judgment, tho deferred in mercy, is surely coming, as winter follows autumn, Psa 2:4; Pro 1:26-30; See also Psa 137:7; Eze 7:7; Act 17:30-31.
Verses 14,15 disclose that the wicked have drawn the sword and bent the bow to strike down, subject the poor, and slay those who have upright conversation or course of conduct. It is added that their “sword shall enter into their own heart and their bow shall be broken,” as described 1Sa 17:50-51. See also Psa 7:15-16; Mat 26:52; Rev 13:10.
Verse 16 declares that “a little that a righteous man has,” gotten honestly, is better, more to be desired than the riches of many (so many) wicked,” as described at length, Pro 3:33; Pro 13:25; Pro 15:16; Pro 16:8; Ecc 2:26; Ecc 4:6; Mat 6:11; 1Ti 6:6. A “little” with righteousness, is better than half a world without God, Mar 8:34; Mar 8:38.
Verse 17 then certifies that “the arms (or strength) of the wicked shall be broken” so that they have no longer power to execute schemes against the righteous or the poor, Psa 10:15. This is why the “little” of the righteous is better than the riches of the wicked, as related by our Lord, in the story of the foolish, covetous barn builder and the rich man, neighbor to the poor, righteous Lazarus, Luk 12:19-21; Luk 16:25.
Verses 18, 19 further declare that the “Lord knows,” takes knowledge of “the days of the upright,” and that “their inheritance shall be forever,” unfading, passing not away, 1Pe 1:4-5; Rom 8:17-18. It is added that “they,” the upright in body and soul, shall not be ashamed in the evil time, the time of judgment for every evil deed, Ecc 12:14; 1Co 3:13-14. And in the days of famine for the wicked, “they,” the upright, shall be satisfied, have every need supplied, by Him who never leaves His own as orphans, Heb 13:5.
Verse 20 reveals that the wicked shall perish, be brought to great suffering and loss; and the enemies of the Lord shall be consumed in smoke, like the fat of lambs, in the sacrifices, even to the praise of the righteous judgment of God upon those who despised Him, until too late, Pro 29:1; Jas 5:5; Mar 9:49; Rom 2:4-5; Pro 1:26-30; Heb 4:7; Rev 22:17.
Verse 21 reflects the general character of covetousness and greed of the wicked to borrow and neglect to repay in contrast with the redeemed nature of the righteous that is inclined to show mercy, compassion, and long-suffering in both giving and lending to the poor, as discussed in the basic Law of Moses, v.26; Deu 15:6; Deu 28:22; Deu 28:44.
Verse 22 states that those who are blessed of the righteous and of the Lord shall inherit the earth or have an heir-setting with the Lord on the earth, Mat 5:5; 1Pe 1:3-5; Rev 5:9-10. And those who are cursed by the Lord shall be cut off from His mercy and blessings and be finally damned in hell and a lake of fire and brimstone, Mar 16:16; Rev 20:12-15; Rev 21:8; Psa 32:1; Psa 128:1; Pro 3:33.
Verses 23, 24 certify that the steps of the godly man, the man with a godly nature, the one who is born again, a hero for God, is ordered, directed or set in order or stabilized by the Lord, who delights or takes pleasure in his godly ways, as he walks an holy, separated life of service; Such is attested or verified 1Sa 2:9; Job 23:11; Psa 17:5; Psa 85:13; Psa 12:3; Pro 16:9; Pro 10:23. See also Psa 40:2; Pro 4:26.
Verse 24 asserts that “tho he (a good or godly man) fall, for the best of men, do as Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Peter, etc., he shall not (not may not, has a good chance of not) but shall not, (a Divine certified absolute) be utterly cast down, or cast down to hell,” as “good-works-trusting” apostatizers erroneously teach. “For the Lord continually upholds (or supports) him by His hand,” in which every true believer is held; Herein exists the source of true security, Joh 10:27-30; Joh 5:24; 1Jn 5:13; Php_1:6; Mat 14:31; Mic 7:8; 2Co 4:9; Luk 22:31-34.
Verses 25, 26 recount that David tho once young had now come to old age, having never seen the righteous deserted, nor his seed (offspring) continually begging bread, as David had once done, temporarily, from Nabal. For the Lord had given a covenant pledge to bless the offspring of those who lived righteously, Exo 20:5-6; Mat 6:33; Psa 84:11; Rom 8:23; Rom 8:32.
Verse 26 adds that the good or godly man is ever, continually, merciful and lendeth; therefore his seed will be blessed, in harmony with the Divine covenant, Exo 20:6, as set forth in v.21 above; Deu 15:6; Deu 28:22; Deu 28:44.
Verse 27 exhorts the righteous to depart or turn away from evil and do or practice doing good things, and in this one can dwell or reside with peace permanently, unmoved by trouble, v.3, 11; Exo 20:12; Jas 1:22.
Verse 28 relates that the Lord (continually) loves judgment, on the basis of His holiness of nature and righteousness of deeds, in exercising justice on the good and the evil, Psa 11:7. He will not forsake or desert His saints, v.25; Heb 13:5; Pro 3:3-5; Psa 34:7; Joh 10:27-30. They are preserved forever, Joh 5:24. If any is ever lost it must be after “forever” has passed away! See? This is security for those in the Lord, 2Ti 1:12. But, it is concluded, the “seed of the wicked are cut off,” Psa 9:17.
Verse 29 asserts that the seed of the righteous, of the Son of God, the saved, shall inherit the land, planet-earth, and dwell in it forever, as the new heaven and the new earth, Rev 5:9-10; 1Pe 1:3-5; Rev 21:1-6; 2Pe 3:11-13.
Verses 30, 31 fortell that the mouth of the righteous continually or repeatedly speaks with wisdom or discretion and his tongue talks or communicates of judgment, of personal responsibility, accountability, and praise as expressed Psa 19:14; Psa 51:15. It is added that the “law of God is in his heart, as a security guard or sentinel, so that none of his steps shall slide,” Psa 40:8; Exo 19:1; Psa 119:11. The words of the mouth, and actions of the tongue before ones neighbor, in the light of the law of the Lord, in the heart, does keep or guard one from backsliding before God, Col 4:5-6; Deu 6:6; Psa 1:1-3.
Verses 32, 33 declare that the wicked “eyeballs” the righteous, and seeks to slay him, remove him from his sight, Luk 9:53-54; Psa 10:8; Joh 15:19; Joh 15:25. But the Lord will not leave him or desert him in his hand nor condemn him when he is wickedly judged by the world. Nor will he class him with the wicked (Heb yarshihinew) in the hour of Divine judgment, Psa 109:7; Psa 109:31. See also Rom 2:8-9; 2Th 1:6; 2Th 1:8-10.
Verse 34 calls for the righteous, under persecution, to wait on the God of the world, casting himself upon Him as his defense and defender. With the assurance that the Lord will exalt him, in due season, to inherit the land before his enemies, whom he shall see cut off, even as Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore, Exo 14:30; Psa 58:10; Isa 66:24.
Verses 35, 36 relate that David had observed the wicked, while in temporary prosperity, in the rightful land of the covenant people Israel, spreading himself with seeming formidable power and flourishing like a green bay tree. Yet, he too had seen them conquered, driven out of the land, so that when he sought him he could not be found, even as Sennacherib did, 2Ki 18:35-37.
Verse 37 appeals “mark (take note of) the perfect or mature man,” the upright or righteous man in heart and deed, 1Ki 8:61. For the end of that man or that kind of man is peace … peace with the Prince of peace, Mat 5:45; Joh 14:27; Joh 16:33; Rom 5:1. The “peace” of the righteous is in contrast with the “cutting off” of the wicked, v.34. See also Job 1:1; Job 42:12; 2Ti 4:6; 2Ti 4:8; Isa 32:17; Isa 57:2; Luk 2:25-29; Act 7:59-60; 1Th 4:17; 2Pe 1:14.
Verse 38 concludes that the transgressors shall be destroyed together, brought to final judgment together, at the great white throne judgment, Rev 20:11-15. The ultimate end of the wicked when they are cut off is (Heb acharith) when they meet the final consequence of their unbelief and deeds, Ecc 12:14; Mar 16:16.
Verse 39 contrasts “the salvation (liberation) of the righteous to be or exist of the Lord; Even as their strength in and through the time of trouble, Psa 3:8; Isa 12:2; Joh 2:9; Eph 2:8. See also Psa 9:9; Psa 46:1; Psa 91:15; Psa 33:2; Col 1:11.
Verse 40 certifies that the Lord shall help the righteous, in and through life, and secure their final and complete liberation from the wicked, shall save them, because they trust in Him, as also pledged Psa 17:13; Psa 27:2; 1Jn 2:13-14; 1Jn 5:18; 1Ch 5:20; 1Ch 22:4; Dan 3:17; Dan 6:28.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. Fret not thyself because of the wicked. David lays down this as a general principle, that the prosperity of the wicked, in which they greatly rejoice, should on no account vex or disquiet the children of God, because it will soon fade away. On the other hand, although the people of God are afflicted for a time, yet the issue of their afflictions shall be such, that they have every reason to be contented with their lot. Now all this depends upon the providence of God; for unless we are persuaded that the world is governed by him in righteousness and truth, our minds will soon stagger, and at length entirely fail us. David then condemns two sinful affections of the mind, which are indeed closely allied, and the one of which is generated by the other. He first enjoins the faithful not to fret on account of the wicked; and, secondly, that they should not indulge an envious spirit towards them. For, in the first place, when they see the wicked enjoying prosperity, from which it might naturally be supposed that God regards not the affairs of men, there is a danger lest they should shake off the fear of God, and apostatise from the faith. Then another temptation follows, namely, that the influence of the example of the wicked excites in them a desire to involve themselves in the same wickedness with them. This is the natural sense. The Hebrew words, אל-תתחר, al-tithechar, which we have rendered, Fret not thyself, are by some translated, Do not mingle thyself with. (16) But this interpretation is too forced, and may be disproved by the context; for in the eighth verse, where mention is expressly made of wrath and anger, it would surely be absurd to interpret in another sense the same verb which immediately follows these two words, and which is there used in the same sense and for the same end as in this first verse. In the second place, the order which David observes is very natural; for when the prosperity of the wicked has irritated our minds, we very soon begin to envy them their happiness and ease. First, then, he exhorts us to be on our guard, lest a happiness which is only transitory, or rather imaginary, should vex or disquiet us; and, secondly, lest envy should lead us to commit sin. The reason by which he enforces this exhortation is added in the following verse: for if the wicked flourish to-day like the grass of the field, to-morrow they shall be cut down and wither. We need not wonder that this similitude is often to be met with in the sacred writings, since it is so very appropriate; for we see how soon the strength of the grass decays, and that when cast down by a blast of wind, or parched with the heat of the sun, even without being cut by the hand of man, it withers away. (17) In like manner, David tells us that the judgment of God, like a scythe in the hand of man, shall cut down the wicked, so that they shall suddenly perish.
(16) That is, do not enter into fellowship with.
(17) The fitness of this figure to express the transient and short-lived character of the prosperity of the wicked, will appear in a still more striking light when we take into consideration the great heat of the climate of Palestine.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE RIGHTEOUS VS. THE WICKED
Psalms 37-39
AN OUTLINE.
COUNSEL37.
Exercise faith versus fretfulness.
Fret not thyself because of evil doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass.
And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.
For evil doers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.
For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.
But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.
The Lord shall laugh at him: for He seeth that his day is coming.
The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation.
Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.
A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.
For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the Lord upholdeth the righteous.
The Lord knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever.
They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.
For such as be blessed of Him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of Him shall be cut off (Psa 37:1-22).
Expect mercy versus judgment.
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in His way.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed.
Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.
For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.
The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.
The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.
The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.
The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.
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.
I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.
Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him! but he could not be found.
Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace,
But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.
But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: He is their strength in the time of trouble.
And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them: He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in Him (Psa 37:23-40).
CONFESSION38.
He finds no soundness in himself.
O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath: neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure.
For Thine arrows stick fast in me, and Thy hand presseth me sore.
There is no soundness in my flesh because of Thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.
For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.
I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.
Lord, all my desire is before Thee; and my groaning is not hid from Thee.
My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me (Psa 38:1-10).
His hope is alone in God.
My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.
They also that seek after my life lay snares for me; and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.
But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.
Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.
For in Thee, O Lord, do I hope: Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.
For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me,
For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me,
For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin,
But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.
They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is.
Forsake me not, O Lord: O my God, be not far from me.
Make haste to kelp me, O Lord my salvation (Psa 38:11-22).
CONSIDERATION39.
His resolutions did not stand him in stead.
I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.
My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,
Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am,
Behold, Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before Thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.
Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them (Psa 39:1-6).
His deliverance is a matter of mercy only.
And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in Thee.
Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.
I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because Thou didst it.
Remove Thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of Thine hand.
When Thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity.
Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not Thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more (Psa 39:7-13).
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
INTRODUCTION
This psalm was probably written by David in his old age, and contains his experience in reference to the providential dealings of God with men. It acknowledges the transient prosperity of the wicked, but places in sublime contrast therewith the confidence and destiny of the good, and proves clearly that the latter have little cause to envy the former. It is folly to envy a man because be is clothed in the garb of a king; he may, after all, be only a pauper in disguise.
THE TRANSIENT PROSPERITY OF THE WICKED UNWORTHY THE ENVY OF THE GOOD
(Psa. 37:1-2.)
I. That there is apparently much in the prosperity of the wicked to excite the fretful envy of the good.
It cannot be denied that wicked men are often in great prosperity even while the pious are poor and despised. They are eminent in social position and fortunate in commercial speculation; hence they are surrounded by all that heart could wish. This is a matter of history. It is also a matter of everyday experience. In this life the wicked are prosperous. They live for this life alone, they are often cunning and selfish; hence it is not to be wondered at that they succeed in it. And they always take good care to display their grandeur, so that it may be universally seen and admired. Hence they are the occasion of perplexity to the good, and often of desponding thoughts and envious feelings. It is hard to understand how it is that so many good things should fall to the lot of characters so unworthy of them, while the children of God are in comparative need. At such a sight it is difficult to realise that Heaven is just in its providential dealings with men. But this thought will come with devotion (Psa. 73:16-17).
II. That it is foolish to envy the prosperity of the wicked, because it is only of temporary duration.
It is impossible not to regard the temporary prosperity of the wicked; the good cannot be indifferent to it; it is thrust upon their attention. But the good are not obliged to envy it, or to be ill-tempered at it. Their envy will do no good. It will not alter things, or make them better. This social condition is permitted by Heaven. It must, therefore, be accepted by the devout mind as appropriate, as a token of the beneficence of God in that He will permit such distinguished mercy to attend a wicked life. But the prosperity of the wicked will only be transient, as the beauty of the grass, or as the momentary bloom of the flower. And, therefore, it is not worthy of envy, as it is prosperity of the lowest kind, and will soon wither in the grave; whereas, though the good may endure a long period of want, yet it will only be as a prelude to the eternal wealth and enjoyment of heaven. Surely, then, they have no need to envy the temporal prosperity of the wicked.
III. That it is sinful to envy the prosperity of the wicked, because it is contrary to the command of God.
The Bible clearly reveals the fact that envy is a sinful passion, and that it is the outcome of an impure heart. A good man cannot indulge envy, or he will soon be little better in moral character than those whose prosperity he may contemplate. Envy is forbidden by God. It is an unhallowed flame within the soul. It hinders prayer. It leads to oppression. It is contrary to the example of Christ. Hence if good men would keep their souls in harmony with the law of God; if they would be contented in spirit and happy in life, they must not yield to the dire sentiment of envy.
IV. That it is injurious to envy the prosperity of the wicked, because it awakens the lower sentiments of the soul.
There is no lower passion of which man is capable than that of envy. It is a mean and unhappy companion. It looks askance at every one it meets. In its light a friend may be turned into an enemy. And for a good man to give himself up to it, would indeed be to allow the lower feelings of his soul to gain the mastery over all that is true and magnanimous within him. A pure soul cannot indulge envy.
V. That it is presumptuous to envy the prosperity of the wicked, because it is rebellion against the providence of God.
God has a certain method of providence in the universe, and it ill becomes good men to rebel against it. It is just. It is disciplinary. It will ultimately be adjusted to all the moral requirements of the universe. The good should therefore be patient, not fretful. They can afford to wait. They have moral prosperity, they need not therefore envy secular pride. They must fall in with the providence of God, even though at times it may be of difficult interpretation.
LESSONS:
1. Not to cultivate an envious outlook upon the social conditions of men.
2. To trust in God during the enigmas of the present, and wait the final adjustment of all things.
THE DISPOSITIONS AND BENEDICTIONS OF THE GOOD
(Psa. 37:3-11.)
In the opening verses of this psalm we are told of the dispositions which should and should not characterise a pious soul It should not be fretful or envious. It should be trustful. It should be joyous. It should be meek. These dispositions win the benediction of Heaven The blessings of the soul are intimately allied to its moral dispositions. Men find the world what they make it by their own inner spirit.
I. The dispositions that should characterise a godly life.
1. Trust. Trust in the Lord. If men would avoid a fretful spirit, they should trust in the Lord. Faith is the noblest disposition of the soul, and is an antidote for envy. It has an elevating influence upon the moral character of those who exercise it. The Lord is worthy of the confidence of men. He is omnipotent, and cannot fail. He is faithful, and will never forsake. The good may therefore confide their life, temporal circumstances, their reputation, and the government of the universe to Him, knowing that He will order all for their ultimate spiritual welfare. Trust not in man, not even in yourself. Trust in God must also be followed by appropriate effort; only they who do good have any right to expect Divine help.
2. Joy. Delight thyself also in the Lord. Hence the joy of the good is not carnal and sinful, but spiritual and pure. It is delight in the Supreme Being, in His character and perfections, in the noblest love, and in the highest wisdom; hence it is eminently real and secure. In what better object can the soul delight? In uncertain riches? In fleeting pleasure? In dying friendship? The joy of the Lord is our strength both in sorrow and in service. God delights in the good, and what more reasonable than that they should rejoice in Him. The life of the Christian is one of holy delight in the Eternal. Faith inspires delight.
3. Devotion. Commit thy way unto the Lord. The good are not to take the sole guidance and responsibility of their own life. They are to commit their way, their sorrow, their moral imperfections, their mental perplexities, their domestic cares, and their temporal circumstances, entirely into the hands of the Lord. They are to do this by prayer, with faith, in delight In this consists true piety. Though the great God has the vast concerns of the universe to watch over, He is willing to direct the individual life committed to His care. Some men commit their way unto reason; some to impulse; and some to passion. But God is the only true guardian of the way of an immortal soul.
4. Rest. Rest in the Lord. This is the duty and privilege of the good. This is not a world for much repose; men are anxious and active; they make haste to be rich; they pursue pleasure ardently; they are tormented by care: they are unrestful. But religion gives moral quietude. It calms the soul. It silences the voice of complaint. God is the only true resting-place of the soul; but what a sweet rest is found in Him! See, then, the accompaniments of faith, joy, devotion, rest Faith bears blessed fruit.
5. Patience. Wait patiently. The good must be patient in suffering, in serviceunder adverse circumstances, when their reputation is maligned, and when the mystery of life presses heavily upon them. God is worth waiting for. His time is the best. Men tarry for the king. Time should not be considered in waiting for the King of heaven. The splendour of His advent will more than compensate for the delay.
6. Meekness. But the meek shall inherit the earth. The good should be meek and contented with their lot, not haughty, defiant, or restless. Hence we see the dispositions which should characterise a pious soul, and the benedictions they attain, and the admiration they win.
II. The benedictions that are bestowed upon a godly life.
1. That a godly life is watched over by the beneficent providence of God. Thou shalt dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. The Divine providence enables the good to feel at home in this world, even though they do not regard it as their home. They dwell in the land because it is the property of their Father in heaven, and He gives them the right to reside in it. Thus their temporal and moral requirements will be met. They will be fed with the bread that perisheth, as also with the bread that cometh down from heaven. Truth is the sustenance of the soul, and it shall never be lacking to the good.
2. That a godly life is privileged by the gratification of its best desires. He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. The desires of the good are the outcome of their trust and delight in the Lord, and therefore may safely be granted. Man is a creature of desire. He often longs for that he can never attain. His aspirations are often ambitious, and, if realised, would prove injurious. But the inclinations of the good are pure and spiritual, they are in harmony with the will of God and the welfare of the soul. Religion alone can give true satisfaction to human desire.
3. That a godly life shall be vindicated from the slander and calumny of men. And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light. The good are often maligned in this world by those who envy the beauty of their characters and the glory of their reputation. Sometimes this is the outcome of sheer malice, and occasionally of wanton mischief. But from the darkness of calumny God will bring the good into the light of day, when men shall see the untarnished beauty of their characters, the injury that has been done them, and the tender solicitude of Heaven for the public vindication of the pure.
4. That a godly life is enriched by a true ownership of the earth. But the meek shall inherit the earth. The world is not inherited by the busy or by those who are given to speculation, but by the meek. They inherit it by their contented spirit, and because they enjoy it. It is the gift of their Father to them, and they possess its title-deeds in Christ. The meek are the true and permanent inheritors of the soil; they will inherit the new heaven and the new earth.
5. That a godly life shall experience a sweet and affluent peace. And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. A godly life is generally characterised by peacefulness. It is at peace with self, with God, and with the universe. Its peace is affluent; it is a delight; it is divinely given to the pure. My peace I give unto you. Weak men are agitated by the storms of earth, while good men know the peace of God which passeth all understanding, and anticipate a destiny of peace which shall never be broken by sorrow or sin.
LESSONS:
1. To cultivate the dispositions of soul commended by God.
2. To expect the benedictions of Heaven promised to a trustful soul.
THE PLOTTINGS OF THE WICKED AGAINST THE GOOD
(Psa. 37:12-15.)
That the wicked plot against the just is matter of history, and also of everyday experience. They envy the moral character of the good, with the respect it wins and the influence it wields. They cannot interpret its inner meaning or understand the secret of its modest power. They are also rebuked by the quiet dignity of the Christian character, and hence, through sheer hatred, seek to persecute and remove it out of their sight. To this end they employ their best genius and cunning, and await the result with the utmost complacency, little thinking that Heaven holds them and their schemes in derision.
I. The plottings of the wicked against the good are wrathful. And gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The wicked show by their gestures the rage they indulge against, and injury they would inflict upon, the good if it were in their power. They gnash with their teeth, thus indicating their angry but curbed rage. They have not the ability or the opportunity to accomplish the mischief their violent passion would devise. Sinners are held in check by the restraining providence of God, by legal penalties, and often by the sheer force of public opinion, which favours the welfare of the good. But if the wicked cannot always execute their plottings against the just, they do not disguise their anger; they little think how morally impotent and vulgar their puny gnashing makes them appear. They show that they are the creatures of a passion they cannot vent.
II. The plottings of the wicked against the good are cruel. The wicked have drawn out the sword. They have drawn the weapon out of the sheath and await the time to use it. They do not seek to overcome the just by Scripture truth, by logical argument, or by cultured means, but by the cruel and deadly instrument of war. They employ no half measures, as they vainly imagine. They repose more confidence in the physical and material agency than in the intellectual and the moral. In seeking the injury of the good, they would prefer a sword to any other instrumentality. They shrink not from murder if their rage can only achieve its malicious design. They are of the lowest type of mind.
III. The plottings of the wicked against the good are determined. And have bent their bow. They not merely carry a sword, but also a bow; nor would they refuse any other instrument likely to accomplish their mischievous design upon the good. They bend the bow with all the determination of will they can possibly summon. They take steady aim that they may wound a vital part. And thus the wicked, in their plottings against the just, make use of all the instrumentalities they can command, exercise all the talents they possess, and are strong in their determination to achieve the end they contemplate.
IV. The plottings of the wicked against the good are cowardly. To cast down the poor and needy. The wicked do not seek to engage in conflict with the strong amongst the good, who would be competent to expose and vanquish their plottings, but with the poor and needy. They attack the feeble who are too meek in spirit to suspect their mischief, or to defend themselves from it; they attack the poor who have not wherewith to protect themselves from the assaults of their imperious enemies. Wicked men are generally cowardly. They have not the courage of their rage, or the valour of their determination.
V. The plottings of the wicked against the good are self-destructive. Their sword shall enter into their own heart. The very weapon intended for the destruction of the good, under the mysterious but retributive arrangements of Divine Providence, shall be employed in the defeat of the wicked. The wicked are often hung upon gallows built by themselves. Their plottings are self-destructive; they are vain; they are useless; their bows are broken; their agencies are cut off; their plans are defeated; they outwit themselves; they invite the derision and retribution of heaven.
LESSONS:
1. That it is foolish for the wicked to plot against the good.
2. Such plottings are intelligible to the good, being explained by the enmity of the world to Christ.
3. Such plottings are not to be feared, but are to be outlived by trust in God.
THE RIGHTEOUS AND HIS LITTLE BETTER THAN THE WICKED WITH HIS MUCH
(Psa. 37:16.)
It is a fact of everyday observation that the righteous often have little, while the ungodly have much. The little may be better than the much. This is the arithmetic of Heaven, not of the world. Why is the little better?
I. Because it is honestly gained. The little that a righteous man hath is sure to be honestly gained. It will be either the product of healthy labour, of commendable skill, or of lawful inheritance. This cannot always be said of the riches of the wicked; they are often got by fraud, by cunning, from the orphan, and the widow. The way in which wealth is obtained has much to do with its real value.
II. Because it may be safely retained. The little that a righteous man bath is far more likely to be safely retained than are the riches of the wicked. The former are careful in the use, prayerful in the investment, and unselfish in the gift of their little; while the latter are spendthrift, godless, and selfish in the use of their much. Prayer and benevolence are a great preservative to wealth.
III. Because it may be truly enjoyed. The little of the righteous is rightfully earned, and, therefore, may be truly enjoyed; whereas the much of the wicked is often unjustly gained, and is, therefore, associated with unhappy deeds, with unwelcome memories, with self-accusation, and with a fear of retribution. It cannot be truly enjoyed.
IV. Because it will be carefully spent. It is just possible that the little of the righteous will go farther than the great riches of the wicked. The righteous are careful but not miserly; they gather up the fragments that nothing may be lost. The wicked are often speculative, and lose more than they win. They are spendthrift; they make a boast of their prodigality; they are well bled by flatterers and by sinful accomplices.
V. Because it will be benevolently used. The little of the righteous will be given to the Lord; to His cause on the earth; to His poor; and to institutions worthy of help. Men lose nothing by giving to the prophet of the Lord (1Ki. 17:14; Pro. 11:24). The righteous gain by giving. The wicked lose by withdrawing. A running stream inherits the most territory.
VI. Because it will be divinely blessed. The righteous can justly expect the blessing of God upon their little, because it is honestly gained and it is benevolently used. The wicked have no right to anticipate the benediction of Heaven upon their riches. No man is rich without the blessing of God.
LESSONS:
1. To be satisfied with little.
2. To make little sufficient.
3. To use little well.
CONTRASTED CHARACTERS
(Psa. 37:16-28.)
We have in these verses a fine contrast between the wicked and the righteous. It is drawn by unerring skill, after minute observation, and is in keeping with the general experience of mankind. The wicked and the good:
I. They are contrasted in their possessions. A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. The wicked often have greater property and wealth than the good, but they are not content therewith; yea, they are even unrestful in its possession. Whereas the righteous have little, but, by the quietude of their soul, their little becomes much, and is a true enjoyment to them. Wicked men are troubled by their much (Luk. 12:16). Good men are grateful for their little (Psa. 103:2).
II. They are contrasted in their strength. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the Lord upholdeth the righteous. The arms are a token of power and strength, and the arms of the wicked shall be broken. They shall be broken by the retributive providence of God, and by the failure of their own schemes. What a pitiable sight they present! Revengeful, yet armless. Like Samson shorn of his strength. The strength of the good man does not consist in his arms, hence there is no reference to them, but in the inspiring energy of God. He is upheld by the Lord, hence his superior power and safety.
III. They are contrasted in their perpetuity. The Lord knoweth the days of the upright; and their inheritance shall be for ever. But the wicked shall perish. The good are known by God. He knows their present estate and their future glory. He sees their trials, and also the weight of glory in reserve for them. He beholds the sword unsheathed, and the bow bent against them, but no weapon formed against them can prosper. The times of the good are in the hand of the Lord, hence He will deliver them from special calamities, and will feed them when famine is prevalent. But the wicked shall perish,they have no defence against their enemies, they have no granary in Egypt to which they can flee in the days of famine. They will perish ignobly, irreparably, and eternally. This will be the end of their hatred, cunning, and wealth.
IV. They are contrasted in their integrity. The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous showeth mercy and giveth. Though the wicked have great wealth, they are often under the necessity of borrowing money, because they are prodigal. They borrow to meet the demands of extravagant habits, of sinful pleasures, and of accomplices in vices. Sin is very expensive. It involves in hopeless debt, and oftentimes to those against whom the sword has been unsheathed. The wicked pay not again. They are not willing to reform their extravagant habits, they are not willing to work, and they are dishonest at heart, and so they pay not their debts, even though they violate their most sacred bonds. The righteous lend to the wicked, they are merciful and generous in spirit. Their wealth was lent to them, and they are willing to lend it again, and to receive their usury from Him who ever rewards a beneficent deed. The plottings of the wicked do not interrupt the benevolent dispositions of the good. It is better to lend than to borrow.
V. They are contrasted in their posterity. Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. But the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. David had not seen the seed of the righteous begging bread. He was a king, and would not be likely to meet with such poverty. Yet his experience was wide in the matter, and he was competent to pass an opinion. The children of good men are seen begging; but very seldom. This is the exception, the rule is in harmony with the statement of this verse. The children of the wicked are cut off, they inherit from their parents the seeds of destruction (Pro. 3:33).
LESSONS:
1. Which character is the more inviting, the more prosperous, the more enduring?
2. Which will you cultivate?
THE RIGHTEOUS
(Psa. 37:29-34.)
The psalmist found congenial employment in writing about good men, and their relation to God, to His government, and to the world at large. He delighted to show the Divine care for the good, their excellencies of character, the protection they enjoyed, and the future they anticipated. The righteous:
I. The land he inherits. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever. The righteous inherit the earth, the world in which they now are, they inherit it as the sons of God through Christ, and, standing on Calvary, all that they can see from that hill is theirs. They will dwell eternally in this world by the work they do, by the influences they exert, by the inspiration they impart, and by the silent testimony they leave behind (Heb. 11:4).
II. The wisdom he speaks. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. Good men are known by their speech, they talk on good subjects, and talk on them wisely. He converses about moral questions, his tongue talketh of judgment. He speaks not about the follies of the age, he has no interest in the gossip of the weak,he prefers the deeper and more solemn themes of life and destiny.
III. The law he keeps. The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide. This is the secret of his wise speech. Men who know God, and who search His law, are furnished with themes for noble conversation, and are imbued with a true spirit of wisdom. If men would read the Bible more, they would talk more wisely. The good man not merely reads the law, he not merely knows it, but it is resident within him as a vital and transformative principle (Psa. 119:11). Obedience to this law is elevating, preserving, safe, and sanctifying. It is the highest law, and obedience to it is the most influential and worthy.
IV. The safety he enjoys. The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him. The Lord will not leave him in his hand. The righteous are watched by deceptive and cruel men, they are often unconscious of this peril. But they have another watcher, even the Lord who is their Sun and Shield. The Divine Guardian is greater and more vigilant than the human foe. Jesus was watched by His enemies.
V. The condemnation he escapes. Nor condemn him when he is judged. In this world the righteous are often condemned, by secret slander, by cruel hatred, by violent plots, by public opinion, and even by the legal tribunals of the land. But there comes a day when their condemnation will be reversed, their shame will be removed, their characters will be cleared, and infinite justice will receive them into its eternal protection. The good can afford to wait this time, and no doubt many long for it to turn their darkness into light, their sadness into joy. A false sentence is now passed on moral goodness; the future will reveal its injustice. The pure life only can escape condemnation. What a joy to escape the condemnation of God, not through our own merit, but through the cross of Jesus.
VI. The exaltation he expects. Wait on the Lord and keep His way, and He shall exalt thee to inherit the land. The good are to wait on the Lord, because He may be long in coming to them, because He is worth waiting for, and because at His coming they will realise all their long-cherished hopes. The early watchers on the mountain wait for the rising of the sun, and the multitudes wait for the coming of the king. So let the Christian wait for the Lord. The good must not only wait on the Lord, but also keep His way. There must be keeping as well as waiting, and then there will be inheriting. Canaan is the inheritance and the exaltation of the pure.
LESSONS:
1. Talk wisely.
2. Obey diligently.
3. Walk carefully.
4. Anticipate joyfully.
THE TEMPORARY PROSPERITY OF THE WICKED AS CONTRASTED WITH THE PEACEFUL DESTINY OF THE GOOD
(Psa. 37:35-37.)
The first verse contains the pith of the entire psalm. Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. The following reasons are given as a preventative of an envious spirit: The glory of the wicked is of brief duration (Psa. 37:2); the moral rectitude of the good will be finally manifested (Psa. 37:6); the good are divinely protected from the attacks of evil men (Psa. 37:12-15); they are divinely guided (Psa. 37:23); they are the true inheritors of the soil (Psa. 37:29); their destiny is peaceful. Hence the good have no need to envy the wicked in their bright but transient prosperity, especially when they consider the future. Perhaps, when David wrote this psalm, the image of Saul was floating before his vision. Truly, in reference to that monarch, he could say, I have seen the wicked, &c.
I. That wicked men are often in the possession of great power. I have seen the wicked in great power.
1. They often have social distinction. It very often happens that the wicked are rich; they have a productive farm, or a good business, which places at their command the luxuries of life. Hence they are surrounded by men of like fortunes, and are largely courted by the multitude beneath them. It is customary in these times to make wealth rather than character the test of companionship; hence rich men are suns in the firmament of our social life, they are surrounded by attendant planets, and stars, hoping to catch the rays of their favour. They keep up appearances, they give grand entertainments, they aid philanthropic institutions, and so gain social popularity. Such men are dangerous. They are, to those who circle near them, as the bright light to the moth: they occasion moral ruin.
2. They often have national distinction. They have gained influence in the local circle in which they move, hence they are elevated to a seat in the legislature; or, it may be, that they are clever as they are wicked, and thus, by sheer intellect, gain the pre-eminence of their fellows. They make an invention, they write a book, they win a battle, and society, not being in an ideal state, is in danger of elevating genius rather than goodness. Again, if they are not clever, they are cunning, and we all know the power of fraud to out-do honesty for a time. They flatter the great men of the age, and so win their help to fame. For even great men are wonderfully open to flattery. But, sometimes their plots are so deeply laid, that even the good are duped by them.
3. The supremacy of the wicked is a matter of history and experience. I have seen, &c. History is a record of the wicked who have been in great power. Human society exhibits the same fact. Men of the highest genius, whose names are household words, and whose works will be read to the end of time, are illustrations of this statement. We think of Byron; and also of many kings who have ascended our throne. This outlook upon history and society may be perplexing, but the problem will one day be solved, when it will appear that saints were the true kings of the world, and that ambitious sinners were its paupers.
4. In this supremacy the wicked appear strong and arrogant. Spreading himself, &c. They imagine that their foundation is secure, that the effects of their wealth and genius upon the popular mind will never die away; that their smile will win, that their frown will subdue their enemies. Their demeanour is imperious. Their tones of voice are emphatic. They forget that modesty and humility would best serve their end. They are like the swollen stream, which spreads itself throughout the land, to show off its expansiveness, but certainly not its depth.
II. That wicked men often experience unexpected reverses.
1. Severe and complete. Yet he passed away. Sometimes these men pass from the highest pinnacle of wealth to abject poverty, through speculation or panic; their true characters are unveiled, and society discards them. No vestige is left of their power.
2. Unlikely and unexpected. Such reverses are not often anticipated. We expect that wealth will protect from them. The wicked are like the rider through the desert, unexpectedly plundered by some stern robber. At the roots of the richest flower there may be an insect eating away its life unseen. The calm often breaks suddenly into storm. The wicked aristocrat may soon become the wicked pauper.
3. Minutely observed. I sought him. Men of wealth are talked about by everybody; their houses, clothes, habits, are the staple theme of the neighbourhood. I sought him. Men come to the ruin to mock; to search to see if there was anything left they could plunder, and, no doubt, to weep. Some would pity his fall. The world soon hears of the destruction of its powerful ones.
III. That while the wicked experience these reverses, the good are happy in their life, and peaceful in their futurity. The end of that man is peace.
1. The good are a great contrast to the wicked just contemplated. The character of the one is impure, that of the other is holy; the circumstances of the one are affluent, those of the other may be needy; the destiny of the one is ignominious, while that of the other is happy. The contrast is not only great, but happy. It is pleasant to turn from the one to the other. Good men are the charm of history and of life. They are welcome as the shady nook during the hot summer day. The contrast is solemn. To think of the wicked in their power and ruin, and then of the good in their peace and hope, must certainly evoke a feeling of regret that one life should lack the beauty and safety of the other.
2. The good are worthy of careful note and imitation. Mark the perfect man. He is worthy of note. A perfect man! Are you astonished? Have you never seen one? True, they are not often to be met with,you should therefore note him the more when you do see him. If you go into a picture gallery, and find a beautiful work of art, you study it from every point of view, its every feature and tint. So with the flower in your garden. But here is not a lifeless picture, a withering flower, but an immortality,therefore let your study be deeper and truer. Mark his moral bearing, his strict integrity, his untiring zeal, his gentle spirit, his effort for the good of others. But do not look at him merely to admire, but to imitate; not merely that the natural instincts of your soul may be pleased, but that your manhood may catch the glory of his. Men always become like the object they study. Moral character is the highest kind of study If you mark the perfect man you will see that life does not always go easily with him; sometimes the night is dark and rough, but he always has one star to cheer and guide him on his journey.
3. The lift of the good will ultimately come to an end. The end of that man. What a pity! We should like their beautiful light to shine on in our midst for ever. Good men are the worlds jewels; they are patterns of life; they are prayers; they are inspirations. We cannot spare them. But death is rude, and takes them from us; they gladly step into heaven. And thus are plucked earths choicest flowers, to be removed to the Eden above.
4. The departure of the good will be peaceful in its issue. There may be the pain of disease, but that only touches the surface of the man. In the depths of his soul there is celestial calm. Peace, the end of life! How welcome after the storm. Come at last, has it? exclaims the dying saint. Peace! My spirit has found its rest in the home of the Eternal. We are told that Stephen fell asleep; God turned the angry cries of the murderous mob into the lullabies of a saintly repose.
WHICH WILL YOU HAVE?
1. Wickedness and power; or,
2. Piety and peace.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 37
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
An Alphabetical Exhortation to Patience in Well-Doing, notwithstanding the Temporary Prosperity of the Lawless.
ANALYSIS
It is not easy to resolve this psalm into any other stanzas than those small ones formed by the Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. The Chief Burden of the psalm is the Seeming Inequity of the Divine Treatment of the Righteous and the Wicked: for the removal of which a Time-Solution is mainly relied on (see Exposition), while various Other Qualifying Considerations are Suggested.
(Lm.)By David.
1
Do not burn with vexation because of evil-doers,
be not envious of the workers of perversity;
2
For like grass will they speedily wither,
and like fresh grass will they fade.
3
Trust in Jehovah and do good,
settle down in the earth[387] and pasture with confidence;
[387] Or: land, and so throughout, Psa. 37:9; Psa. 37:11; Psa. 37:22; Psa. 37:29; Psa. 37:34. All depends on the breadth of the outlook.
4
So shalt thou find exquisite delight in Jehovah,
and he will give thee the requests of thy heart.
5
Roll on Jehovah thy way,
trust thou also in him,and he will effectually work;
6
So will he bring forth as the light thy righteousness,
and thy justice[388] as noon-day.
[388] Or: vindication.
7
Be still[389] as to Jehovah, and wait longingly for him;
[389] Dr.: resigned.
do not burn with vexation at him who is making prosperous his way,
at the man who is bringing wicked devices to pass.
8
Desist from anger and forsake wrath,
do not burn with vexation at the doing of evil;[390]
[390] So w. Br.
9
For evil-doers shall be cut off,
but they who wait for Jehovahthey shall inherit the earth.
10
Yet a little then and the lawless one will not be,
though thou attentively consider his place yet will he not be;
11
But humble ones shall inherit the earth,
and find exquisite delight in the abundance of prosperity.
12
Plotting is a lawless man against a righteous,
and gnashing at him with his teeth:
13
My Sovereign Lord will laugh at him,
for he seeth that his day will come.
14
A sword have lawless men drawn out,
and have trodden their bow;
to bring down the humbled and needy,
to slaughter the upright in life:[391]
[391] Or: behaviour. Ml.: way. Some cod. (w. Sep. and Vul.): heart. Cp. Psa. 7:10Gn.
15
Their sword shall enter their own heart,
and their bows shall be broken.
16
Better the little of a righteous man
than the abundance of many lawless;
17
For the arms of lawless men shall be broken,
but an upholder of righteous men is Jehovah.
18
Jehovah knoweth the days of the blameless,
and their inheritance to the ages[392] shall be:
[392] Ml. to concealed duration.
19
They shall not be put to shame in the time of calamity,
but in the days of famine shall they be satisfied.
20
For the lawless shall perish,
and the enemies of Jehovah shall be cut off:
Yea while in high esteem while exalted have they vanished,
like smoke have they vanished.[393]
[393] So in the main, w. Br., after Sep.
21
A lawless man borroweth and doth not repay,
but a righteous man is gracious and giveth.
22
For such as are blessed of him shall inherit the earth,
but such as are accursed of him shall be cut off.
23
Of Jehovah are a mans steps rendered firm,
when in his way he taketh pleasure:
24
Though he fall he shall not be cast headlong,
for Jehovah is upholding his hand.
25
Young have I been, and now am old,
yet have I not seen a righteous man forsaken
or his seed begging bread:
26
All day long is he gracious and bending,
and his seed is for a blessing.
27
Depart from evil and do good,
and settle down to the ages;[394]
[394] MI.: to concealed duration.
28
For Jehovah loveth justice,
and will not forsake his men of kindness.
To the ages[394] have perverse men been destroyed,[395]
[395] So it shd. be (w. Sep., Vul.); cp. Psa. 37:38Gn.
and the seed of lawless men hath been cut off:
29
Righteous men shall inherit the earth,
and settle down to futurity thereon.
30
The mouth of a righteous man talketh to him[396] of wisdom,
[396] Or: soliloquiseth.
and his tongue speaketh of justice:
31
The law of his God is in his heart,
his steps shall not slide.
32
A lawless man spieth upon a righteous,
and seeketh to put him to death:
33
Jehovah will not leave him in his hand,
nor condemn him when he is judged.
34
Wait thou for Jehovah and observe his way,
and he will exalt thee to inherit the earth:
on the cutting off of lawless men shalt thou gaze.
35
I have seen a lawless man ruthless,[397]
[397] As a terrible oneDr.
and spreading himself out like a cedar of Lebanon;[398]
[398] So it shd. be (w. Sep., Syr.); cp. Hos. 14:6Gn.
36
Then have I[399] passed by and lo! he was not,
[399] So it shd. be (w. Aram., Sep., Vul.)Gn.
yea I sought him and he was not to be found.
37
Mark the blameless man and behold the upright,
for there is a future for the man of peace;[400]
[400] By general consent, this is the true construction of the sentence: the man of peace is the subject, of whom something is affirmed. As to what that something is, see above rendering and the Exposition.
38
But transgressors have been destroyed together,
the future of lawless men hath been cut off.
39
But the salvation of righteous men is from Jehovah,
their stronghold in the time of distress;
40
And Jehovah will help them and deliver them,
will deliver them from lawless men and will save them,
because they have taken refuge in him.
(Nm.)
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 37
Never envy the wicked!
2 Soon they fade away like grass and disappear.
3 Trust in the Lord instead. Be kind and good to others; then you will live safely here in the land and prosper, feeding in safety.
4 Be delighted with the Lord! Then He will give you all your hearts desires.
5 Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him to help you do it and He will.
6 Your innocence will be clear to everyone. He will vindicate you with the blazing light of justice shining down as from the noonday sun.
7 Rest in the Lord; wait patiently for Him to act. Dont be envious of evil men who prosper.
8 Stop your anger! Turn off your wrath. Dont fret and worryit only leads to harm.
9 For the wicked shall be destroyed, but those who trust the Lord shall be given every blessing.
10 Only a little while and the wicked shall disappear. You will look for them in vain.
11 But all who humble themselves before the Lord shall be given every blessing, and shall have wonderful peace.
12, 13 The Lord is laughing at those who plot against the godly, for He knows their judgment day is coming.
14 Evil men take aim to slay the poor; they are ready to butcher those who do right.
15 But their swords will be plunged into their own hearts and all their weapons will be broken.
16 It is better to have little and be godly than to own an evil mans wealth;
17 For the strength of evil men shall be broken, but the Lord takes care of those He has forgiven.[401]
[401] Literally, the righteous.
18 Day by day the Lord observes the good deeds done by godly men,[402] and gives them eternal rewards.
[402] Literally, knows the days of the upright.
19 He cares for them when times are hard; even in famine, they will have enough.
20 But evil men shall perish. These enemies of God will wither like grass, and disappear like smoke.
21 Evil men borrow and cannot pay it back! But the good man returns what he owes with some extra besides.
22 Those blessed by the Lord shall inherit the earth; but those cursed by Him shall die.
23 The steps of good men are directed by the Lord. He delights in each step they take.
24 If they fall it isnt fatal, for the Lord holds them with His hand.
25 I have been young and now I am old. And in all my years I have never seen the Lord forsake a man who loves Him; nor have I seen the children of the godly go hungry.
26 Instead, the godly are able to be generous with their gifts and loans to others, and their children are a blessing.
27 So if you want an eternal home leave your evil, low-down ways and live good lives.
28 For the Lord loves justice and fairness; He will never abandon His people. They will be kept safe forever; but all who love wickedness shall perish.
29 The godly shall be firmly planted in the land, and live there forever.
30, 31 The godly man is a good counselor because he is just and fair and knows right from wrong.
32 Evil men spy on the godly, waiting for an excuse to accuse them and then demanding their death!
33 But the Lord will not let these evil men succeed, or let the godly be condemned when they are brought before the judge.
34 Dont be impatient for the Lord to act! Keep steadily along His pathway and in due season He will honor you with every blessing,[403] and you will see the wicked destroyed.
[403] Literally, to possess the land.
35, 36 I myself have seen it happen: a proud and evil man, towering like a cedar of Lebanon, but when I looked again, he was gone! I searched but could not find him!
37 But the good manwhat a different story! For the good manthe blameless, the upright, the man of peacehe has a wonderful future ahead of him. For him there is a happy ending.
38 But evil men shall be destroyed, and their posterity shall be cut off.
39 The Lord saves the godly! He is their salvation and their refuge when trouble comes.
40 Because they trust in Him, He helps them and delivers them from the plots of evil men.
EXPOSITION
While the artificial character of this psalm as an alphabetical acrostic, and its practical aim to encourage saints in well-doing, fully account for all that is discursive in it; it is obviously weighted with the great moral problemHow to account for the undeniable facts, that the lawless are often prosperous in life, whereas the righteous are not infrequently called to pass through adversity. How these facts can be reconciled with the gracious equity of God, is a problem which in all ages has perplexed observant and thoughtful minds; and many parts of Holy Scripture are devoted to endeavours to solve the problem; among them, the book of Job and several psalms are conspicuous. Among such psalms, this one and Psalms 49, 73 are worthy of special mention; the present one being remarkable for its buoyant courage in confronting the difficulty; the 49th, for the beauty of its form in stating the problem and the unexpected and irregular way in which its solution is proposed; and the 73rd, for the revelation it makes of a souls struggles before it successfully rises above doubt. They are indeed a remarkable triad of psalms, specially devoted to this very grave, but yet most fascinating theme.
This psalm boldly meets the difficulty by presenting time as the chief solution. Subsidiary mitigations, no doubt, are simultaneously presented, to console the suffering saint; and among them is discovered the enhanced delight found in Jehovah himself which significantly anticipates the same mighty consolation which comes out so triumphantly in Psalms 73 the third of the series. But the dominant exhortation here turns on the question of time: the burden of the advice tendered being this: Wait! All will come right in the end. The triumph of the flourishing lawless will be short. When he has been cut off, thou, O patient wronged one, will be inheriting the earth. This is the note struck at the beginning of the psalm, and this carries us through up to the climax at its close: a climax which confessedly comes with all the greater force when the crowning words are adequately translated: There is a future for the man of peace; But transgressors have been destroyed together, the future of lawless men hath been cut off. This forms a worthy climax to the psalm, and adequately meets the difficulty calling for solution. Only grant that there is a future for the patient well-doer; and that, for the lawless, however long they may live and flourish, there is no future worthy of the name,and the solution is felt to be complete.
It is true, indeed, that the edge of the psalmists argument has been rather blunted by critics of note through their acceptance of the term posterity, in place of future, in Psa. 37:37-38. To such a weakening of the solution it may be permitted us to object, for two or three reasons: first, that the main current of the psalm points to survival in person rather than by proxy; second, that in the parallel use of the same word (aharith) in Psa. 73:17 it is impossible to accept posterity as an adequate translation, seeing that, there, the writers resolve is to enter the great sanctuary for the purpose of considering, not the posterity of the lawless but their own latter end or hereafter or future, as the sequel to that passage conclusively shows; and third, that the prophetic word itself elsewherenotably in Jer. 31:29-30 and Eze. 18:1-4expressly discounts the principle of punishment by proxy, so making it exceedingly unlikely that this far-seeing and forth-reaching psalm intends us to be content with either substitutionary punishment or substitutionary reward. Hence, as posterity is by no means the primary or customary meaning of aharith, we can confidently rely on the solid reasons above given for declining it; and for preferring the well-sustained rendering which concludes the psalm with such fine effect.
Will it be objected, that the rewards of the righteous appear in this psalm to be too earthly to be eternal, and the punishment of the lawless to be too summary to be final? Such objection may be safely dismissed as virtually demanding that no Old Testament rays shall penetrate the great Hereafter unless they flood it with all-revealing light. What if the heaven of the Old Testament, as well as that of the New, should prove to be a heaven upon earth? and what if the expansion of the hints here discovered should, after all, find room for all the details subsequently revealed? If we at all apprehend that God hath yet more light to break forth from his word, let us beware of closing up the very avenues by which that light may reach us!
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
Never envy the wicked. This is well enough to sayhow do we know we are envying, or not envying the wicked? Discuss.
2.
The seeds of self-destruction are planted in the actions of the wickedso what is the responsibility of the believer?
3.
Waiting is the most difficult of our responses to Gods willwhy?
4.
Angerwrathworryfrettingall these lead to harm. Name and discuss the specific harm involved.
5.
The promises to the godly are numerous notice Psa. 37:3-6; Psa. 37:11; Psa. 37:16; Psa. 37:18-19; Psa. 37:21; Psa. 37:23here are ten and we are only half-way through the psalmso what?
6.
There was a man in the Old Testament who faced and answered the basic problem of this psalmwhat was his name and what was his answer?
7.
Someone well said that evil is mortal, and righteousness is immortalwhat are the implications of this truth?
8.
God has a sense of humorread Psa. 37:12-13 to see what makes God laughis He laughing at our problem? Cf. Psa. 2:9.
9.
If the moral principle of retribution was not at work, history would have no meaning and the present-day utter pessimism would have real relevanceDiscuss.
10.
Read Psa. 37:32-40 to obtain a summary and final answer to the problem here discussed.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Fret . . .This verb, repeated in Psa. 37:7-8, is found besides only in Pro. 24:19. Its meaning is to heat or inflame oneself.
Neither be thou envious . . .This has a similar root-meaning (comp. our burn with jealousy), and so is in close parallelism with fret. This verse occurs almost word for word in Pro. 3:31; Pro. 23:16; Pro. 24:1. and Psa. 73:3.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Fret not The verb literally denotes to excite one’s self to displeasure through envy, jealousy, or zeal, but generally through anger. So Psa 37:7-8. See Pro 24:19; and compare Psa 73:3; Pro 23:17. Such a state of mind is equally opposed to benevolence toward man and submission to God.
Envious A different word from “fret” or “anger,” just noticed, but of parallel signification.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1). The Wise Thing To Do Is Not To Fret When The Wicked Appear To Prosper, But Rather To Trust And Rest In YHWH (Aleph to Waw – Psa 37:1-9 ) .
Those who are wise will not allow fretting or anger to possess them in the face of the behaviour of the unrighteous, but will instead trust in YHWH, commit their way to Him, and then confidently rest in Him, for they can know that what they have is permanent, while what the unrighteous have is temporary and will pass away (compare Mat 6:19-20).
Psa 37:1-2
A ‘Do not fret yourself because of evildoers,
Nor be you envious against those who work unrighteousness.
For they will soon be cut down like the grass,
And wither as the green herb.’
It is often so easy to look around at the prosperity of evildoers and find it a great burden on the heart. It all seems so strange. Why do the wicked prosper, and the good suffer? Why does evil appear to triumph? However, the Psalmist tells us not to fret at such things, nor to be envious of those who work unrighteousness. Rather than fretting we are to turn to trusting prayer, rather than being envious we are to consider all the blessings that are ours in God.
For he reminds us that the unrighteous are not really to be envied. We should remember that their time is but short in the light of eternity. They may appear to be prospering, but the truth is that they will soon be cut down like mown grass, and will wither like the green herb subjected to the burning sun. For them there is no future, and their ‘blessings’ are but temporary. After that before them lies only darkness and emptiness.
Psa 37:3-6
B ‘Trust in YHWH, and do good,
Dwell in the land, and feed on his faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in YHWH,
And he will give you the desires of your heart.
G Commit your way to YHWH,
Trust also in him, and he will bring it about.
And he will make your righteousness to go forth as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.’
Notice the threefold command in Psa 37:3-7, ‘trust in YHWH’, ‘commit your way to YHWH’, ‘rest in YHWH’. Here is the secret of the spiritual life. First trust and response to God, then commitment of our ways to God resulting in confidence in Him and obedience, and finally rest and contentment as we do trust in Him.
“Peace perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?
The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.”
Peace perfect peace, the future all unknown?
Jesus we know and He is on the throne.
The first thing that we note is that the one who trusts in YHWH and delights in Him, and thus ‘does good’, the One Who dwells in the Lord’s land and walks in His presence and feeds on His faithfulness, and delights himself in YHWH, will receive the desires of his heart. And what are the desires of his heart? They are that he might know YHWH better and rejoice in the light of His countenance and presence, and that he himself might be enabled to shine as a light in a dark world, that men might see his good works and glorify his Father Who is in Heaven (Mat 5:16). And these blessings he knows that he will receive in all their fullness.
‘Delight yourself in YHWH.’ Certainly it is good for us to meditate on Who He is and on His love, and to delight in Him as our Father and our God, but in parallel with the next foursome (compare also Isa 58:14) perhaps we should translate (equally permissibly) as ‘So shall you delight yourself in YHWH’, linking more directly with trusting in YHWH. Then the thought is that our trust in Him is what results in our delight in Him. Both ideas are of course equally true and valuable. We should delight in Him because we trust Him and rely on Him, and we should also delight in Him for His own sake.
‘Feed on His faithfulness.’ Just as the contented sheep enjoy the green pastures provided by Him (Psa 23:2), so should they feed on His faithfulness, knowing that as a result they are safe from all their enemies and will receive all that they need (compare Joh 10:27-28).
And as he trusts in YHWH and delights in Him, he is also to commit his way to YHWH. This is literally ‘roll your way on YHWH’. The burden may be too heavy to lift, but it can be rolled onto YHWH. Then the Christian can know that in response to his trust and commitment, YHWH will take over responsibility for his burden and will bring about His will with regard to it. He will indeed bring him in the way that his hearts seeks. He will make his righteousness go forth as the light, shining forth on men so as to enlighten others and enable them to rejoice in the glory of God. And he will make the Christian’s ‘justice’, his truth and rightness, to be like the noonday, glorious and unshadowed in any way. ‘Reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, they will be changed from glory into glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord’ (2Co 3:18) as they walk in God’s light (1Jn 1:5-7).
Psa 37:7-9
D ‘Rest in YHWH, and wait patiently for him,
Do not fret yourself because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who does craft things.
H Cease from anger, and forsake wrath,
Do not fret yourself, it tends only to evildoing.
For evildoers will be cut off,
But those that wait for YHWH,
They will inherit the land.’
So rather than fretting at what they cannot understand, they are to rest in YHWH. They are to wait patiently for Him to intervene and Himself bring about His purposes and His will, confident that all is in His hands.
The literal Hebrew is ‘be silent to YHWH’, that is, be still before Him in the calmness and certainty of faith. ‘In returning and rest you will be saved, in quietness and confidence will be your strength’ (Isa 30:15; compare Isa 7:4).
What they are not to do is fret at the prospering of the wicked, the men who bring about wicked devices, and do crafty things, even though God allows such people to have their evil way for a time. They must wait patiently for God and not allow themselves to be gripped by anger. If it arises within them they must quell it. They must ‘cease from anger, and forsake wrath’. For the only person whom they will harm by their anger is themselves. They must not fret themselves, for the only result of that will be that they also do evil. And then they will be just as bad as those about whom they are fretting.
This does not mean that we should not be concerned about injustice against others, especially the weak and the poor. It is the building up of passions within ourselves that is to be rejected. Where we can actually intervene and bring about good in love and righteousness we should certainly do so. But we must remember that ‘the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God’ (Jas 1:20). And meanwhile we must ‘bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who use you badly’ (Luk 6:27-28).
Indeed we must rather remember that such evildoers will be ‘cut off’, and must therefore ourselves steer clear of such a catastrophe by living for Him and in His ways. For in the end it is those who wait for YHWH, those who are patient because their trust is in Him, who will finally ‘inherit the land’, that is, will receive all the good that God has promised. The wicked may appear to hold sway for a time, but in the end it is God’s people who will triumph and who will indeed one day possess all things.
Probably in mind here is what happened when God’s redeemed people entered Canaan. Their enemy were cut off from among them. But then they dallied in the ways of the Canaanites and in the end they lost out on the land. In contrast those who waited for YHWH did finally inherit the land. God’s ways might move forward slowly, but in the end they are very sure.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psalms 37
Characteristics Note several characteristics of Psalms 37.
A. Acrostic Poem – This is an acrostic psalm, with every other verse beginning with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. However, the acrostic is not followed consistently in the case of several letters.
B. Common Phrases – The phrases “dwell in the land,” or “inherit the earth,” is used eight in Psalms 37.
Theme – In this world of evil, it is easy for the child of God to become frustrated and even angry because of persecutions and jealous at the prosperity of the wicked. In order to live with peace within our hearts, we must learn to cast our cares upon Him, and trust that He will take care of us and bring us through every trial into a place of blessing and prosperity. Note these words from Frances J. Roberts:
“Behold, My hand is upon thee to bless thee and to accomplish all My good purpose. For this hour I have prepared thy heart; and in My kindness I will not let thee fail. Only relinquish all things into My hands; for I can work freely only as ye release Me by complete committal both of thyself and others. Even as was written of old: ‘Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass’ (Psa 37:5). I will be thy sustaining strength; and My peace shall garrison thy mind. Only trust Me that all I do is done in Love. For adversities must of necessity come. They are part of the pattern of life’s pilgrimage for every individual; and who can escape them? But I say unto thee, that for those who walk in Me, and for those who are encircled by the intercessory prayers of My children, I shall make of the suffering, yea, I shall make of the trials a steppingstone to future blessing.” [46]
[46] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 63.
A summary of this Psalm can be found in Pro 23:17-18.
Pro 23:17-18, “Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.”
Psalms 73 carries the same theme.
Psa 73:3, “For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”
Psa 37:1 (A Psalm of David.) Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
Psa 37:1
Psa 37:2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
Psa 37:2
Psa 37:3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
Psa 37:3
“so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed” – Comments The food of which God’s children partake is not the pleasures of earthly riches obtained by corrupt means.; rather, our food is the peace and contentment that God gives us as we trust in Him.
Psa 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Psa 37:4
In his book Heaven: Close Encounters of the God Kind Jesse Duplantis was told by King David that in Heaven God will give us the desires of our hearts. [47] In fact, God knows the makeup and interests of each human being. Thus, in heaven each mansion will be built and furnished according to the desires of those individuals while they are still alive on the earth.
[47] Jesse Duplantis, Heaven Close Encounters of the God Kind (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Harrison House, 1996), 102.
If we delight in Him, He shall give us the desires of our heart, but not necessarily the desires of the flesh. Note these insightful words from Frances J. Roberts:
“Turn thy face toward Me, and leave to Me the responsibility of probing thy soul. I am the Master Surgeon. I am skilled in all cures of the soul as well as those of the body. Let Me care for thy health. Delight thyself in Me, and I shall bring about that which ye desire to see in thy character and personality . Feed upon My Word. It is there that ye shall come to a clearer understanding of My Person. Only as ye know Me can ye come to be more like Me. In association with others, man taketh to himself a measure of the mannerisms and ideologies of these other persons. So shall it be likewise to those who spend much time in My company. Silently, and without conscious effort, thou shalt be changed.” [48]
[48] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 168.
Psa 37:7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
Psa 37:7
Psa 37:11 But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
Psa 37:11
Mat 5:5, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
Psa 37:12 The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.
Psa 37:13 Psa 37:13
Psa 2:4, “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.”
Psa 37:20 But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
Psa 37:20
God’sWord, “But wicked people will disappear. The LORD’s enemies will vanish like the best part of a meadow. They will vanish like smoke.”
NKJV, “But the wicked shall perish; And the enemies of the Lord, Like the splendor of the meadows , shall vanish. Into smoke they shall vanish away.”
Note a similar theme in Jas 1:10-11:
Jas 1:10-11, “But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.”
Psa 37:20 “into smoke shall they consume away” Scripture Reference – Note:
Jas 4:14, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
Psa 37:21 The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.
Psa 37:22 Psa 37:23 Psa 37:23
[49] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 15.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Apparent Good Fortune of the Godless Compared with the Believers’ True Happiness.
v. 1. Fret not thyself, v. 2. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, v. 3. Trust in the Lord, v. 4. Delight thyself also in the Lord, v. 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord, v. 6. And He shall bring forth thy righteousness, v. 7. Rest in the Lord, v. 8. Cease from anger and forsake wrath, v. 9. For evil-doers shall be cut off, v. 10. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be, v. 11. But the meek, v. 12. The wicked plotteth against the just, v. 13. The Lord shall laugh at him, v. 14. The wicked have drawn out the sword, v. 15. Their sword, v. 16. A little that a righteous man hath, v. 17. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, v. 18. The Lord knoweth the days of the upright, v. 19. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, v. 20. But the wicked shall perish, v. 21. The wicked borroweth and payeth not again, v. 22. For such as be blessed of Him shall inherit the earth, v. 23. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, v. 24. Though he fall, v. 25. I have been young and now am old, v. 26. He, v. 27. Depart from evil and do good, v. 28. For the Lord loveth judgment, v. 29. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell therein forever, v. 30. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, v. 31. The Law of his God is in his heart, v. 32. The wicked watcheth the righteous and seeketh to slay him, v. 33. The Lord will not leave him in his hand, v. 34. Wait on the Lord, v. 35. I have seen the wicked in great power, v. 36. Yet he passed away, v. 37. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, v. 38. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together; the end of the wicked, v. 39. But the salvation of the righteous, v. 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,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
THIS is another of the alphabetical psalms (see above, Psa 9:1-20; Psa 25:1-22; and 34.), and, though more free from irregularities than the previous ones, is not altogether without them. While, generally, each letter heads a stanza consisting of two verses, there are three occasions on which the stanza assigned to a letter is formed of only one verse (see Psa 37:7, Psa 37:20, and Psa 37:34). Further, there are two occasions when the stanza begins with a wrong letter, taking the place of , and of . These anomalies it has been proposed to get rid of by altering the text; but, to judge by the previous alphabetical psalms, absolute exactness was not at first aimed at in this form of composition.
The psalm is wholly didactic. It begins with exhortation, which is carried on through five stanzas to the end of Psa 37:9. Exhortation then gives place to calm and unimpassioned instruction, of a character resembling that which makes up the bulk of the Book of Proverbs. This tone continues to the end of verse 33, when there is a return to exhortation, but exhortation (verses 34, 37) mingled with instruction (verses 35, 36, 38-40). The whole poem is grave, quiet, equable, devoid of excitement or lyric fervour. It is unlike David’s other compositions, but may be his, as asserted in the title, and may be the only composition which we possess of his belonging to his old age (verse 25).
The object of the poem is to reassure men whose minds are disturbed by the fact of the frequent prosperity of the wicked, to convince them that in every case retribution will overtake the ungodly man at the last, and to impress upon them that the condition of the righteous, even when they suffer, is far preferable to that of the wicked, whatever prosperity they may enjoy.
Psa 37:1
Fret not thyself because of evildoers. According to Aristotle, we have a special emotion implanted in our naturewhich causes us to “fret” when we witness undeserved prosperity (‘Rhet.,’ 2.9, 1). Certainly the feeling is very common and very strong; it is also characteristic of the best natures (see Psa 73:3-14; Job 21:7-15; Jer 12:1, Jer 12:2; Mal 3:15). The feeling does not need to be eradicated, but only to be held in check. Faith in God’s retributive justice will enable us calmly to await “the end” (Psa 73:17), in full assurance that ultimately God’s vengeance will overtake the wicked man, and he will receive condign punishment. Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. Envy is not a natural passion. To envy the evil-doers on account of their prosperity is at once a folly and a danger. Their position is really not enviable; and, if we allow ourselves to envy them, we shall be tempted to follow their example (see Pro 24:1).
Psa 37:2
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass. So Zophar, in the Book of Job (Job 20:5), “The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment.” And, no doubt, if we compare time with eternity, the longest triumph that the wicked ever enjoy is but for a brief space, is soon gone, endures “but for a moment.” It has a continuance, however, which to men in this life seems long, often intolerably long; and hence the disturbance which men’s minds suffer on account of it (Job 21:7, Job 21:13; Psa 73:3-16). And wither as the green herb (comp. Psa 90:5, Psa 90:6; Psa 103:15; Isa 40:6, Isa 40:7; Jas 1:10, Jas 1:11; 1Pe 1:24).
Psa 37:3
Trust in the Lord, and do good. Notwithstanding any difficulty which the prosperity of the wicked causes thee, trust thou still in the Lord; be sure that his providence watches over thee, and endeavour still to serve him by “doing good.” So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed; rather, dwell in the land, and feed on faithfulness (Kay); i.e. remain where thou art, and be satisfied with the thought of God’s faithfulness. Feed on this.
Psa 37:4
Delight thyself also in the Lord. Draw from communion with God all that inward intensity of joy which it is capable of giving. And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. God will then grant thee all thy desires, and make thee perfectly happy.
Psa 37:5
Commit thy way unto the Lord (comp. Pro 16:3; Psa 22:8). The meaning is, “Cast thyself and thy life unreservedly upon Godyield thyself wholly to himlook to him for support and guidance.” Trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. “He will accomplish all that thy faith has laid upon him” (Kay).
Psa 37:6
And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. If the prosperity of the wicked frets thee, because it seems to obscure thy righteousness, since while he appears to bask in the sunshine of God’s favour, thy life is possibly overshadowed by clouds and darkness, be sure that, in the end, this seeming injustice will be remedied. God will not frown on thee always; one day he will turn on thee the light of his countenance, and make thy righteousness to shine forth like the sun in its noonday splendour.
Psa 37:7
Rest in the Lord; literally, be silent; i.e. do not murmur; make no complaint; be silently acquiescent and resigned. And wait patiently for him. Be content to await his time, which is sure to be the right time. Meanwhile possess your soul in patience. Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way (comp. Psa 37:1, of which this brings out the sense). It is when the ungodly prosper that the righteous are apt to repine. Because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. It is the success of the ungodly in their wicked plots and schemes which especially vexes the righteous (see Job 9:24; Job 12:6; Job 21:7-9 : Job 24:2-12; Psa 72:5-12, etc.).
Psa 37:8
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; i.e. such anger and such wrath as the prosperity of the wicked calls forth. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil; rather, fret not thyself, only to do evil. No result could be looked for from the sort of “fretting” spoken of, but an evil one. If men will dwell unduly on the fact of the prosperity of the wicked, and brood upon it in their hearts, they will be apt, in the first instance, to envy the wicked, which is at once “to do evil;” and from this they will be naturally tempted to go on to an imitation of their wicked practices, which is to assimilate themselves altogether to the enemies of God, and to be guilty of practical apostasy (comp. Psa 73:2, “But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well-nigh supped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked”).
Psa 37:9
For evil-doers shall be out off. It is foolish to “fret” and rage and storm against the ungodly whom we see prospering, since they will certainly be “cut off“ sooner or latersooner rather than later, according to the belief of the writer (see Psa 37:2, Psa 37:10). But those that wait upon the Lord (see Psa 37:7), they shall inherit the earth. It is doubly foolish, since when the wicked are “cut off,” as they will be assuredly some day, the godly will find themselves the inheritors of the earth. This prophecy is partially fulfilled from time to time, and will find its complete fulfilment in the “new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2Pe 3:13).
Psa 37:10
For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be (compare the comment on Psa 37:2). Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be; or, he shall not be. He shall have been swept away; his “place shall know him no more” (Psa 103:16).
Psa 37:11
But the meek shall inherit the earth. This prophecy is endorsed by our Lord (Mat 5:5). It has only had occasional fulfilment hitherto, notably in Moses, the meekest man of his day (Num 12:3); to some extent in St. Louis and other great saints, whose influence has been world-wide, as St. Francis d’Assisi, St. Francis Xavier, St. Carlo Boromeo, and others. And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Being men of peace, the meek, when they “inherit the earth,” will establish universal peace (Isa 2:4; Isa 11:6-9; Isa 65:25; Eze 34:25) and “delight in the abundance of it” (comp. Psa 72:7).
Psa 37:12
The wicked plotteth against the just (comp. Psa 31:13; Psa 35:4, Psa 35:7, etc.). Wicked men commonly lay their plots against the righteous, as being less likely to suspect them, and perhaps as less likely to resist their machinations. And gnasheth upon him with his teeth (comp. Psa 35:16).
Psa 37:13
The Lord shall laugh at him (comp. Psa 2:4; Psa 59:8; and see the comment on the former passage). For he seeth that his day is coming; i.e. God sees that the day of the wicked man’s visitation is approaching.
Psa 37:14
The wicked have drawn out the sword, and bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy. David is perhaps thinking especially of his own persecutors, Saul and Absalom, who pursued after him with armed men, and sought his life (1Sa 23:8,1Sa 23:14, 1Sa 23:26; 1Sa 24:2; 1Sa 26:2; 2Sa 17:24-26; 2Sa 18:6-8). But he may also have in his mind the raids that powerful chiefs made upon their weak and peaceful neighbours (Job 24:5-12). And to slay such as be of a right conversation; or, such as are upright in way; i.e. such as lead a righteous
Psa 37:15
Their sword shall enter into their own heart. Such as “take the sword” often “perish by the sword” (Mat 26:52). Absalom’s rebellion cost him his life. Marauders would sometimes meet with a stout resistance, and be slain by those whom they had intended to plunder. And their bows shall be broken; i.e. they shall meet with failure.
Psa 37:16
A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked (comp. Pro 15:16; Pro 16:8).
Psa 37:17
For the arms of the wicked shall be broken (scrap. Psa 10:15). The wicked shall be disabled from doing more mischief. If not slain outright, they shall return from the combats that they have provoked with shattered weapons (Psa 37:15) and damaged persons. But the Lord up-holdeth the righteous. Their adversaries in the encounters.
Psa 37:18
The Lord knoweth the days of the upright; literally, of the perfectthose who yield him a complete obedience. God takes loving note of their days, knows their number, and the events which each day will bring. He will cause all things to “work together for their good.” And their inheritance shall be for ever (comp. Psa 37:27, Psa 37:29, and Psa 37:37; which all, like this verse, point, albeit vaguely, to a future life). The mere continuance of a man’s posterity in a prosperous condition cannot exhaust the meaning of such phrases as, “Their inheritance shall be for ever;” “Dwell for evermore;” “The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.” If David himself meant no more than this, yet the Holy Spirit which inspired him may have meant more. At any rate, to the Christian the words will always bring up the thought of that “inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, which is reserved for us in heaven” (1Pe 1:4).
Psa 37:19
They shall not be ashamed in the evil times. If they fall into adversity, it will not cause them to feel shame. They will know that they are not being punished for evil-doing, but that God is trying them and purifying them (Job 36:8-11). And in the days of famine they shall he satisfied (comp. Psa 33:19).
Psa 37:20
But the wicked shall perish (comp. Psa 37:2, Psa 37:9, Psa 37:10, Psa 37:15, Psa 37:36); literally, for the wicked shall perish. The happiness of the righteous cannot be complete until the wicked are removed out of their way; since, so long as they continue in the world, they will be ever vexing the righteous and troubling them (Psa 56:1). And the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs. So, many of the old commentators, as Aquila, Kimchi, and others; and among moderns, Rosenmuller, and Professor Alexander. But the bulk of recent critics translate, as the excellency of the pastures (Hupfeld, Kay, Hengstenberg, Canon Cook, Cheyne, Revised Version); i.e. the rich herbage which is burnt up by the heat of summer (comp. Psa 37:2). Both translations seem to be tenable; but the latter is perhaps preferable, since the consumption of the fat of lambs upon the altar is connected with the idea, not of rejection, but of acceptance. Into smoke shall they consume away (comp. Psa 102:3).
Psa 37:21
The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again. The wicked man borrows with a light heart, though he may have no prospect of ever being able to repay. Living under God’s curse (Psa 37:22), he is for the most part not able to repay; when he happens to be able, he is often not willing. But the righteous showeth mercy, and giveth (comp. Psa 112:5, Psa 112:9). The righteous has not often need to borrow (see Deu 15:6; Deu 28:12, Deu 28:44). Rather, he lends and gives freely.
Psa 37:22
For such as be blessed of him (i.e. God) shall inherit the earth (see above, Psa 37:11). And they that be cursed of him shall be out off (see above, Psa 37:9).
Psa 37:23
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; rather, established; i.e. upheld, and made firm. It is not the general superintendence of men’s steps and goings by God (Pro 16:9; Pro 20:24) which is here spoken of; but the special strengthening and supporting of the steps of the pious. The wont must be understood, not of the ordinary man, but of the good man. (“, viri, scilicet justi, et Jova benedicti,” Roseumuller). And he delighteth in his way. He “knows” it (Psa 1:6), and looks upon it with favour, and even “has pleasure” in it (Psa 35:27).
Psa 37:24
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down. “The difference,” as Hengstenberg observes, “is that between misfortune or loss, and absolute ruin.” The good man may be afflicted; he may even fall into some fault (Gal 6:1) or grievous sin (2Sa 11:4); but so long as “the root of the matter is in him” (Job 19:28), God will not suffer him to be prostrated. For the Lord upholdeth him with his hand; literally, the Lord supports his hand. If he falls, God (as Luther says) “catches him by the hand, and raises him up again.” So David had himself experienced (2Sa 12:13).
Psa 37:25
I have been young, and now am old. It is most natural to understand this literally, and to gather from it that the psalmist, whether David or another, composed this psalm in advanced life. It has certainly all the gravity, calmness, seriousness, and tone of authority which befit a teacher of many years and much experience. Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. The social condition of the Israelites was very unlike that of modem European communities. Though there were rich and poor among them, there could scarcely be any that were very poor. Where there was a general obligation upon all well-disposed persons to lend to such as were in need, and no interest could be asked upon loans, and in the year of jubilee all debts were remitted, and mortgaged lands returned to their original owners or their families, actual begging was scarcely possible, and at any rate could only be brought about by extreme and reckless misconduct. Many philanthropists believe that even at the present time in our own country mendicancy is nearly always the consequence of persistence in evil courses. Still more must this have been the case in Palestine in the time of the monarchy (see Pro 20:4).
Psa 37:26
He is ever merciful, and lendeth (comp. Psa 37:21). This psalm contains a good deal of repetition, perhaps intended to emphasize certain portions of its teaching (see Psa 37:1, Psa 37:7, Psa 37:8; Psa 3:1-8, Psa 27:1-14; Psa 11:1-7, Psa 22:1-31, Psa 29:1-11; Psa 7:1-17, Psa 34:1-22, etc.). And his seed is blessed (comp. Psa 25:13; Psa 102:28; Psa 112:2).
Psa 37:27
Depart from evil, and do good. The same injunction is given, in exactly the same words, in Psa 34:14. And dwell for evermore. This is to be understood as a promise, “If thou wilt depart from evil, and do good, then thou shalt dwell in the land for ever” (comp. Psa 34:3).
Psa 37:28
For the Lord loveth judgment (comp. Psa 11:7). “Judgment”is here “justice,” “righteousness;” as in Psa 33:5; Psa 99:4; Psa 103:6, etc. And forsaketh not his saints (see verse 25; and comp. Isa 41:17; Isa 42:16, etc.). They are preserved for ever. Something has probably fallen out at the commencement of this line, which ought to begin with the letter ain. But the seed of the wicked shall be out off. The wicked shall perish, not only in their own persons, but in their posterity, who shall be “cut off from the land of the living” (Isa 53:8), and have “their name blotted out” (Psa 109:13).
Psa 37:29
The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for over (comp. Psa 37:3, Psa 37:9, Psa 37:11, Psa 37:18, Psa 37:22, Psa 37:28, Psa 37:34; and Pro 2:21). Bishop Butler sagaciously remarks that this is the natural tendency of things, if sufficient time be given, and accidental hindrances removed (‘Analogy,’ pt. 1. ch. 4.).
Psa 37:30
The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom. (On the essential union of wisdom with goodness, see the Proverbs, passim.) And his tongue talketh of judgment; i.e. utters only what is morally right, and,, in accordance with’ truth and goodness. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” A good man out of the good treasure of his heart can only bring forth good things (Mat 12:34, Mat 12:35).
Psa 37:31
The Law of his God is in his heart (camp. Deu 6:6; Psa 40:8; Psa 119:11; Isa 51:7). None of his steps shall slide. The two facts are associated as cause and effect. The having the Law of God in his heart prevents his sliding or going astray.
Psa 37:32
The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him. Wicked men hate righteous men, as being a reproach to them, and also as being a hindrance and a danger. The righteous thwart their plans, oppose their proceedings, often frustrate their counsels. Sometimes their opposition brings the wicked man into peril, as when it takes the shape of prosecution before a court, or of help given to one who has fallen among thieves. Hence the hatred felt by the wicked towards the righteous is not surprising. It leads the wicked to entertain murderous thoughtsto be ever “watching” for an opportunity when he may take the righteous man at a disadvantage, and, if no other means of removing him from his path present themselves, kill him. Modern civilization, with its precautions and “resources,” prevents actual violence for the most part; but the tour-derous instinct remains, and even now, in his heart, many a wicked man is a murderer.
Psa 37:33
The Lord will not leave him in his hand. God, as a general rule, does not allow the wicked man to work his will upon the righteous. He interposes one cheek or another, and saves the righteous man from destruction. Nor condemn him when he is judged; i.e. nor will he allow him to be condemned when the wicked man brings an accusation against him, and seeks to have him sentenced to death by an ignorant or unjust judge. These promises are not universal nor absolute, since many good men have been assassinated by their enemies, as Abel by Cain; and many have been wrongfully condemned to death and executed, as Naboth at the instigation of Jezebel.
Psa 37:34
Wait on the lord (comp. Psa 37:2, Psa 37:5, Psa 37:7; and Psa 27:14; Psa 62:5; Psa 130:5; Pro 20:22). The injunction is repeated so often because of man’s extreme impatience and unwillingness to “tarry the Lord’s leisure” (Prayer-book Version of Psa 27:1-14 :16) trustfully and confidently. And keep his way. The way in which he would have them walkthe way of righteousness (comp. Psa 37:3). And he shall exalt thee to inherit the land (see Psa 37:29, and the comment ad loc.). When the ungodly are cut off, thou shalt see it (comp. Psa 52:5, Psa 52:6; Psa 91:8). Doubtless with some satisfaction. As the “ungodly” spoken of are employed in watching for an occasion to “slay” the righteous (Psa 37:32), these last can scarcely witness their removal from the world by God’s providence without a feeling of relief.
Psa 37:35
I have seen the wicked in great power, and flourishing like a green bay tree; rather, as in the margin, like a green tree in his own (or, his native) soil. Growing, i.e; rankly and luxuriantly, like a leafy shrub, that has never suffered transplantation (comp. Psa 1:3; Eze 31:3).
Psa 37:36
Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not (cf. Job 20:5; Psa 73:19, Psa 73:20). Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. The sudden disappearance of an imposing personality astonishes and confuses us. We cannot believe that one who has played so prominent a part in our drama of life is gone altogether. We look about for him; we expect him to reappear at any moment. We cannot realize the fact that he is vanished for ever. We ask ourselves, “Where is he?’ (Job 20:7).
Psa 37:37
Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace. This translation is much disputed. Most ancients and many moderns render the first line, “Keep innocency, and observe uprightness,” while some critics maintain that acharith in the second line must mean “posterity,” and not “end.” Others, again, join shalom to ish, and render, “There shall be posterity (or, a future) to the man of peace.” However, the rendering of the Authorized Version is retained by our Revisers, and accepted in part by Hengstenberg and Dr. Kay, while it has the complete approval of Canon Cook.
Psa 37:38
But the transgressors shall be destroyed together (comp. Psa 37:2, Psa 37:9, Psa 37:10, Psa 37:15, Psa 37:20, and Psa 37:34). The end of the wicked shall be cut off. If acharith be taken to mean “posterity” in the preceding verse, it must be given the same signification here.
Psa 37:39
But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord (comp. Psa 3:8; Psa 68:20, etc.). He is their Strength in the time of trouble (see Psa 18:1; Psa 46:1, etc.). The last two verses sum up the teaching of the psalm, and indicate its especial object, which was to encourage and sustain the righteous under their trials, by the assurance that they were under the special protection of God, who, whenever trouble threatened, would stand forth as their Strength and Defence, and would ultimately be their “Salvation.” The full meaning of this last expression was left obscure, though enough was said to raise the hope that this world was not the end of everything, but rather the beginning.
Psa 37:40
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 ground of God’s favour towards the righteous, and the ground moreover of their righteousness itself (Psa 37:3), is their trust in him. Trusting in him, they have taken his Law for their rule of life, and made it their constant endeavour to serve and please him.
HOMILETICS
Psa 37:4
Delight in God.
“Delight thyself,” etc. The order of these words makes all the difference between a religion of selfishness and a religion of love. Not, “The Lord will give you what your heart is set on; therefore delight in him;” but, “Delight thyself in the Lord; let him be thy JoyFountain of happiness and Object of desire; then thy most earnest petitions, deepest wants, highest aspirations, shall all be satisfied in him.” Delight in God includes satisfaction and joy
I. IN GOD HIMSELF. That is, so far as he has made himself known to uswho and what he is, in whom we have our being.
1. His glory as the eternal and infinite Creator; his power, wisdom, goodness, perpetual presence and unfailing care of his universe.
2. Yet more in his characterhis love, righteousness, unchangeable truth (Joh 1:18; Joh 14:9).
II. IN OUR PERSONAL RELATION TO HIMTHAT HE IS OUR GOD AND FATHER. (1Jn 3:1; Eph 2:1-10.) There is nothing selfish, presumptuous, or exclusive in this joy. The more we have it, the humbler we shall be; more desirous that others should share it; more qualified to influence them to seek and obtain it.
III. IN CONVERSE WITH HIM. This is the most marked and glorious characteristic of the psalms generallyreal, living communion with God (comp. Php 4:4-7).
IV. IN OBEDIENCE TO HIM. “To live in the fear of God is not without its pleasure. It composes the soul, expels the vanity which is not without vexation, represses exorbitant motions, checks unruly passions, keeps all within in a pleasant, peaceful calm” (John Howe).
CONCLUSION. There is a deep secret of a happy lifemust we not say a sadly neglected secret, even among real Christians? Unselfish delight in God is doubtless a high attainment. But is it out of reach? Surely not, when to the glorious knowledge of all that God is in himself is added the blessed certainty that he is our Father in Christ Jesus. This should be sunshine in darkest days. Yet let no Christian be discouraged because consciously very deficient in this respect. “That some are less sensibly and passionately moved with the great things of God (and even with the discovery of his love) than some others, doth not argue them to have less of the Spirit, but more of that temper which better comports with deeper judgment and a calm consideration of things. Though flax set on fire will flame more than iron, yet withal it will smoke more, and will not glow so much, nor keep heat so long” (Howe).
Psa 37:7
The rest of the soul.
“Rest in the Lord.” If any age ever needed a gospel of rest, it is this in which we live. We often call it “this busy age.” But it is more than busyit is restless. Men pride themselves on “living fast.” They seek excitement, not refreshment, in their very pleasures. Amusement becomes not recreation, reinvigoration, restful play, fitting you to return with fresh strength and vigour to work, but often an exhausting demand and strain. You are weary after your holiday, not rested. It was a wise as well as a gracious voice which said to the disciples, “Come ye apart, and rest” (Mar 6:31).
I. WE NEED REST.
1. Physical rest, in due amount, is a very deep need of life. At our peril we despise it. There are forms of animal ]fib which are sleepless, but they are of very low types. The child, for many years, needs to spend half his life in sleep. The strong man needs from a quarter to a third of his time for sleep; and he must not give his waking hours to unnecessary toil, or body and mind will fail under the strain. We are not to think the time spent in sleep sheer waste. The schoolboy knows his task better when he wakes than over-night. You are wiser for “sleeping over” a question. As a new building requires time to settle, so, it seems, do our thoughts. “He giveth his beloved sleep” (Psa 27:2).
2. No less do we need mental restrepose of soul, heart, intellect. Best from doubt in certainty of truth. From care, in trust. From life’s turmoil, in the quieting presence of things unseen and eternal. From the world, in solitary converse with our Father and our Saviour. From restlessness, in peace; not insensibility, not inertness or carelessness, but inward calm.
II. GOD IS THE SOUL‘S REST. God has made all creation full of delight and profit for man, but not provided full satisfaction, perfect peace, anywhere but in himself. Faith is not a sudden snatch, but an abiding hold. Like the ivy, the soul climbs by clinging close; and as the ivy cannot cling while tossed to and fro by the wind, so the soul must cease to be agitated by stormy restless desires, if it is to take close, strong, peaceful hold on God. Rest in God includes:
1. Reconciliation. It would be absurd to speak of resting in God while our heart is at enmity with him, estranged from him, or careless, ignorant, doubtful, about our personal relation to him. One or other of these must be the case unless we are what Scripture calls reconciled to God. The “glad tidings” is the “word of reconciliation” in a twofold sense:
(1) The message and witness of the fact that God has provided atonement (2Co 5:19; Rom 5:10).
(2) The message of personal invitationnot to Jews, heathen, atheists, notorious offenders, as such, but to men as men, to each one as a sinner (2Co 5:20). Nature has no gospel. It is Christ who interprets for us the teaching, else unintelligible, of the lilies and the birds (Mat 6:26, etc.). It is his voicethe voice of the Father speaking through the Sonthat says,” I will give you rest” (Mat 11:28).
2. The rest of absolute submission to God‘s will, is what he sometimes calls us to. A hard lesson, but holy, profitable, with an after-fruit of peace. Not the highest form of faith, but indispensable to its completeness. For God does not cease to be our Creator, our Sovereign, when we become “children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”
3. The rest of unlimited trust. Not mere lying still in God’s hand or at the feet of Jesus; not (as the “Quietists” taught) annihilation of our own will or of personal self; the calm energy of the soul, willingly placing all in God’s hand. Not the stillness of the stagnant pool, but the calm of the deep lake through which a steady current flows. Christ was not passive in Gethsemane; the whole three of his will and purpose was gathered up in “Not my will,” etc.
Psa 37:23
Vindication of God’s supreme and gracious providence.
“The steps,” etc. (see Revised Version). The theme of this noble psalm is the vindication of God’s supreme and gracious providence, and the confirmation of faith tried by the vicissitudes of life, the prosperity of evil-doers, and trials of the righteous.
I. IN THE WIDEST SENSE HUMAN LIFE“the steps of [each] man,” the path in which he treadsIS UNDER GOD‘S GUIDANCE; upheld by his power, directed by his counsel (Pro 20:24). As a journey is made up of single steps, and one false step may be fatal; so life, of momentary experiences and acts of choice, of which the greatest may hinge on the least. Life or death may hang on a pair of damp sheets or wet shoes, or a whiff of poisoned air. The fate of an empire may turn on the flight of a bullet. A spider’s web spun across a dark opening has saved a fugitive from his persecutors. A successful career or a happy home may be owing to a chance meeting. If, therefore, God rules human affairs, he must foresee and control their most minute and secret causes.
II. GOD BESTOWS SPECIAL GUIDANCE ON HIS CHILDREN. “The steps of a good man, etc. (Authorized Version). “Established, is the proper meaning of the Hebrew word; not only directed, but made firm, planted evenly and safely. This word” good,” inserted by our old translators, seems a bold interpolation; but, in fact, it does but express the spirit of the whole passage. It is of the “meek,” the “righteous,” the “upright,” the man who delights in the Lord, rests in him, waits on him, the psalm speaks (Psa 37:3, Psa 37:4, Psa 37:7, Psa 37:11, Psa 37:16, Psa 37:18). Such phrases as “special providence are sometimes ignorantly used, sometimes as ignorantly found fault with. Wrongly used, if it be supposed that God’s control is occasional, not perpetual and universal; wrongly objected to, if it is forgotten that at any moment God’s guidance may have some special end in view, some immediate result. There are three reasons why God’s childrennamely, those who are living the life of faithobtain this special guidance and may count on it.
(1) They ask for it.
(2) They follow and yield to it.
(3) It is possible in their case, as it is not in the case of an ungodly life.
They have the teaching of God’s Word, which the ungodly person neglects; and the teaching of God’s Spirit, which he does not believe in or desire (Rom 8:14). Further, God has a different end in view for them (Rom 2:7, Rom 2:8).
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION.
1. If we desire God to guard and guide and prosper our whole life-journey, we must ask him to guide every step. We are warranted in asking and expecting his leading in the least matters as truly as in the greatest. We should not willingly move a step without him. We must be prepared at every step to let him choose, remembering Psa 106:15.
2. What shall we say to those who have never yet taken the one first step into the right and safe path (Joh 5:40; Pro 16:25)? “There is but a step between” you “and death.” But also, one God-guided step will bring you to the feet of the Saviour, who is pledged to turn none away (Joh 6:37).
HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE
Psa 37:1-40
The good man’s directory.
This is a very remarkable psalm. Its theme is one throughout its entire length. Yet it is not so much drawn out consecutively as repeated proverbially. This may be partly accounted for by its alphabetical structure. There is no advance between the verses at the commencement and those at its close, but rather a remarkable variety of beautiful turns of expression to a thought that is the same throughout. The whole psalm may be summed up thus: “Just now, you see the wicked prospering and the ungodly depressed. Do not fret over this. Trust, do right, rest in the Lord, wait and see. And by-and-by you will find that the righteous are brought out to the light, while the wicked are relegated to forgetfulness and shame. Even now to have God in the heart with a crust in the hand, is better than to have the riches of many wicked. God will, in his own time and way, appear for his faithful ones, and prove the truth of his ancient word, ‘Them that honour me, I will honour.'” So far as the text of the psalm is concerned, there is little to call for laboured criticism, though the Hebrew student would do well to examine minutely the second halves of the third and thirty-seventh verses. For the most part the psalm is delightfully plain and clear; and nowhere could any better rule or directory for life be found than is herein contained. In our homiletic treatment of it we will notice
I. THE SEVERAL DUTIES HERE ENJOINED ON THE GOOD MAN. These duties are put into a form suggested by the circumstances which surrounded the writer. When David wrote this psalm he was an old man. Looking back on the scenes of past observation and experience, he had witnessed many strange inequalities on the surface of society. Looking in one direction, he had often beheld an ungodly man enjoying all that heart could wish, so far as this world was concerned; and in another direction he had as often seen a good man, one who walked closely with God, in the midst of trial, affliction, and distress. This state of things had perplexed him, and he knew that it still perplexed the righteous. To meet their perplexities and to assuage them, this psalm was penned; and it is this purpose which forms the background of thought throughout the entire length of the psalm.
1. The first injunction is “fret not“ (Psa 37:1). Do not worry or perplex yourself about these mysteries of God’s providence. Even if the lot of the wicked seems more easy, more pleasant, more prosperous than yours, yet “they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb; ‘ besides, “a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.” God’s people are infinitely better off, with him as their heavenly Friend, than any of the ungodly are, with all their noise and parade.
2. Hence a second duty is presented to us: “Trust“ and “Rest in the Lord.“ Two expressions for substantially the same attitude of spirit. But this restful trusting is put in contrast from fretting. Your work is not to worry, but to trust your God. Now, in what sense is this intended? Let us picture the good man under the difficulty to which we have referred. He sees the ungodly in high places, while he is obscure, depressed, afflicted; and he wonders what it means, now, in what sense is such a one to trust in the Lord? He is to trust in God, believing that such a state of things is known and permitted by him in infinite wisdom; that this state of chaos is perfectly consistent with God’s love for his people; that God has some wise and holy end in permitting itto prove him and to improve him; and that he will see that end, either in this world or in the next.
3. Then there follows a third duty: “Wait patiently.“ If we are content to wait and let God’s methods in providence open up before us, we shall see the ungodly cut down (Psa 37:2, Psa 37:9, Psa 37:10, Psa 37:15, Psa 37:17, Psa 37:20, Psa 37:25, Psa 37:36, Psa 37:38); that God will give us the desires of our heart, and graciously clear our way (Psa 37:4, Psa 37:5); that though we may have been misunderstood and misrepresented for a time, yet God will clear us and our reputation in the long run (Psa 37:6); that God will grant the true possession and peaceful enjoyment of life to the meek and loyal (Psa 37:11); that the little of the righteous brings far more joy than the much of the wicked (Psa 37:16); that he will be upheld where others fall (Psa 37:17); that supplies shall be sent to the saint even in days of famine (Psa 37:19); that step by step will be taken under the ordering of a Divine Guide (Psa 37:23); that even in falling he shall not perish, for to him shall be shown a Divine upholding grace (Psa 37:24); that the righteous man will leave a blessed inheritance to his children,peace was his in life, and peace shall follow his children when he is gone to his rest (Psa 37:37); that his life is but an outworking of God’s great salvation (Psa 37:39, Psa 37:40). It is not in youth that all this can be seen, but if we believe God when we are young, we shall have proved him ere we are old. Only let us “wait patiently.” There is a vast unfolding plan, which, if we are wise to observe, will be ever revealing to us “the loving-kindness of the Lord.”
4. And thus we are led on to a fourth dutythat of obedience. (Psa 37:3.) “Trust in the Lord, and do good,” i.e. “do right.“ In Psa 37:34 the same duty is expressed in another phrase, “Wait on the Lord, and keep his way.“ Trusting and trying, resting and working, are to go together. We are to find out what God would have us do in the sphere in which he has placed us; then to trust in the Lord, be strong, and do it. And we may “do right” (Psa 37:3), or, in other words, we may “keep his way” (Psa 37:34) in one or other of two methods. By actively doing the Divine will; and this is probably what most of us are called on to doto pursue with energy the duties in active life that are set before us. Now, we may fulfil these:
(1) In attending at each moment to the duty of the moment; simply doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way, and with the distinct aim and purpose of pleasing God. May be our calling is not that which we should prefer, and yet we see no way open to any other. When God does open a way in another direction, by all means let us follow it. But, meanwhile, be it ours simply to do the work which lies before us, with a readiness and cheerfulness that befit those whose sole aim is to please God.
(2) In the cultivation of holiness we may “do right,” ever setting the Lord before us, and aiming to follow him who “left us an example, that we should follow his steps.”
(3) In personal efforts to help, to relieve, to comfort, or to serve another, we may do right. In this respect, as well as others, “it is accepted, according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not.” But we may “do right” also by patiently bearing the Divine will; and sometimes this is all the believer can dosimply to bear what God has laid upon him. Nor is there a nobler sight on earth than to see one who, racked with pain or wrapped in obscurity, can say, “My lot is appointed me by my Father’s will; all that will is love, and therefore I can cheerfully bear it. If my Father were to give the rod unto my own hands, I would give it back to him, saying, ‘Father, thou knowest best; do with me as seemeth good in thy sight.'” Why, such a one, though he never goes outside the doors of his own house from one year’s end to another, is a missionary to the Church and to the world! Preach fervently as we may by words, we cannot preach like these suffering saints! But we must notice
II. THE CONNECTION THERE IS BETWEEN THESE SEVERAL DUTIES. We have specified them under four heads.
1. Fret not.
2. Trust.
3. Wait patiently.
4. Do right.
These four may be reduced to two: trusting and trying; or, in other words, to resting and working. Both are included in the verse already quoted. “Trust in the Lord, and do right.” While these duties in combination make up “the whole duty of man,” they are so connected together that neither can be discharged without the other. If we do not trust in God, we cannot do the right, and if we do not desire to do right, we have no right to trust in God. What, then, is the relation between them? At least a fourfold one.
1. Trust in God ensures the peace of mind which fits a man for work. E.g. take a tradesman in business, whose affairs are going down, and who will soon find himself on the wrong side of the balance-sheet. It is impossible for him to go about his business with the energy it requires, especially in these times. But put the man’s affairs straight; tell him that everything is set right, and that by-and-by he will find himself in a better position than at present,and you put new life into the man. When he knows that all is right, he can set about his work with all the zest that is needed. So it is here. There once were two burdens pressing on the heart. The one, of his spiritual interests, the other, of his temporal care. What has become of these? The first, the burden of guilt, he has laid at the foot of the cross. The second, the load of earthly care, he brings day by day, and casts it upon his God. Thus he has nothing left to care for, nothing left to be anxious about. Hence, the peace of God passing all understanding keeps his heart and mind in Christ Jesus; and, consequently, with unburdened heart, he can go about the work his Father has given him to do.
2. Trusting in God ensures the reception of strength for the discharge of work. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;” “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” So runs the promise, and so runs experience too. Strength according to the days; strength sure as the days; strength to the end of the days. Such will be the uniform result of” waiting on God all the day.”
3. Trusting in God supplies a man with motives to perform his work. If I am permitted to trust in God, then honour requires that I shall do right; for I trust in God for strength to perform his will; hence when I ask for strength there is a tacit pledge that the strength received from God shall be spent in obedience to God. And not only so, but gratitude also requires that I should do right. If I receive of God’s strength, how ann I but gratefully spend it for him? And the honor of religion requires that I should do right. For if I tell the world I am trusting in God, and yet fail to do right, what will the worldling say? What can he say, but this?”Either your God is not the God you say he is, or else you have not the trust in him which you profess to have.” If we want the world to believe in God, if we want them to give us credit for sincerity, we must show that, while we trust in God, we also do right.
4. Trusting in God gives a man a guarantee of the successful issue of his work. Is it mine to trust in God? Can I, under all circumstances, repose in him? Then I know that, to the very last, all shall be well. He hath said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Trusting in him, we will dare to work, to suffer, or to die.
5. Trusting in God will ensure a blessing to those on whom our work may afterwards full. The good man layeth an inheritance to his children’s children. “The generation of the upright shall be blessed.” The Old Testament does not project our thought into our own future life after death as the New Testament does, but it lays very much stress on the effect of a man’s life on the generations which will follow him on earth: this is in accordance with Deu 7:9. And there can be no manner of doubt that the posterity of a man of trained righteousness, integrity, and piety, even though he be a poor man, will have the best of all legaciespious poverty, God‘s blessing, and a father‘s prayers. We do not say that young people are now taught too much to look to their future life, but we do venture to affirm that far too little stress is laid upon, and mention is far too seldom made of, the thought of the effect of parental character upon posterity. The law of heredity is stronger than that of environment; or, to put the same truth in somewhat antique form, “Grace does not run in the blood, but it purifies it.”
6. Trusting in God ensures a man of a home in God when the earthly work is over. Even when flesh and heart fail, God is the Strength of our heart, and our Portion for ever!C.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH
Psa 37:1-40
Two pictures.
The psalmist says, at Psa 37:25, “I have been young, and now am old.“ We may regard him therefore as speaking in this psalm with the fulness of knowledge and the confidence of ripened wisdom. His old experience has attained to prophetic strain. Let us consider two pictures.
I. THE EVILS OF ENVY. It is common. It takes its rise and works upon the lower part of our nature, blinding our minds, perverting our hearts, and stirring up all our evil passions. It “frets” us with a sense of our inferiority; it “frets” us with a feeling of the injustice with which we are treated; it “frets” us with a proud consciousness of what we would have done, if only things had been otherwise, and we had fair opportunities. In these and other ways it breaks our peace and embitters our lives. And yet how useless is envy as a resource amidst the ills of life! Instead of remedying, it only aggravates our troubles. Nothing but evil can come of evil. Envy leads not only to waste, but to worry, and not only to worry, but to wearing away of our powers, as by the slow and insidious progress of disease. Besides, envy is manifestly unreasonable in view of the realities of character. The prosperity of the wicked is vain and delusive. Look to the tendencies of things, look to the effect upon character, look to the end, and then see how, even in the deepest sense, it is infinitely better to have little with a clear conscience, than a full purse of unrighteous gains; to take the lowest place among men, with the love of God, than lands and heritages and the highest honours of the world, by the sacrifice of truth and righteousness. Moreover, envy is in reality a grievous offence against God. We are slow to admit this. We regard “fretfulness” as more an unhappy temper than a sin. But in this we err. “Envy” implies dissatisfaction with God’s government, distrust of his justice, and doubt of his truth. When we give way to “envy,” we place ourselves first, and as good as say, “If God were just, if he really loved us and eared for us, he would settle things otherwise, and not suffer our enemies to triumph over us.” Thus in our selfishness we blind ourselves to the truth, and act not only unworthily towards God, but inconsistently with our own best faith and hopes. “The tree is known by its fruits.” To judge rightly of envy, let us mark its effects. See how it wrought in Cain. See how from that time onward, wherever it has had sway, it has wrought terrible evilsas in Saul, and Ahab, and Haman, and the wicked Jews, and even in the Christian Church. If these things are so, how great a sin do we who profess to be the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus commit by yielding to this mean and degrading vice that has wrought such havoc in the world and in the Church!
II. THE BLESSEDNESS OF TRUST IN GOD. Trust is the true antidote to envy. We see this in the dispositions it producestowards God, piety (Psa 37:3-6); towards man, benevolence (Psa 37:8). Next in the benedictions it secures. It brings settledness. Instead of distressing cares and passions, we have tranquillity. Instead of pain, we have peace. We are at home with God. There is also sustenance. We are “fed” with heavenly food. We gain strength for all work. “Daily bread” fits us for daily duty. There is also satisfaction. Our higher nature is set above our lower nature. Reason rules instead of passion. Love binds us to our brethren instead of our being separated by envy. Trust in God brings to us all that is really good for us, and we bask as in the sunshine of God’s favour instead of being alienated from him by wicked works. Mark the Divine order with regard to these blessings. There must be a right spirit before there can be right conduct. Mark also how, as we live a true and unselfish life, doing good and hoping for nothing again but what God the Lord sees fit to give, we secure not only our own self-respect, bat grow in favour with God and man. The surest way to get rid of discontent with the present, and fear of the future, is to do right and leave auto God.
“Careless seems the Great Avenger; history’s pages but record
One death-grapple in the darkness, ‘twixt old systems and the Word,
Truth for ever on the scaffoldwrong for ever on the throne.
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.”
(Lowell.)
W.F.
Psa 37:4-6
Here we have a
Sweet picture of a noble life.
I. QUIET HEART. The eye, the ear, the imagination, continually bring before us objects that appeal to our desires. We are in danger of being distracted and harassed, and of even yielding to envy and discontent. The cure is from God. When we come to know him as he is, to believe in him as he has revealed himself in Christ Jesus, we are able to rest in him with confidence, leaving everything to his righteous and loving rule.
II. RIGHTLY ORDERED LIFE. There may be life without any rule, or there may be life wrongly directed, or there may be life regulated in a right way, in accordance with God’s will and not our own. This last is the true “way.” It is when we “commit our way to God “in humble prayer, and holy submission to his will, that light will arise to us, and strength be ministered to us, and real prosperity secured to us. This is not only the best way for ourselves, but also for others. It is in doing God’s will that we reach the highest honour and usefulness, and accomplish our true destiny.
III. BLISSFUL FUTURE. There is a screen as of night between us and to-morrow. We know not what a day may bring forth. There may come loss of health, of property, of friends. There may come diverse trials and troubles. Or it may be otherwise. Let us be thankful that God has been pleased to conceal from us what it would have been ill for us to know. But God knows all, and we are as sure, as that God lives, that it shall be well with the righteous.W.F.
Psa 37:27-40
Evil-doers.
Evil-doers are not truly objects of envy. The more closely we contemplate this, the more clearly do we see their baseness. But it is needful that we should be urged to this salutary duty. Again and again in this psalm is the exhortation addressed to us to consider and judge rightly, to cease from evil and learn to do well. And there are good and weighty reasons given why we should have no part with evil-doers.
I. THEIR CHARACTER IS ODIOUS.
II. THEIR PROSPERITY IS DELUSIVE. Image upon image is used to set forth the vanity and worthlessness of all prosperity not founded in righteousness. Reason, observation, and history are appealed to as teaching that sometimes quickly, at other times slowly, sometimes openly, at other times silently and secretly, but always certainly, the end cometh (Psa 37:38).
III. THEIR DEVICES ARE DOOMED TO DEFEAT. We see, on the part of the wicked, malice suggesting, cunning contriving, and energy working out their evil devices, and, on the other hand, God watching and thwarting and overruling for good all their plans. So it was with Joseph’s brethren (Act 7:9, Act 7:10). So it was with Daniel’s cruel foes (Dan 6:24). So it was with the Jews, whose wicked hands had crucified the Son of God (Act 2:23, Act 2:24). The day of retribution surely cometh. Not only defeat, but “shame and everlasting contempt,” await the wicked.W.F.
Psa 37:27-34
Goodness.
We have here
I. THAT GOODNESS IS THE TRUE AIM OF LIFE. The first thing is to have the heart made good, and then all that flow from it, in word and deed, will be good also.
“But such as are good men can give good things.”
(Milton.)
II. THAT GOODNESS IS THE REAL GLORY OF LIFE. (Psa 37:30, Psa 37:31.) We cannot hut admire “wisdom” and “judgment;” but what gives these their sweetest savour and their highest worth is the spirit of goodness that dwells in them The glory of God is his goodness, and it is in the measure that we are like God in goodness that we are like him in glory. This glory is free to us in Christ Jesus.
III. THAT GOODNESS IS THE MOST PERMANENT POSSESSION OF LIFE. Many things stand high for a time that will be brought low; many things are counted worthy amongst men that will yet be proved worthless. There may be wicked men who hold a prominent place in the world, and are for a while the envy of many, whose greatness is after all a delusion and a lie. In the end they will be cut down like a tree, whose glory is for ever abased. But it shall be otherwise with the righteous. Goodness cannot die. It is safe amidst all changes. It stands firm in the tumult and rage of the greatest storm. It emerges purer and brighter than ever from the fires of persecution and the fury of evil men (Psa 37:39, Psa 37:40). Goodness lives as an influence in the world alter death, triumphs as the power of Cod in death, and will dwell in the light of God beyond death for ever and ever.W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 37:1-6
Doubts raised by the Divine providence, and how to meet them.
The difficulty which perplexes the mind of the psalmist here isHow does God judge the wicked, if he allows them to prosper; and how reward the righteous, if they suffer adversity? The answers given are not a consecutive argument. The whole psalm is more like a string of pearls held together only by the string. The thoughts have no joints or links to unite them. The leading thought, repeated in various ways, is not to envy the present prosperity of the wicked, but rather to wait in patient resignation for the just judgments of God.
I. BURNING ENVY IS WRONG IN ITSELF, AND LEADS TO EVIL CONSEQUENCES. (Psa 37:1.) To grudge the wicked their prosperity is very much as if we coveted it. And envy is nigh to cursingan unrighteous spirit.
II. WE MUST ALLOW TIME TO SOLVE THIS AS WELL AS MANY OTHER DIFFICULTIES. (Psa 37:2.) Fate of Saul, Absalom, and Ahithophel. “What thou knowest not now,” etc.
III. LET NOT YOUR DIFFICULTIES SUPPLANT THE ONLY TRULY SATISFYING EXERCISES OF THE HEART AND LIFE. (Psa 37:3, Psa 37:4.) Trust in the unseen Lord; delight yourself in him; find the joy of his service; and your best desires shall be satisfied. Do not let your jealousy of the wicked cause you to cease from doing good, and unsettle your ways of life; inhabit the land, and live a truthful and faithful life.
IV. LET THE RIGHTEOUS MAN BE ASSURED OF THE SYMPATHY AND CO–OPERATION OF THE RIGHTEOUS GOD. (VEER. 5, 6.) God brought David out of all dangers with which Saul threatened him, and made his name to shine over the whole kingdom. Present adversity is often the way w future glory. Think of the darkness that fell upon Christ in his sufferings and death; and yet he was the Sun of Righteousness.S.
Psa 37:7-11
Confidence in God.
The text of the whole psalm is in the first two verses. We are not to be discouraged in the service of God by the prosperity of the wicked; for it is more apparent than real, and is a short-lived prosperity. At the seventh verse the psalm takes a fresh start from the same key-note.
I. SILENT TRUST IN GOD, WAITING FOR HIM, IS THE ONLY TRUE SOLUTION OF THE DIFFICULTY. (Psa 37:7.) Do not vainly argue the question; be silent to God, and he will speak by-and-by and explain the difficulties of his providence.
II. ENVIOUS ANGER THAT THE WICKED ARE BETTER OFF THAN YOU IS SINFUL. (Psa 37:8.) It is an arraignment of God’s providence, which is presumptuous, and a discontent which is ungrateful, and an undervaluing of that inward prosperity which is the greatest good of life.
III. IT IS THE RIGHTEOUS WHO REALLY INHERIT THAT WHICH IS BEST IN THIS LIFE. (Psa 37:9, Psa 37:10.) The prosperity of evil-doers will soon come to an end; for it is unrighteous, and cannot last in the world of a righteous God. But the righteous have an inward life that turns outward things into gold; they feast royally at the table of God, as is said in the twenty-third psalm.
IV. THE PRECEDING THOUGHT IS REPEATED WITH THE PROMISE OF AN ABUNDANCE OF PEACE. (Psa 37:11.) Our Lord repeats the former part of this verse in the Sermon on the Mount. “The meekthose who do not vainly strive and fret over the impossible or the inevitableshall inherit the earth.” And shall have peace of heart and mind, which the wicked have not.S.
Psa 37:12-20
The righteous and the wicked.
The argument is continued and repeated in various forms, that the righteous is to hold fast his confidence in God, and not to be discouraged by the prosperity of the wicked. For
I. CONSIDER THE EXPERIENCE OF THE WICKED. (Psa 37:12-15, Psa 37:20.)
1. The impotence of the plots which they in their anger devise. (Psa 37:12, Psa 37:13.) The Lord shall laugh. “No weapon formed against him shall prosper.”
2. The punishment of the wicked is near and certain. (Psa 37:13, Psa 37:20.) “He seeth that his day is coming.”
3. The weapons which they employ against the righteous shall recoil upon themselves. (Psa 37:14, Psa 37:15.) God overrules the contest between them.
II. THE BLESSEDNESS Or THE RIGHTEOUS. (Psa 37:16-19.)
1. A little with righteousness is worth more than much with wickedness. (Psa 37:16.)
2. The strength of the righteous is maintained and upheld by God. (Psa 37:17.) While the “arms”equivalent to the “strength”of the wicked soon break down.
3. They fulfil their divinely appointed days, and their goods descend to their posterity. (Psa 37:18.) They are secure, and all things work together for good. The Christian knows of an eternal inheritance.
4. God will provide for all their wants. (Psa 37:19.) This we know more abundantly in Christ.S.
Psa 37:23, Psa 37:24
God orders the good life.
“The steps of a good man,” etc.
I. GOD ORDERS THE LIFE OF A GOOD MAN.
1. By means of outward law. “His delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in his Law doth he meditate day and night.” “But what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh,” etc. Christ is the outward law for the Christian.
2. By means of an inward influence. His Spirit exerting, directing, and ruling the thoughts, the desires, and the will, teaching him how to choose and how to walk. He “orders” consistently with our freedom.
II. GOD TAKES PLEASURE IN THE WAY OF GOOD MEN.
1. Because all his work is good. A good man’s life is his production. All God’s work is good, none evil.
2. Because he delights in the rectitude and welfare of his children. As an earthly father delights in the true prosperity of his children.
III. GOD GIVES EVERY HELP FOR THE RECOVERY OF THOSE WHO FALL. He upholds him, helps him to rise, by taking hold of his hand.
1. He promises abundant forgiveness to the repentant. “Let the wicked forsake his way,” etc. The parable of the prodigal son.
2. He searches and tries and shows the evil way in men, and leads them to repentance. By the revealing work of his Spirit. “Like as a father pitieth his children,” etc.S.
Psa 37:37
The perfect life.
“Mark the perfect, and behold the upright: for the man of peace hath a future [or, ‘posterity’].” In contrast to the wicked spoken of in the next verse (38). This whole psalm is a record of human experience.
I. THE STUDY OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE IN THE LIGHT OF HUMAN CHARACTER IS MOST INSTRUCTIVE.
1. Every maws life is in the main an embodiment either of the Law of God or of the law of self. Intellectual life, a life of knowledge or of ignorance, of wisdom or foolishness. But the moral life is the grandest, as exhibiting obedience or disobedience to the eternal laws of God.
2. The moral life shows the consequences of living the one life or the other. The shame and misery of the one, and the peace and blessedness of the other. Difference is life or death.
II. WHAT THE STUDY OF THE RIGHTEOUS MAN‘S LIFE REVEALS.
1. It brings him internal peace. And in the main outward peace; but if not, the peace of trust and rest in God. Peace in life and peace in death.
2. He transmits righteousness to his posterity.
(1) By the influence of his example and teaching. His words and his character are reproduced in his children; he lives again in them, perhaps a higher life than he lived, according to the law of progress. May be exceptions.
(2) By hereditary transmission. Moral as well as physical qualities descend to our children, and to children’s children. How grand a motive for a pure, noble, Christian life! Goodness runs in the family blood.S.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 37.
David persuadeth to patience and confidence in God, by the different estate of the godly and the wicked.
A Psalm of David.
Title. ledavid. This Psalm was made by David in his old age; and it is an excellent hymn on the equal providence of God, at that time exercised towards the Jews; see the note on Psa 1:4. It contains an exhortation to good men to persevere in a religious course of life: and David assured them, that if they did so, they should see, as he himself had done, that the prosperity of the wicked should not last long; and that God would certainly reward those who with meekness and patience would continue to trust in, and rely upon him. Dr. Delaney conjectures upon this Psalm, that when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, perceived, upon David’s return after the rebellion of Absalom, that the king had conceived an ill opinion of him, through the false suggestions of his servant Ziba, (2Sa 16:1-4; 2Sa 19:24-30.) it is natural to suppose the generous and upright heart of Mephibosheth to be distressed, dejected, and uneasy to the last degree, and taking rash and repining resolutions to banish himself from a country where he had found such treacherous treatment, &c. And what could be more natural, and more consoling under these circumstances, than for the good king to entreat him to forego those rash resolutions; to admonish him, that if he bore his present low estate with patience and resignation to the divine will, he should soon see it bettered; to remind him that the prosperity of the wicked was short, &c. And in what words could all this have been conveyed more strongly, than in those of this Psalm? See Life of David, b. i. c. 14, &c. It should be observed, that this Psalm is alphabetical at every other verse; or, more properly, they are made two verses, which should be but one long one; as Lam 1:2.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psalms 37
A Psalm of David
1Fret not thyself because of evil doers,
Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
2For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
And wither as the green herb.
3Trust in the Lord, and do good;
So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
4Delight thyself also in the Lord;
And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
5Commit thy way unto the Lord;
Trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
6And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light,
And thy judgment as the noon-day.
7Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him:
Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way,
Because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
8Cease from anger, and forsake wrath:
Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.
9For evil doers shall be cut off:
But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.
10For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be:
Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.
11But the meek shall inherit the earth;
And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
12The wicked plotteth against the just,
And gnasheth upon him with his teeth.
13The Lord shall laugh at him:
For he seeth that his day is coming.
14The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow,
To cast down the poor and needy,
And to slay such as be of upright conversation.
15Their sword shall enter into their own heart,
And their bows shall be broken.
16A little that a righteous man hath is better
Than the riches of many wicked.
17For the arms of the wicked shall be broken:
But the Lord upholdeth the righteous.
18The Lord knoweth the days of the upright:
And their inheritance shall be for ever.
19They shall not be ashamed in the evil time:
And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
20But the wicked shall perish,
And the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs:
They shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
21The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again:
But the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.
22For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth;
And they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.
23The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord:
And he delighteth in his way.
24Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down:
For the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.
25I have been young, and now am old;
Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken.
Nor his seed begging bread.
26He is ever merciful, and lendeth;
And his seed is blessed.
27Depart from evil, and do good;
And dwell for evermore.
28For the Lord loveth judgment,
And forsaketh not his saints;
They are preserved for ever:
But the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
29The righteous shall inherit the land,
And dwell therein for ever.
30The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom,
And his tongue talketh of judgment.
31The law of his God is in his heart;
None of his steps shall slide.
32The wicked watcheth the righteous,
And seeketh to slay him.
33The Lord will not leave him in his hand,
Nor condemn him when he is judged.
34Wait 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.
35I have seen the wicked in great power,
And spreading himself like a green bay tree.
36Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not:
Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.
37Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright:
For the end of that man is peace.
38But the transgressors shall be destroyed together:
The end of the wicked shall be cut off.
39But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord:
He is their strength in the time of trouble.
40And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them:
He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them,
Because they trust in him.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Its Contents and Composition.We certainly cannot call this Psalm a Theodicy, and hardly a didactic Psalm. For it does not, as it were, allay doubts of Gods righteous government (De Wette), which are solved in Psalms 49, and still more in Psalms 73 but it exhorts not to yield to feelings of ill humor excited by the apparent prosperity of the ungodly; but rather to trust in the protection of God, the righteous Judge, and to persevere in doing good, with the assurance of the final and often very sudden ruin of the wicked, and the sure deliverance and manifold blessings of the pious. And these exhortations are not developed in a didactic form, or elaborately proved, but they are expressed in a form corresponding with that of Proverbs, in rounded clauses easily remembered, which treat of the same thoughts in very different and often agreeable figures, and turns of expression; and they are so connected by an alphabetical arrangement, that they hang together not unlike many precious stones or pearls, which are strung on one string in one necklace (Amyrald). Two verses of two lines are as a rule allotted to each letter, and indeed so that the parts of the tetrastich are connected with one another in sense. Yet this Psalm likewise, as the previous alphabetical Psalms (Psalms 9, 25, 34), has many deviations from the rule, which are hardly to be explained from a preconceived plan, and with reference to the number ten as a sign of what is perfect and complete in itself (Hengst.). The Psa 37:7; Psa 37:20; Psa 37:34, have each only three lines for the corresponding letters, whilst the letters and have strophes of five lines in two verses, yet so that the 26th verse of two lines follows the tristich (Psa 37:25), whilst the 40th verse of three lines follows the 39th verse with two lines. is used twice, in Psa 37:14-15. seems to be missing, and in its place forms a long strophe in Psa 37:27-29. However, there seems to be here merely a false division of the verses. If the new strophe is begun in the middle of the present Psa 37:28, it is not necessary to supply the missing strophe by erasing of the first word (Bellermann, Metrik S. 121); we need only not to count the Lamed (Maurer), as we do not count the Vav of Psa 37:39. This explanation is simpler than the supposition that a clause has fallen off after Psa 37:28 c, although the Sept., Symm., Vulg. have such an one = injusti punientur, as if they had read (Capp., Ewald, et al.), or (Hitzig). De Wette has taken back his supposition that the wicked are heathen and the righteous are Jews, as indeed nothing indicates that the poet comforted his fellow-citizens, suffering under the oppression of a foreign yoke, with the prospect of a speedy change of fortune (Rosenmller). There are no references at all, that can be traced (Hupfeld), to such relations as occurred in the Syrian oppression (Olsh.), or would suit the government of David (De Wette). The contents even lead rather to a period prior to the composition of the book of Job, than to a period subsequent to this, and not at all to a revived Jewish dogmatism (Hitzig). And, as it has already been remarked, neither the quiet didactic tone nor the alphabetic form lead to a later period of composition. With respect to the resemblances with Pro 3:31; Pro 16:3; Pro 16:8; Pro 20:24; Pro 23:17; Pro 24:19, these do not imply that we have here reminiscences and repetitions (Hitzig, G. Baur). They may be explained rather from an internal relationship with the Proverbs of Solomon which are rooted and grounded in the poetry of David, such as is now before us (Hengst.). Moreover, the repetition of the same thoughts and turns of expression, is not necessarily due to the alphabetical limitation. They may have the practical aim of making a strong impression (Berleb. Bibel). This agrees very well with the advanced age of the auther (Psa 37:25), who, however, can not at all be charged with tedious prolixity, but rather discloses a complete mastery of the material, a ripened experience and a great skill in the art of a flowing, clear style, which, with all its simplicity, has yet peculiarities of expression. All this is rather in favor of David, whose life affords ample occasion for the experience and feelings here expressed: Such examples David had certainly seen in Saul, Ahithophel, Absalom and the like, who were powerful in their ungodly natures, and before one could look around him they passed away, so that it might be asked and said, Where are they gone? (Luther). Psa 37:5 has afforded the theme of the song of Paul Gerhardt: Befiehl du deine Wege.It is possible that Psa 37:12; Psa 37:21; Psa 37:31, on account of similarity, begin special clauses of the Psalm (Hitzig, Delitzsch).3
[Str. I. Psa 37:1. Fret not thyself.This verb literally denotes to heat oneself with excitement or anger. It is used in this form only in Pro 24:19, and in this Psalm in Psa 37:1; Psa 37:7-8.
Psa 37:2. Grass is the usual figure of perishableness, and is frequently coupled with flower of the field, comp. Psa 90:5; Psa 103:15; Psa 129:6; Isa 40:6-7; Job 14:2. Here it is connected with green herb, which is literally greenness of herbage, and refers to the tender grass and young herbage. Comp. Psa 1:3.C. A. B.]
Str. II. Psa 37:3. Dwell in the land.The possession of the land and dwelling in it are frequently designated as the reward of righteousness. But it does not follow from this any more than from Psa 37:27 that we are here to think of a promise (Rosenm., Stier, Hengst.). The context is opposed to this and likewise the connection of the clauses. Accordingly, we must suppose an exhortation, which refers not so much to a conflict with desires to emigrate out of displeasure with affairs at home (most interpreters), as to an encouragement to a quiet life, tranquillized by God, in the land of the promise. If the expression is merely regarded as typical and explained of the entire position in which a man is placed by God, of the possession and calling of the individual as well as that maintained by every one (Hupfeld, Hitzig), then the coloring of the expression which was so comforting to the Israelites, is too much weakened, although it is true that this clause is parallel to that immediately preceding, and the consequences of the trust are stated (De Wette).Practice faithfulness.These words cannot mean: nourish thyself honestly (Luther); or: feed securely = live in careless trust (Chald., Calvin); perhaps: feed thyself in faithfulness. Moreover, this faithfulness, according to the context, is not the faithfulness of God, in which the proud are to rejoice (Jerome, Cleric., Hengst.). There is no promise expressed here, so likewise it is not said that the pious will rejoice in their own faithfulness, or will be fed, that is, preserved and nourished on account of their constancy in faith and their trust in God (Isaki). It is an exhortation to the loving practice of faithfulness; for means: to go or be behind something (Hitzig).
[Str. III. Psa 37:5-6. Roll thy way upon Jehovah.Comp. Psa 22:8; Pro 16:3; 1Pe 5:7. The way here refers to the whole course of life, with its troubles and cares. These God will assume together with the care of the way of those who trust in Him.He will do it, that is, He will accomplish what they cannot do and will bring it to a good end, as Psa 22:31; Psa 52:9. This is still further carried out in the next verse. Jehovah will cause thy righteousness, which is now in the darkness of night, to go up as the light, or the daylight, the dawning sun; and then still more emphatically: thy right as the noonday, the clearest, brightest and fullest light. Comp. Isa 58:10; Job 11:17; also Job 5:14; Isa 59:10; Amo 8:9.C. A. B.]
[Str. IV. Psa 37:7. Be still before Jehovah.Perowne: A word expressive of that calm resignation which leaves itself absolutely in the hands of God. This hushed, bowed temper of spirit best suits us. Here is the best cure for dissatisfaction with the present and for anxiety about the future, that we leave both in the hands of God.C. A. B.]
[Str. V. Psa 37:8-9. Only to do evil.Alexander: Do not indulge a passion which can only make thee a partaker in the guilt of those who are its objects.They shall inherit the land.The they is emphatic. The land is the land of promise, the common blessing of all the faithful.C. A. B.4]
[Str. VI. Psa 37:10. And thou lookest at his place and he is not there.Some take the place as the subject of the last clause, as if his very place had disappeared, but it is better with Hupfeld, Moll, et al., to take the ungodly as the subject as in the parallel member, the place which he usually occupied knows him no more. Comp. Psa 37:36 and Psa 10:15.C. A. B.]
[Str. VII. Psa 37:12. Jehovah laughs at him.Delitzsch: The Lord, who regards the attack on the righteous as an attack on Himself, laughs at the angry plotters (Psa 2:4), for He, who orders the fates of men, foresees from afar with omniscient glance, the day of the wicked, that is the day of his death, of his visitation.C. A. B.]
[Str. VIII. Psa 37:14-15. The sword and the bow are usual figures for all kinds of means of doing injury. Here being directed against the poor and innocent, in accordance with the lex talionis they pierce their own heart, and are broken under their own feet, vid. Ps. 6:15, 16; 9:15, 16; 57:6; Pro 26:27; Est 7:10.C. A. B.]
[Str. IX. Psa 37:16. The little of the righteous is better than the riches of many wicked.Hupfeld: This is true in many respects: 1) Because with contentment and the blessing of God it reaches farther than the great accumulation of unrighteous goods; which (even according to our proverb) does not prosper (Pro 13:25; Job 20:12, under the figure of food which does not agree with the body); 2) because it alone affords rest and satisfaction to the soul, which are frightened away from it by the cares of riches and unrighteous possessions. In this sense the similar proverbs, Pro 15:16; Pro 16:8; because the riches of the unrighteous do not last, but soon pass away.
Psa 37:17. Arms of the wicked.These are the instruments of his wickedness, and the means of his power; as Psa 10:15; 1Sa 2:31; Job 38:15. Comp. Psa 3:7, where the teeth are broken.C. A. B.]
Str. X. [Psa 37:18. Knoweth the daysPerowne: Watcheth over, careth for, lovingly orders all that befalls them. See the same use of the verb, Psa 1:6; Psa 31:7, compared with 15. My times are in Thy hand.C. A. B.]
Psa 37:20. The splendor of the pastures.Since generally = lamb, it may be translated: as the most precious of the lambs (Syr., Chald., Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Cocc., Venema, Rosenm., et al.), by which then is understood the fat pieces of the lambs of the sacrifice, which were burnt upon the altar. This is much better than to refer it to the most fine wool of lambs (Kster), or the most precious lambs, that is, lambs of the sacrifice (Calvin, Cleric). The interpretation: as the delight of the lambs = grass (Hengst.) is artificial. The meanings of circuit, meadow, pasture, are evident from Psa 65:13; Isa 30:23 (and apparently Isa 14:30 in its corrected reading).They have vanished in smoke, vanished.This hardly refers to Sodom and Gomorrah (Hengst., after John Arndt); scarcely to the burning up of the pieces of the sacrifice, or of dry grass, which had been set on fire, Isa 5:24 (most interpreters). Moreover the is not to be changed into after Hos 13:3; it is rendered certain by Psa 102:4; comp. Psa 78:33; Psa 39:6, and indicates comparison, in nature of (Rosenm., De Wette, Hupf., Hitzig, Delitzsch). Our translation follows the accents.
[Str. XI. Psa 37:21-22. Perowne: The blessing and the curse of God, as seen in the different lots of the righteous and the wicked. The wicked, through Gods curse resting upon him, is reduced to poverty, so that he is compelled to borrow, and cannot pay; whereas the righteous hath even abundance not only for his own wants, but for the wants of others. It is the promise, Deu 15:6; Deu 28:12; Deu 28:44, turned into a proverb.C. A. B].
Str. XII. Psa 37:23-24. A mans steps are established by Jehovah.[Hupfeld: The Divine blessing and assistance of the righteous under another figure; that of a guide in the way of life, who guides his steps and makes them secure and although he may fall, He lifts him up again.C. A. B.]. Since has not the article, it is not to be explained as such a man, as the one just spoken of (De Wette, et al.) The parallel passages, Pro 16:9; Pro 20:24, are in favor of a general interpretation. Some have translated ordered (after the Sept. Vulg., Jerome), instead of established, yet this is contrary to usage.For Jehovah sustains his hand[So Hupf., Delitzsch, Moll, et al., and not with His hand, Bttcher, A. V. et alC. A. B.]
[Str. XIII. Psa 37:25-26. Delitzsch: It is an old Theological rule that: promissiones corporales intelligend sunt cum exceptione crucis et castigatione. Abandonment and poverty for a time the Psalmist does not question, but he will meet the temptation, which springs up to those who fear God, from those circumstances which apparently contradict the Divine righteousness; and he does this by contrasting the final abiding condition with the transient one.C. A. B.]
[Str. XV. Psa 37:31. His steps shall not wavercomp. Psa 18:36. The law within the heart keeps him steadily in the right way.C. A. B.]
[Str. XVI. Psa 37:33. Perowne: Men may condemn but God acquits.Here, as in 1Co 4:3, the righteous judgment of the Great Judge is opposed to the of human judgment (). So Tertullian: Si condemnamur a mundo, absolvimur a Deo.C. A. B.]
Str. XVIII. Psa 37:34-36. I saw a Wicked man, arrogant, and spreading himself as a leafy indigenous tree. And one passed by and lo he was no more.Hitzig prefers instead of arrogant, a word which after the Sept.=towering, and translates the following line after a corrected reading with the Sept. and Vulg.; and spreading himself as a cedar of Lebanon, and I went by. Hupfeld on the other hand after Aben Ezra, Calvin, Cleric.: he passed by =passed away.
Str. XIX. Psa 37:37. Mark the just man,etc. The ancient translators have all taken the concretes as abstracts and have likewise given the verbs another meaning=preserve honesty and keep rectitude (righteousness) before your eyes. From this originated Luthers: remain pious and keep yourself upright. In the latter case there seems to have been a confounding of with of Psa 37:5. But to regard these words as abstracts is contrary to usage. is elsewhere used only of practical keeping as Psa 37:34, from which verse this has been made dependent without any need. The true interpretation was seen already by Aben Ezra, Isaki, Calvin and most all recent interpreters have adopted it.That the man of peace hath posterity. It follows from Psa 37:38 that the reference here is to posterity as Psa 109:13; Jer 31:17; Amos 4; Amo 9:1; Eze 22:25, (Sept., Venema, De Wette, Olsh., Hupfeld, [Perowne]), and not to the future, whether for both verses (Calvin, Cleric., Hengst. [Alexander] or only for Psa 37:37. The context and the construction favors least of all the translation: the end of the man is peace (Kimchi, Geier, et al. [A. V. likewise].
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Take care that the sight of the success of the ungodly does not kindle in your heart envious jealousy and wrath, or burning ill humor and consuming fretfulness. Their success is only apparent and of short duration. It is like the green grass which soon withers and is like smoke which vanishes away. Accordingly the pious have no reason to be excited by it, but rather have every reason to strengthen and exercise themselves in faith in the holy government of God and in obedience to Gods holy will, in order that they may live to see the end and wait patiently for the result. This is a fine comparison, a terror to hypocrites and a comfort to the afflicted. How nicely it lifts us up above our sight and sets us before Gods sight. Before our sight the hypocrites substance is green and flourishing and increases and covers the whole world, so that it alone seems to be something, as the green grass covers and adorns the earth. But before Gods sight, what are they? Hay, soon to be made; and the higher the grass grows the nearer it is to the scythe and fork. Why then should you be angry, when their wickedness and success have such a short existence? (Luther).
2. He who puts his trust in God, and has his pleasure in the Lord, will not reward evil with evil, will not meet violence with violence, will not be drawn and driven by injustice to injustice, but will continue in doing good, in devotion to God, in pious conversation, and long before the final decision comes, will live to see all the promises of God gradually but surely fulfilled to the pious, whilst the ungodly will never gain their ends and often will be destroyed suddenly. Thus He takes all impatient thoughts entirely away and gives rest to the heart. As if He would say: dear child, cease thine impatience and curse not and wish no evil, these are human and wicked thoughts And what help is there in this anger? It does not make the case any better, it only leads deeper into the mire. Thou hast hindered God from bestowing His grace and favor, and thou hast become like the evil doers and will be destroyed like them. (Luther).Many of them do wicked things in wrath from revenge and impatience, that they regret afterwards forever (Joh. Arnd).
3. The tribulation of the pious through the violence of the wicked is often so great, that the patient seem to be entirely subdued, yet the meek will not only gain and keep peace, but the inheritance, whose foundation, pledge and type they have in the land of promise, will continue to be assured to them by the power of God, and happiness in life will by Gods hand arise in shining clearness (Job 11:17; Isa 58:8; Mic 7:9), to the innocent sufferer out of every trouble. Since now our dear God has such a great work in mind respecting all those who fear Him, be still in the Lord and hinder Him not in His work; but wait upon Him in patience. (Joh. Arnd). On the other side the day of the ungodly is already now before Gods eyes, in which the splendor of their success, and their light of life will be put out. He treats the devices and the preparations of the wicked as already now of nought, that is, as weak, and as foolish; but He will some time bring them to nought, he will turn their weapons and arrows upon them in a deadly form and will break their arms, that is, the instruments or the means of their power and violence, so that they will no longer be able to injure others or even to help themselves.
4. Gods blessing upon the pious shows itself in this, that they are not only satisfied and delighted with a little, because they have their delight in God, and content themselves in Him as the highest good, but that they as individuals can accomplish much more with a little, than many ungodly persons with much, that, they constantly experience fresh tokens of Divine care and provision, so that they suffer no lack, but rather are able to minister to others with their goods and gifts, and that they transmit their inheritance to their posterity, which in their turn become blessings. Thus a chain of blessings passes through the life and the generations of the pious with all the need, poverty, trouble and dangers of earth. The ungodly, on the other hand, are not helped by their number or their power, their craft or their strength, their riches or their arrogance. The curse comes upon them for their wickedness, and the judgment of God destroys them and theirs.
5. In the distribution of blessings and curses to the pious and the ungodly the righteous government of God manifests itself already in this world. We can rely upon it with the more firmness, as it has its deepest ground, in the Divine love for justice. Even on this account, however, he who would receive this blessing and enjoy Gods protection and help must take care, that the marks of true piety are found in him. Such a man may very well have to endure many tribulations, needs and dangers, for the ungodly have a hostility to the righteous and seek to put them out of the way. But the hand of God is ready to help those who walk in the way of God, because they have Gods law in their hearts, and this way leads above. Those who walk in it, may stumble and fall, but they will not remain upon the ground and perish. God puts His hand under them to support them. But this hand exterminates the ungodly with their race, so that at last not one remains and not one escapes the judge (Amo 4:2; Amo 9:1; Eze 23:25).
6. Every attentive observer sees sufficient examples of this government of God in history. Would that this might awaken the fear of God in all earnestness, and strengthen the power of trust in God, in order that every sincerely pious man might constantly receive richer experiences of the Divine blessing. Thus then, let every one see to it, how he stands and lives before God in this respect; whether he has faith enough to trust God for a piece of bread, and whether we allow to Him power, wisdom and faithfulness enough to assist us in every righteous cause, help us through it and provide for us and maintain His own work (Berl. Bib.).Ah, says he, God cannot and will not suffer that faithfulness and confidence should go unrewarded, else He would not be true, just, and truthful. (Joh. Arnd).O the shameful unfaithfulness, distrust and damned unbelief, that we should not believe such rich, powerful and comforting promises of God, and stumble so very easily, at such little things, as when we merely hear the wicked words of the ungodly. Help, God, that we may some day have true faith. Amen! (Luther). We would here with Tholuck remember that Luther on his death-bed said to his children, Children, riches I do not leave you, but I leave you, a rich God.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The prosperity of the ungodly blossoms but a short time, it has a corrupt root and a bitter fruit.The right of the righteous may for a while be obscured, but God brings it surely to light.He who has his delight in the Lord, may be troubled for awhile in the world, but it will finally be well with him.Put your confidence in God, then thou wilt not be vexed with the apparent prosperity of the ungodly; have your delight in the Lord and you will not envy the fleeting joy of the unrighteous; continue in the exercise of good and you will not change your end for the vain gains of the wicked.The ungodly have no true and abiding prosperity, but only those who fear God.The only, but sure means of salvation are, to fear, love, and trust God above all things.Do not recompense the wickedness of the wicked with evil, but leave the judgment to the Lord. He is the just Rewarder.Impatience and wrath are not productive of good, but only make the bad worse, and evil times worse times.It is especially undeserved suffering arid unjust attacks, that show the great strength of trust in God, the power of patience and the strength of meekness.The pious are as sure of the blessing of God as the ungodly of His curse; and both extend even to the coming generations.It is due to the Divine blessing that the pious accomplish more with little than the ungodly with much.Peace and joy depend for men not upon riches or poverty, but upon communion with God.The great and abiding gain of godliness.The mouth, heart and steps of the pious harmonize with one another and with Gods will and word.Even the pious may stumble and fall, but God will not let them lie upon the ground, and prevents them from falling into ruin by His hand and grace.The righteous have many enemies, but although their power and wickedness are even as great as their number, yet they are assured of the final victory by Gods faithfulness, power and grace.It is a part of the experience of the pious, that they should be tried in patience and exercised in waiting, but that their waiting should not be vain, because it is founded in trust in God, and has as its end the coming of the Lord.It is one and the same hand of God, which delivers the pious and exterminates the ungodly with their seed.There is a difference between the pious and the ungodly not only according to their dispositions, but likewise in their actions and their destinies.What God has promised to the pious, He knows how to give to them and to keep for them, yet all at the proper time and according to His wisdom.The wishes of those who fear God are fulfilled; but the devices of the ungodly perish.God not only distinguishes between the righteous and the unrighteous; He finally separates them from one another.We may be visited by severe calamity, and be given up by all the world, and yet we are not forsaken by God.God sees not only how men act on earth, He rewards them for it, whether early or late.The pious not only receive a blessing for themselves and their seed; they will likewise become blessings through Gods grace.God knows His own children and rewards their trust abundantly; He protects them in danger; He comforts them in time of trouble; He nourishes them in days of hunger; He delivers them out of the hand of all their enemies.
Starke: There are evil-doers enough in the world, but if we should conquer them with the sword it would only be worse; seek rather to win them by love and good conduct and leave the rest to God.Whoever reflects upon the miserable end of the prosperity of the ungodly will rather be moved to pity and sympathy and prayer than to angry zeal and ill-will against these poor men.Many a man is dissatisfied with God the Lord, because He does not do what he desires; but whoever is satisfied with the will of God, receives what he desires, yea more than he wishes. O what happy people we would be, if we should cast all our cares upon the Lord, attend to our calling with diligence and leave the result with God.Satan seeks to excite believers to sinful anger by the wickedness of the ungodly. Hence the necessity of watching, patience, faith and prayer.If we are obliged to wait with much patience for the heavenly inheritance, it is yet worth the trouble, for it is eternal and imperishable.We must not reckon the time of the prosperity of the ungodly by the course of the physical sun, but by the numbers of the Holy Spirit (Psa 90:5), thus will we find, that in comparison with the everlasting pains of hell, scarcely a moment has been allotted to them.The ungodly do not lack the will to do mischief; but what can they do more than gnash their teeth (Act 7:54).The ungodly have long hands and much assistance in persecuting the pious; but Gods hands reach farther still and are much stronger, than that they should be laid hold of and cast down.True riches do not consist in great provisions, but in contentment with what God gives.God has already resolved, how long the godly shall remain in the vale of sorrow; during this time He provides for them as a father; afterwards He will give them the inheritance of eternal life.Smoke rises on high at first with strength as if it would go even to the heavens, but a little wind can drive it asunder, so that it cannot longer be seen; see, the ungodly are like this smoke.Pious parents have the consolation that Gods blessing will come upon their children, and pious children are assured, that God will bless them on account of their parents.Mercy is one of the most beautiful virtues, not only on account of its character, because we thus become like God, but also on account of its reward.If heaven and earth pass away, yet the inheritance of believers cannot fail.It is impossible to do good and bad at the same time.The heart, mouth and entire walk of the believer are sanctified and blessed by the Word of God.Who would not rather have a bad beginning and a good end, than a good beginning and a bad end?What we lack, will be supplied by the gracious assistance of the strong God.
Luther: The righteous give, the ungodly do not, and yet both receive from God.God blesses thee temporally and eternally, that thou mayest trust in Him, although thou art cursed and injured by the ungodly.God does not take poverty from His saints but He will not let them perish.Selnekker: Torment thyself not with impatience and wrath, but be satisfied with the will of God and His long-suffering, and hold fast to His word and promises, then wilt thou obtain the desire of thine heart.Experience makes the best interpretation.Schnepf: The possessions of the ungodly burn as grease in the fire.Frisch: The whole earth is the Lords, and so belongs to His children.Every one desires to be happy here in time and there in eternity, but very few use the true means of obtaining it.Arndt: The dear cross and poverty are no signs of disfavor, but a trial of faith and patience, a mirror of the wonderful help and preservation of God, and an evidence, that God is not pleased with great splendor but with faith, fear of God, humility and patience.Oetinger: Every day of the righteous man has in Gods purpose its special measure of grace and trial, and serves to complete his lot.Tholuck: The salvation of the pious remains immovable, the longer it seems to tarry, the more imperishable will be its endurance.Who would despair, when God declares that His own treasury is in the possession of His children.It must be a rare occurrence, that any one who has been a friend to many in trouble, should not be able to find a friend in need.Stiller: If it is not as you could wish, examine yourself; perhaps it is the fault of your wishes or your other actions.Guenther: Life and death are both set before us, we are to choose. The choice seems easy, and yet most make the mistake.Taube: To be still before the Lord is the true test, whether we trust the Lord, have our delight in the Lord and commit our way to the Lord in deed and in truth.It is particularly evil days which give especial proofs of the faithfulness of God toward the pious.The pious may suffer want, but not ruin.Thym: If the end is good, all is good. 1) Therefore remain pious, although the cross weighs upon you; 2) deviate not from the narrow way although the world may entice; 3) finally, if it is well with the pious, that outweighs all.The righteous are never forsaken. 1) In life, the Lord leads them graciously; 2) in death, He sends them His angel of peace; 3) in eternity, He crowns them with the crown of victory.
[Matt. Henry: Fretfulness and envy are sins that are their own punishment, they are the uneasiness of the spirit, and the rottenness of the bones.We must follow providence, and not force it; subscribe to Infinite Wisdom, and not prescribe.If we take care to keep a good conscience, we may leave it to God to take care of our good name.A fretful, discontented spirit lies open to many temptations and those that indulge it are in danger of doing evil.They that are sure of an everlasting inheritance in the other world have no reason to envy the wicked their transitory possessions and pleasures in this world.The law of God must be a commanding, ruling principle in the heart; it must be a light there, a spring there, and then the conversation will be regular and uniform; none of his steps will slide; it will effectually prevent backsliding into sin, and the uneasiness that follows from it.If we make conscience of keeping Gods 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.Barnes: The small property of one truly good man, with his character and hopes, is of more value than would be the aggregate wealth of many rich wicked men with their character and prospects.Other things being equal, the honest, temperate, pure, pious man will be the most prosperous in the world: for honesty, temperance, purity, and piety produce the industry, economy, and prudence on which prosperity depends.As a great law, the children of the pious are not vagrants and beggars. As a great law they are sober, industrious, and prosperous. The vagrants and the beggars of the world are from other classes; and whatever may be the bearing of religion on the destinies of men in the future world, in this world the effect is to make them virtuous, industrious, prudent and successful in their worldly affairs, so that, their children are not left to beggary and want, but to respectability and to competence.It is better to have God for our friend in life, and our support in death, than to have all the external prosperity of wicked men.Spurgeon: Who envies the fat bullock the ribbons and garlands which decorate him as he is led to the shambles? Yet the case is a parallel one; for ungodly rich men are but as beasts fattened for the slaughter.There is joy in holy activity which drives away the rust of discontent.
Very much of the outward depends upon the inward; where there is heaven in the heart there will be heaven in the house.A silent tongue in many cases not only shows a wise head, but a holy heart.The evil man does not see how close his destruction is upon his heels; he boasts of crushing others when the foot of justice is already uplifted to trample him as the mire of the streets. Sinners in the hand of an angry God, and yet plotting against His children! Poor souls, thus to run upon the point of Jehovahs spear.Content finds multum in parvo, while for a wicked heart the whole world is too little.Where the children of the righteous are not godly, there must be some reason for it in parental neglect, or some other guilty cause. The friend of the Father is the friend of the family. The God of Abraham is the God of Isaac and Jacob.Among the legacies of wicked men the surest entail is a judgment on their family.Policy slips and trips, it twists and tacks, and after all is worsted in the long run, but sincerity plods on its plain pathway and reaches the goal.Good men are men of mark, and are worth our study.C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[3][Delitzsch: The bond which connects Psalms 37 with 36 is the similarity of contents which here and there likewise correspond in expressions. The fundamental thought which pervades the whole Psalm is like that of the first verses: Be not scandalized at the success of the ungodly, but hope in the Lord, for the success of the ungodly soon comes to an end, and the result separates the righteous and the unrighteous. Therefore Tertulian calls this Psalm providenti speculum; Isodore, portio contra murmur; Luther, vestis piorum, cui adscriptum: Hic Sanctorum patientia est (Rev 14:12).C. A. B.]
[4][Delitzsch: The land in this Psalm is throughout the promised possession of salvation, the land of the presence of Jehovah, which has not only a glorious past but likewise a future full of promise, and will finally be the inheritance of the true Israel, in a more complete manner that under Joshua.C. A. B.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This Psalm is a psalm of instruction. It should seem that God the Holy Ghost was graciously pleased to make use of his servant the prophet’s pen to give suitable information to the church, concerning the prosperity of the wicked, and the apparent distress of the righteous.
A Psalm of David.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The prosperity of sinners, and the distresses of good men, have been in all ages a stumbling-block even to the faithful. The prophet Jeremiah puts it down as an undeniable conclusion, that God is righteous; but yet desires permission to make an humble inquiry wherefore the way of the wicked should prosper? Jer 12:1 , etc. And Job’s friends went upon no other conclusion in their ideas of Job’s hypocrisy, but from the greatness of his calamities; Job 4:7-8 . We cannot therefore sufficiently thank God the Holy Ghost that he hath condescended by this beautiful Psalm to set the doctrine in a clear light, and, before those brighter discoveries made of God’s government in the gospel by our Lord Jesus Christ, that he should give the church those blessed views of his attention to the righteous, and sure punishment of the wicked. How very gracious, and kind, and affectionate, doth this Psalm open to this effect, and even in the opening, framing a conclusion similar to the prophet, Isa 3:10-11 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Remedies for Despondency
Psa 37:3
One of the many dangers that we have to guard against in the spiritual life is the danger of despondency. We look out into the world around us and it would seem that those people who live their lives without any thought of God are getting on just as well as, and perhaps better than, we ourselves. This depression of soul is no new thing in the history of man. We find it in Holy Scripture. In this 37th Psalm the Psalmist tells us that he himself has seen the ungodly in great power, and moreover flourishing like a green bay-tree. And you will remember that even so strong a character as the prophet Elijah, just because he was threatened by an angry woman, throws himself down under a juniper-tree and requests that he may die. To the devout Jew this problem of the prosperity of the ungodly was one of the unsolved difficulties of life, and of course the problem was all the more difficult for him because there was no revelation of a future state of rewards and punishments. But for us the future life is no longer a dream. We know that God will in His own good time, if not here, at any rate hereafter, see that all wrongs are righted and all injustices redressed.
I. Faith. Surely we can ‘trust in the Lord’. In the old Catechism, which most of us probably learnt once and may have forgotten since, we are reminded that our duty towards God is to put our whole trust in Him. That surely means to stake everything upon Him; not merely to trust Him when all our life seems to be bathed in sunshine, not to trust Him merely when everything we do seems to turn out successfully, but also in those dark and gloomy days when the horizon becomes clouded and the sky is black with failure or sorrow.
II. Patience. And this means that great demands will be made upon our patience. Because we cannot do what we want to do at once, we give up through impatience. We sympathize with the servants in the parable who wanted to pull up the tares at once. We are all too apt to lose sight of the fact that evil has a place in this world and in some mysterious way a work to do.
III. Works. But not only does the Psalmist tell us that we are to trust in the Lord, but he says also that we are to do good. Go out into the pathway of duty and do that which lies right to thy hand and do it with all thy might. Surely it is exactly what God told Elijah to do. ‘Return on thy way’ it is no use hiding under a juniper-tree and bemoaning your failure. Is it not true that many of us regard our religion as something almost entirely negative? We think that if we can abstain from the grosser forms of sin we are doing all that can be expected of us. We are content if we can go through the world without, as we say, ‘doing any harm’. But we are not put in this world simply not to do harm. We are put into this world to do good. Is anyone in this world a little better for our having been here? It is very interesting to know that our Lord summed up all the commandments in a form no longer negative, but strictly positive ‘Thou shalt love’.
IV. Leave Results to God. Then to come to the closing words of the text. God is not asking from us anything in the nature of success; only faithfulness. ‘Be ye faithful unto death,’ not ‘be successful’. God in His great mercy is asking from His children something that is within grasp of all. Do not let us get into the habit of thinking that God is a hard taskmaster. He is just asking of us that each in his position in life will do his best. There is nothing that appeals to us like success, but that is not what God wants. God looks deeper than that. He looks into the heart. He does not trouble Himself about the outward result; He scrutinizes the motives. He marks the efforts, even though they are crowned with failure again and again. Is there any text more full of comfort, more stimulating to effort, than this, spoken of a poor simple woman at whom the world pointed the finger of scorn, ‘Let her alone; she hath done what she could’? If you and I do what we can, never mind the failure; we can leave results in God’s hands.
No sermons, nor books, nor arguments can strengthen the doubting heart so deeply as just to come into touch with a soul that is founded upon a rock, and has proved the truth of that plain religion whose highest philosophy is ‘Trust in the Lord, and do good?’
Henry van Dyke, Little Rivers, p. 107.
The Secret of Tranquillity
Psa 37:4-7
I. Here is the secret of tranquillity in freedom from eager, earthly desire ‘Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desire of thine heart’. The great reason why life is troubled and restless lies not without, but within. It is not our changing circumstances, but our unregulated desires, that rob us of peace. Unbridled and varying wishes are the worst enemies of our repose. And still further they destroy tranquillity by putting us at the mercy of externals. Whatsoever we make necessary for contentment, we make lord of our happiness. By our eager desires we give perishable things supreme power over us, and so intertwine our being with theirs that the blow which destroys them lets out our life-blood. If then our desires are, in their very exercise, a disturbance, and in their very fruition prophesy disappointment, and if their certain disappointment is irrevocable and crushing when it comes, what shall we do for rest? There is but one answer ‘Delight thyself in the Lord’. This glad longing for God is the cure for all the feverish unrest of desires unfulfilled, as well as for the ague of fear, of loss and sorrow.
II. But this is not all, the secret of tranquillity is found, secondly, in freedom from the perplexity of choosing our path. What does it prescribe? First the subordination not the extinction of our own inclinations. Our will is to be master of our passions, and desires, and whims, and habits, but to be the servant of God. Then the counsel of our text prescribes the submission of our judgment to God, in the confidence that His wisdom will guide us: The law is: you do your best to find out your duty; you suppress inclinations, and desire to do God’s will, and He will certainly tell you what it is. Only let the eye be fixed on Him, and He will guide us in the way.
III. One more step. The secret of tranquillity is found, thirdly, in freedom from the anxiety of an unknown future. ‘Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.’ Such an addition to these previous is needful, if all the sources of our disquiet are to be dealt with. We are sure that in the future are losses, and sorrows, and death; thank God we are sure, too, that He is in it. That certainty alone, and what comes of it, makes it possible for a thoughtful man to face tomorrow without fear or tumult. The only rest from apprehensions which are but too reasonable is ‘rest in the Lord’. If we are sure that He will be there, and if we delight in Him, then we can afford to say, ‘As for all the rest, let it be as He wills, it will be well’.
A. Maclaren.
Reference. XXXVII. 5. J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes (1st Series), p. 18.
Psa 37:5
This verse was the frequent promise with which David Livingstone, the African missionary and traveller, encouraged himself in the midst of his wanderings and perils.
Psa 37
This Psalm was the basis of the hymn of Paul Gerhardt, Befiehl du deine Wege, which has taken national rank in Germany, next to Luther’s Ein’ feste Burg. It has become well known in the English language through John Wesley’s translation:
Commit thou all thy griefs
And ways into His hands,
To His sure truth and tender care,
Who heaven and earth commands.
The story told of its origin is well known. When Paul Gerhardt was banished from Berlin by the Elector of Brandenburg, because he conscientiously refused some conditions attached to his ministry, he turned in with wife and children to a small wayside hostelry, not knowing where to betake himself. Seeing his wife deeply depressed, he quoted to her Psa 37:5 : ‘Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass’; and then went out into the garden. There, sitting under an apple-tree, he composed the hymn, and read it to his wife for her comfort. That same evening two messengers arrived from Duke Christian of Merseburg to offer him an honourable place in his dominions. When the first Lutheran Church was opened in Philadelphia in 1743 it was with Gerhardt’s song.
John Ker.
‘Be Still, My Soul’
Psa 37:7
A favourite subject with the Psalmist is the seeming injustice of God’s dealings with men as witnessed in the frequent prosperity of the wicked, and the as frequent adversity of the righteous.
I. The assurance that all is not in reality well with the wicked is valuable in so far as it saves us from unbelief and despair. Sorrow in some shape or other, in greater or less measure, is the common lot; danger is the common lot; and death comes at last to all. There is no exemption in favour of youth, or beauty, or blood.
II. God often delays, and for this reason, that He is eternal. It is oftentimes more difficult patiently to wait than to be actively engaged in some enterprise. And yet God rewards us for the fidelity with which we serve Him, and for that alone.
III. ‘For Him.’ The addition of these two words makes the nature of true resignation quite clear. Our Heavenly Father demands more of us than mere passive submission to His will. We must hope on, unfaltering in faith, unswerving in purpose, faithful to God even unto death.
IV. The sweet and invigorating consolation which flows from patiently awaiting God’s time is the subject of Catharina von Schlegel’s fine hymn, familiar to us all in Jane Borthwick’s admirable translation, ‘Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side’.
W. Taylor, Twelve Favourite Hymns, p. 153.
References. XXXVII. 7. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons. (10th Series), p. 174. D. Moore, Penny Pulpit, No. 2998. A. W. Momerie, Defects of Modern Christianity, p. 242. E. S. Gange, Penny Pulpit, No. 1009. M. R. Vincent, Gates Into the Psalm Country, p. 127. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii. No. 1333. S. Wilberforce, Sermons, p. 225. J. Martineau, Hows of Thought, vol. i. p. 329. XXXVII. 11. H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2257. XXXVII. 21. J. M. Neale, Passages of the Psalms, p. 89. XXXVII. 23, 24. M. R. Vincent, God and Bread, p. 97. XXXVII. 25. J. Thomas, Myrtle Street Pulpit, vol. ii. p. 247.
Obedience the Remedy for Religious Perplexity
Psa 37:34
Let every beginner make up his mind to suffer disquiet and perplexity. He cannot complain that it should be so; and though he should be deeply ashamed of himself that it is so (for had he followed God from a child, his condition would have been far different, though even then perhaps, not without some perplexities), still he has no cause to be surprised or discouraged. The more he makes up his mind manfully to bear doubt, struggle against it, and meekly to do God’s will all through it, the sooner this unsettled state of mind will cease, and order will rise out of confusion. ‘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.
References. XXXVII. 34. J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. i. p. 228. XXXVII. 37. G. W. Brameld, Practical Sermons, p. 414. J. Baldwin Brown, Aids to the Development of the Divine Life, vol. i. p. 111. XXXVII. 38. C. J. Vaughan, Harrow Sermons (2nd Series), p. 384. XXXVII. 39. Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes, p. 151. XXXVIII. International Critical Commentary, vol. i. p. 335. XXXVIII. 1. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons, p. i. XXXVIII. 2. Bishop Goodwin, Parish Sermons (4th Series), p. 162. XXXVIII. 9. J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, p. 114. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi. No. 1564.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Unto All Nations
Psa 37:2
A Church which is in no sense a Missionary Church is really dead.
I. The spiritual prosperity of the Church at home becomes a fountain to feed missions abroad. The Gospel in its essence is remedial. It claims to be the one means of healing for the common malady of human nature. We may say that all missions are medical missions. The Gospel contemplates the whole world as one vast hospital full of sick souls and wounded hearts, and warped and diseased wills.
II. And therefore this Catholic evangel claims all nations and kindreds and people and tongues for its inheritance. Too often indeed, we hamper its energies and retard its conquests because we assume that pure Christianity necessarily involves any of the external features of our own civilization. Yet surely Asiatics and Africans can find ‘saving health’ in the New Testament, without being inoculated with the restless fever which we call ‘progress’.
III. Those who look forward in faith to the fulfilment of God’s missionary promises and the victory of Christ’s Cross, anticipate a Church of the future which will certainly be no mere copy of the Church of the present. It is a strange and marvellous thing that ‘Christianity has for so long a period been confined mainly to the white people, but its mission is to mankind, and mankind is not in any large proportion white. And surely there are great neglected Christian ideas, ignored and forgotten truths and graces which will be recovered and come to their own in the fullness of time, when Hindu theologies and Chinese mystics and negro saints bring their own characteristic gifts to the Church’s common treasury.
T. H. Darlow, The Upward Galling, p. 321.
References. LXVII. 3. H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. i. p. 334. LXVII. 5, 6. G. A. Sowter, Sowing and Reaping, p. 49. LXVII. 6. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 118. LXVII. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 92.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
A Faithful Witness
Psa 37
Do we not say that there are some subjects upon which only men of experience are qualified to speak? Is that law in the marketplace, in the court of justice, in the family circle? Surely it ought to be. It seems to be charged with reason which the very dullest eye can instantly perceive. Are there not some subjects with regard to which, as to their exposition and application, nearly everything depends upon the character of the expositor and the witness? In some cases we say, What is said? But in other instances we say, Who has said it? There are abstract subjects, mere matters of fancy or opinion, regarding which any passing judgment may be taken into account, but there are other subjects practical, patent, earnest, about which no one has a right to speak but the man of lofty character and ample and genuine experience.
In this psalm a man undertakes to testify who pledges his age and his honour to every declaration which he makes. It is satisfactory to have to deal with such a witness. Ingenuousness is marked upon his face; honesty is in the ring of his voice; he has his life-books with him his diary, written day by day patiently and carefully, and he says he is willing to testify anywhere concerning great issues of life, concerning instances which puzzle the imagination and stun the conscience. It will be agreeable to talk with this old man. We shall pluck rich fruit from this well-grown tree; there is about him ripeness, maturity, solidity, and withal a fascinating kind of spiritual music, which makes even his judgment and his anger instructive as to moral issues. He is not a harsh man; he is not rabid, acrid, hard, but quite a genial old witness, most solid and yet most radiant, now so solemn as if he were conscious of the oath that is upon him, and now full of delight as if sudden Sabbath had quieted the tumult of the week and lifted him up into heaven’s joy. He gains our confidence at once by recognising the difficulty of the case. If he had come to undervalue the case, saying, It is largely imaginary, this is but an invention of an intoxicated or perverted fancy, we should have put him out of court altogether, because the facts are not to be commented upon in that tone: they are black facts, they are painful facts, they are facts upon which we can lay our own hand, and laying it on such facts, we feel as if we had laid the hand upon sharp spears and edged instruments. The Psalmist says: I entirely take that view of the case; they are awful and bewildering facts; I cannot reconcile them with any theory of natural reason; they upset all the deductions of probability; likelihood stands aghast at the spectacle: there, however, the facts are patent, visible, demonstrated beyond all dispute, black witnesses speaking in favour of evil, and by so much discountenancing the government which we call good. The Psalmist says: There are evildoers, there are workers of iniquity, there are men who spread themselves like a green bay tree, there are liars, there are men whose whole heart is full of evil; they are not to be counted by ones and twos, but by great throngs and masses. Were they all to be gathered upon a hillside they would make it black; not one green thing could be seen amid the shadows that would be cast upon the mountain. Yes, it is quite right to take a black view of the case; the wicked are millions strong; they are fat and well-to-do, they are borne down by weights of gold, and they edge out men who pray and think, and who love God. So far we like the old man’s talk. When we are conscious of great pain and utter weariness we do not wish to consult a physician who trifles with our conscious disease. He gains upon our confidence as he enters into our feeling; if he can suggest words for some feeling we have not hitherto expressed, even the suggestion of words will help us to confide in his judgment: we say, This man follows the case; he is gifted with strong piercing sight; nothing escapes him; he is determined to make out the case first before he talks anything about his cure. We honour him for this; he is a wise healer. So it is with the Psalmist If we ourselves had been called upon to find words to express the position of the wicked, in many instances we could not have chosen words so exquisite, so fit, so adequate, and all-embracing. So far, good.
Now many a man can tell the disease who cannot tell the cure. What will he say in relation to this awful condition of affairs? He boldly takes his stand upon certain great principles. He does not palter with the case. Looking at the great wall that is to be thrown down, he does not attempt to throw cherry stones at it, or small pebbles; he says, This wall must be shaken down by the thunder of heaven, and by nothing else. Hear him. Mark the mellowness of his tone, the dignity of his posture:
“Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass” ( Psa 37:3-7 ).
We know the right answer when we hear it. Instantly about some replies we say, They lack dignity; they are sharp, not broad; they are clever, not inspired; they will serve for a momentary satisfaction, but because there is no deepness of earth they will soon wither away. The suddenness of this man’s action is pleasing when the agony is so acute. He does not proceed slowly. He no sooner states his case than he instantly surrounds it with all heaven’s light and grace. To have kept us waiting would have been to have increased our misery. We must know in the very first sentence the tone which the man is going to adopt and the doctrine which he is about to establish by illustration. So far we are satisfied. He invokes the Lord’s name not as a name significant of leisurely contemplation, but as associated with infinite activity, and as pledged to certain issues. The Psalmist does not hesitate to pledge God’s name to the conclusion, so not only will he be convicted of a slip in logic, he will be convicted of a crime in religion, if his predictions be falsified by events. But how is the Lord to be treated? Granted that he is in heaven, and granted that his eyes are upon the children of men, and granted that there will be a final judgment when, no one can forecast, how is God to be treated amid all this tumult, darkness, difficulty, and horrible stress? First of all the Psalmist says he is to be trusted: “Trust in the Lord”: lean upon him; do not touch him with one finger, as if by way of symbol, or acknowledgment, or temporary lien, but cast thyself upon him body, soul, and spirit, the full weight, no ounce taken out of the heavy burden. That is a summons to faith; that is a challenge to reason. We must take time to consider that: the demand is so exhaustive and imperative. Who can all at once relinquish himself, and cast his whole personality and estate upon the divine name? Not only trust him, God must be enjoyed: “Delight thyself also in the Lord” ( Psa 37:4 ). Do not let the trusting be a discipline, a hard work of penance, a hard and severe thing to do, but a positive joy, delight, passion of gladness. Who can answer that daring challenge? It tears us to pieces; it shakes us in our fancied securities; it bids us look at and trust and enjoy him who is not seen. Not only so. God must not only be trusted and enjoyed, he must be waited for: “Wait patiently for him” ( Psa 37:7 ). Are we prepared for these conditions? They all go dead against us; they are not in the line of usage; they are not in the line of desire. We are impatient, petulant, self-asserting, we cannot wait. All this is a sign of incompleteness. The mature person can wait longer than the little child. The little child must have what it wants at once. The man can smile at the little child’s impatience; he can wait a day or two, but even his power of endurance is soon exhausted. Impatience becomes unbelief; unbelief becomes disbelief; disbelief becomes atheism. There is a short course to the devil!
What does the Psalmist proceed to teach? Having laid down certain great principles, he sets up certain positive standards of reckoning. He says in effect: We must call time into this judgment: we must alter the whole field of vision. Some things are not to be seen if they are too near. You must stand back from some pictures before you will see all their meaning and all their music and mystery. In some instances you must let time elapse before you form a judgment. So we are told that history will judge the time in which we ourselves are living; in other words, men who are not now born, but who will be born a century hence, will pronounce a judgment upon the century in which we now live. If we allow that in history, surely we cannot disallow it in morals and theology. Wise men say, This is not the time to judge the events which are going on around us; there is a great tumult, a great excitement; political passion is roused; religious feeling is irritated: we must commit the issue to history; posterity will tell the value of what we are now doing. When the same claim is set up on the part of providence, surely it cannot be haughtily disallowed or frivolously rejected. The Psalmist, therefore, says in ver. 10, “A little while”; and in ver. 16, “A little that a righteous man hath.” He has altered the weights and standards of the country. He has come in with a great authority to say, What you have been counting much is little: you are wrong in your theory of weights and measures; your standards need rectification: you must take the whole of your mechanical judgments into the sanctuary to be rectified by God; you must bring your chronometers into the temple to be adjusted by the eternal and infinite meridian. Now we begin to see a little light upon the bad man’s prosperity. To be told, first of all, that it is for a little while, alters the entire complexion of the case. The spendthrift says: I have ten pounds a week income, that is five hundred and twenty a year; let me spend fifty pounds the first week, and see what it is like to live at the rate of two thousand six hundred a year. The fool is burning the candle at both ends; he is eating up his seed-corn the very corn that he ought to be garnering to throw into the arid soil at the next sowing-time. “A little while” a flash, and all is dark again; a bubble bursting in a moment, and leaving nothing behind but a frail reflection of its hue and tint; a little flutter, and all is over. A most ingenuous reply, and as profound as ingenuous. The Psalmist fixes upon the evanescence of all worldly pomp, and says: Really it is not worth fighting for; it perishes in the using; it is a momentary gilt which will soon peel off, or it will be cankered and destroyed.
Now he turns aside to the righteous man’s “little,” and taking it up in his hand he says: This outweighs the riches of many wicked. So then, if men have been proceeding by a false arithmetic, what is the value of all their numerical reasoning? Though they may have carried out their cubing and squaring and extraction of roots to a thousand decimal points, they were wrong at the start, and the further they have carried their decimals the further they have prolonged their condemnation. The unit was wrong, the method of multiplication was wrong, and therefore to continue it is to aggravate the guilt which will be charged upon the mistaken calculator. Some “littles” cannot be exhausted; some sovereigns cannot be changed; they are always growing into more and more, not in arithmetical value, but in some sense in real practical uses. Many a time we have seen the end of our barrel of flour; we have put our thin fingers through the meal; we have said, This cannot last more than two days; and behold the next time we have gone to it, it is still sufficient to last two days longer; and again we have returned, after having satisfied our hunger amply, and we have said, Really we must have made a mistake in the first instance; there is quite a week’s meal left now. If this were fancy we have common-sense enough to despise it; but having lived it we have honesty enough to avow it.
So the Psalmist is encompassing his case in a masterly way. Having set up certain great principles, and shown how God is to be treated in the midst of providential mysteries, and having changed the whole scheme of weights, measures, and standards, he next pledges his word as an eye-witness. He says ( Psa 37:23 ), “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way”; and again ( Psa 37:35-36 ), “I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found”; and again ( Psa 37:37 ), “I have marked the perfect man, I have beheld the upright, and I am here to say that the end of that man is peace.” This is not indirect testimony; this is not collateral witness; this is not incidental statement: it constitutes the broad line, first, of the accusation, and, secondly, of the defence. Now have we not seen precisely the same providences, the same allotments, and the same issues? Let us think a little. Where are the men whom we once counted great and strong and terrible when they took up a policy of opposition? With closed eyes, looking back some thirty years, we see them all: we see many of them, as we then thought, well-dressed, refined, well-to-do, influential; they sneered at Bethels, and Ebenezers, Rehoboths, and other sanctuaries; they curled their lip at praying-men, and had secret and too subtle jokes at the expense of those who kept the Sabbath and read the Bible; they had white hands unstained by work, fair faces unripped and unploughed by grief, and their laugh was their chief argument against all theology, their sneer was the one arm which they used in assaulting the citadel of God. Where are they? We cannot tell; they have left no name, fame, inspiration. Their names are never mentioned. They have built nothing, endowed nothing, consecrated nothing. If some memory should challenge the recollection of others, saying, Can you recall so-and-so? the challenged recollection is puzzled “no,” or a reluctant or hesitant “yes.” But they have gone shadows, mockeries, the little laughers, the puny sneerers, the men whose church was in their pockets, whose altar was at the bank, they have gone; and where are many of the other class, that prayed, and taught the young, and sacrificed with the poor, and visited the lonely; they live in many a heart; they are named with tears; they are blessed by the generation following.
Then two courses are before us: we can rank ourselves amongst the wicked have a short life and a merry one, dance to hell’s music down to hell’s fire we are at perfect liberty to join them: it belongs to manhood to deny or defy the living God; or we can, by the grace of the living God, join the other class join those who trust in the Lord, who delight themselves in the Lord, who commit their way unto the Lord, rest in the Lord, wait patiently for the Lord. That is followed by immediate loss of a certain kind. That is followed by the laughter of society. That means the forfeiture of many an invitation an invitation to talk nonsense and to eat and drink poison. That means the cutting off of many expenses. Some are not prepared to live at such a rate. It is too cheap, too poor; they want to splash and dash, and foam and rush, and churn the passing time into froth. Poor fools; why were they born? We can be students, worshippers, philanthropists, fountains of water in the wilderness, and lights like beacons on hilltops in the nighttime to guide poor wanderers; we can live in the soul rather than in the body; we can advance along the high spiritual line, asking great questions, considering great subjects, breathing great prayers, rather than asking frivolous questions and contenting ourselves with frivolous replies. But if we take this second course the Psalmist insists upon morality. Thus he says ( Psa 37:3 ), not only “trust in the Lord,” but “do good”; then ( Psa 37:27 ) he says, “depart from evil, and do good.” This is no fancy heaven; this is no poetic paradise: those who are serving God have coats off and both hands stretched out in labour, and how to be good in God’s sight without attracting the attention of men is the supreme inquiry of the soul. So, then, the Christian religion is no pastime. We are to be faithful, watchful, painstaking. The Apostle says: I keep my body under, lest, having published the names of intending competitors in the race or wrestle lest, after having acted as a herald, saying, So-and-so will run today, wrestle today, I myself having heralded them should become a castaway not in the list at all myself, a mere announcer of other athletes, but an outcast myself. From the beginning of the Bible to the end the great exhortation is: Cease from evil; learn to do well; wash you, make you clean; do good; be watchful; observe the laws of discipline; for only in so doing is there safety. The idle man is caught at odds; the sleeping man is slain in his slumber; only the watchful servant will be ready, come when his Lord may, at the cock-crowing, at the dawn, at high noon, or in solemn midnight
Prayer
Almighty God, our souls thirst for thee: thou art the living water: the river of God is full of water! We know that thou alone canst quench the thirst of the soul; we hear the voice of Jesus Christ thy Son saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink: we hear the voice of the prophets crying, Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters: we hear many voices saying, Come: the Spirit and the Bride say, Come; let him that heareth say, Come; let him that is athirst come; yea, come, let him drink freely of the water of life. We bless thee for this burning thirst; we thank thee that having drunk up all the rivers of time and pleasure we are still athirst for water beyond. It is for the living water that we thirst; if any man drink of the wells of earth he shall thirst again, but if any man drink of the water of Christ he shall never thirst, but the water which Christ giveth the man shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. Lord, give unto us this spring water, this water that comes up from the rocks, and which never can be dried by scorching suns. Even in the wilderness thou wilt find water for us, and pools in desert places. Regard us as those who are now subjected to the wear and tear of life. Thou knowest how cruel this life of ours must needs be, chased and hunted and persecuted, and affrighted by evil presences every hour, tested by loss and pain, and brought oftentimes into utterest despair: Lord Jesus, help us; Saviour of the world, open our eyes, open our ears, that we may see and hear the living messenger of God. Specially help those to whom life is a daily burden; hold thou the lamp above the page when they read of whom thou hast elected to be thy ministers and evangels. Be with those who have to find what joy they can in loneliness, for the world knoweth them not. The Lord heal our afflictions, dry our tears, direct our way, and at the end cause us to say, Blessed be God for sorrow, because but for this sorrow we had not known the truest, tenderest joy. Behold us at the Cross, where no man ever prayed in vain. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XVI
THE MESSIANIC PSALMS AND OTHERS
We commence this chapter by giving a classified list of the Messianic Psalms, as follows:
The Royal Psalms are:
Psa 110 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 72 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 89 ;
The Passion Psalms are:
Psa 22 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 69 ;
The Psalms of the Ideal Man are Psa 8 ; Psa 16 ; Psa 40 ;
The Missionary Psalms are:
Psa 47 ; Psa 65 ; Psa 68 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 100 ; Psa 117 .
The predictions before David of the coming Messiah are, (1) the seed of the woman; (2) the seed of Abraham; (3) the seed of Judah; (4) the seed of David.
The prophecies of history concerning the Messiah are, (1) a prophet like unto Moses; (2) a priest after the order of Melchizedek; (3) a sacrifice which embraces all the sacrificial offerings of the Old Testament; (4) direct references to him as King, as in 2Sa 7:8 ff.
The messianic offices as taught in the psalms are four, viz: (1) The Messiah is presented as Prophet, or Teacher (Psa 40:8 ); (2) as Sacrifice, or an Offering for sin (Psa 40:6 ff.; Heb 10:5 ff.) ; (3) he is presented as Priest (Psa 110:4 ); (4) he is presented as King (Psa 45 ).
The psalms most clearly presenting the Messiah in his various phases and functions are as follows: (1) as the ideal man, or Second Adam (8); (2) as Prophet (Psa 40 ); (3) as Sacrifice (Psa 22 ) ; (4) as King (Psa 45 ) ; (5) as Priest (Psa 110 ) ; (6) in his universal reign (Psa 72 ).
It will be noted that other psalms teach these facts also, but these most clearly set forth the offices as they relate to the Messiah.
The Messiah as a sacrifice is presented in general in Psa 40:6 . His sufferings as such are given in a specific and general way in Psa 22 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 69 . The events of his sufferings in particular are described, beginning with the betrayal of Judas, as follows:
1. Judas betrayed him (Mat 26:14 ) in fulfilment of Psa 41:9 .
2. At the Supper (Mat 26:24 ) Christ said, “The Son of man goeth as it is written of him,” referring to Psa 22 .
3. They sang after the Supper in fulfilment of Psa 22:22 .
4. Piercing his hands and feet, Psa 22:16 .
5. They cast lots for his vesture in fulfilment of Psa 22:18 .
6. Just before the ninth hour the chief priests reviled him (Mat 27:43 ) in fulfilment of Psa 22:8 .
7. At the ninth hour (Mat 27:46 ) he quoted Psa 22:1 .
8. Near his death (Joh 19:28 ) he said, in fulfilment of Psa 69:21 , “I thirst.”
9. At that time they gave him vinegar (Mat 27:48 ) in fulfilment of Psa 69:21 .
10. When he was found dead they did not break his bones (Joh 19:36 ) in fulfilment of Psa 34:20 .
11. He is represented as dead, buried, and raised in Psa 16:10 .
12. His suffering as a substitute is described in Psa 69:9 .
13. The result of his crucifixion to them who crucified him is given in Psa 69:22-23 . Compare Rom 11:9-10 .
The Penitential Psalms are Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 . The occasion of Psa 6 was the grief and penitence of David over Absalom; of Psa 32 was the blessedness of forgiveness after his sin with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah; Psa 38 , David’s reference to his sin with Bathsheba; Psa 51 , David’s penitence and prayer for forgiveness for this sin; Psa 102 , the penitence of the children of Israel on the eve of their return from captivity; Psalm 130, a general penitential psalm; Psa 143 , David’s penitence and prayer when pursued by Absalom.
The Pilgrim Psalms are Psalms 120-134. This section of the psalter is called the “Little Psalter.” These Psalms were collected in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, in troublous times. The author of the central psalm of this collection is Solomon, and he wrote it when he built his Temple. The Davidic Psalms in this collection are Psa 120 ; Psa 122 ; Psa 124 ; Psa 131 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 133 . The others were written during the building of the second Temple. They are called in the Septuagint “Songs of the Steps.”
There are four theories as to the meaning of the titles, “Songs of the Steps,” “Songs of Degrees,” or “Songs of Ascents,” viz:
1. The first theory is that the “Songs of the Steps” means the songs of the fifteen steps from the court of the women to the court of Israel, there being a song for each step.
2. The second theory is that advanced by Luther, which says that they were songs of a higher choir, elevated above, or in an elevated voice.
3. The third theory is that the thought in these psalms advances by degrees.
4. The fourth theory is that they are Pilgrim Psalms, or the songs that they sang while going up to the great feasts.
Certain scriptures give the true idea of these titles, viz: Exo 23:14-17 ; Exo 34:23-24 ; 1Sa 1:3 ; 1Ki 12:27-28 : Psa 122:1-4 ; and the proof of their singing as they went is found in Psa_42:4; 100; and Isa 30:29 . They went, singing these psalms, to the Feasts of the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Psa 121 was sung when just in sight of Jerusalem and Psa 122 was sung at the gate. Psa 128 is the description of a good man’s home and a parallel to this psalm in modern literature is Burns’s “Cotter’s Saturday Night.” The pious home makes the nation great.
Psa 133 is a psalm of fellowship. It is one of the finest expressions of the blessings that issue when God’s people dwell together in unity. The reference here is to the anointing of Aaron as high priest and the fragrance of the anointing oil which was used in these anointings. The dew of Hermon represents the blessing of God upon his people when they dwell together in such unity.
Now let us look at the Alphabetical Psalms. An alphabetical psalm is one in which the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are used alphabetically to commence each division. In Psalms 111-112, each clause so begins; in Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 145 ; each verse so begins; in Psa 37 each stanza of two verses so begins; in 119 each stanza of eight verses so begins, and each of the eight lines begins with the same letter. In Psa 25 ; 34 37 the order is not so strict; in Psa 9 and Psa 10 there are some traces of this alphabetical order.
David originated these alphabetical psalms and the most complete specimen is Psa 119 , which is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 .
A certain group of psalms is called the Hallelujah Psalms. They are so called because the word “Hallelujah” is used at the beginning, or at the ending, and sometimes at both the beginning and the ending. The Hallelujah Psalms are Psalm 111-113; 115-117; 146-150. Psa 117 is a doxology; and Psalms 146-150 were used as anthems. Psa 148 calls on all creation to praise God. Francis of Assisi wrote a hymn based on this psalm in which he called the sun his honorable brother and the cricket his sister. Psa 150 calls for all varieties of instruments. Psalms 113-118 are called the Egyptian Hallel. They were used at the Passover (Psalm 113-114), before the Supper and Psalm 115-118 were sung after the Supper. According to this, Jesus and his disciples sang Psalms 115-118 at the last Passover Supper. These psalms were sung also at the Feasts of Pentecost, Tabernacles, Dedication, and New Moon.
The name of God is delayed long in Psa 114 . Addison said, “That the surprise might be complete.” Then there are some special characteristics of Psa 115 , viz: (1) It was written against idols. Cf. Isa 44:9-20 ; (2) It is antiphonal, the congregation singing Psa 115:1-8 , the choir Psa 115:9-12 , the priests Psa 115:13-15 and the congregation again Psa 115:16-18 . The theme of Psa 116 is love, based on gratitude for a great deliverance, expressed in service. It is appropriate to read at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and Psa 116:15 is especially appropriate for funeral services.
On some special historical occasions certain psalms were sung. Psa 46 was sung by the army of Gustavus Adolphus before the decisive battle of Leipzig, on September 17, 1631.Psa 68 was sung by Cromwell’s army on the occasion of the battle of Dunbar in Scotland.
Certain passages in the Psalms show that the psalm writers approved the offering of Mosaic animal sacrifices. For instance, Psa 118:27 ; Psa 141:2 seem to teach very clearly that they approved the Mosaic sacrifice. But other passages show that these inspired writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important and foresaw the abolition of the animal sacrifices. Such passages are Psa 50:7-15 ; Psa 4:5 ; Psa 27:6 ; Psa 40:6 ; Psa 51:16-17 . These scriptures show conclusively that the writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important than the Mosaic sacrifices.
QUESTIONS
1. What are the Royal Psalms?
2. What are the Passion Psalms?
3. What are the Psalms of the Ideal Man?
4. What are the Missionary Psalms?
5. What are the predictions before David of the coming Messiah?
6. What are the prophecies of history concerning the Messiah?
7. Give a regular order of thought concerning the messianic offices as taught in the psalms.
8. Which psalms most clearly present the Messiah as (1) the ideal man, or Second Adam, (2) which as Prophet, or Teacher, (3) which as the Sacrifice, (4) which as King, (5) which as Priest, (6) which his universal reign?
9. Concerning the suffering Messiah, or the Messiah as a sacrifice, state the words or facts, verified in the New Testament as fulfilment of prophecy in the psalms. Let the order of the citations follow the order of facts in Christ’s life.
10. Name the Penitential Psalms and show their occasion.
11. What are the Pilgrim Psalms?
12. What is this section of the Psalter called?
13. When and under what conditions were these psalms collected?
14. Who is the author of the central psalm of this collection?
15. What Davidic Psalms are in this collection?
16. When were the others written?
17. What are they called in the Septuagint?
18. What four theories as to the meaning of the titles, “Songs of the Steps,” “Songs of Degrees,” or “Songs of Ascents”?
19. What scriptures give the true idea of these titles?
20. Give proof of their singing as they went.
21. To what feasts did they go singing these Psalms?
22. What was the special use made of Psa 121 and Psa 122 ?
23. Which of these psalms is the description of a good man’s home and what parallel in modern literature?
24. Expound Psa 133 .
25. What is an alphabetical psalm, and what are the several kinds?
26. Who originated these Alphabetical Psalms?
27. What are the most complete specimen?
28. Of what is it an expansion?
29. Why is a certain group of psalms called the Hallelujah Psalms?
30. What are the Hallelujah Psalms?
31. Which of the Hallelujah Psalms was a doxology?
32. Which of these were used as anthems?
33. Which psalm calls on all creation to praise God?
34. Who wrote a hymn based on Psa 148 in which he called the sun his honorable brother and the cricket his sister?
35. Which of these psalms calls for all varieties of instruments?
36. What is the Egyptian Hallel?
37. What is their special use and how were they sung?
38. Then what hymns did Jesus and his disciples sing?
39. At what other feasts was this sung?
40. Why was the name of God delayed so long in Psa 114 ?
41. What are the characteristics of Psa 115 ?
42. What is the theme and special use of Psa 116 ?
43. State some special historical occasions on which certain psalms were sung. Give the psalm for each occasion.
44. Cite passages in the psalms showing that the psalm writers approved the offering of Mosaic animal sacrifices.
45. Cite other passages showing that these inspired writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important than the Mosaic sacrifices.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Psa 37:1 [A Psalm] of David. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
Ver. 1. Fret not thyself because of evil-doers ] Who prosper in the world when better men suffer many times. This made good David sick of the fret, as himself testifieth, Psa 73:14-16 , till better informed and settled, by repairing to the sanctuary, Psa 73:17 . He wrote this thirty-seventh psalm for the good of God’s people; lest they, being scandalized in like manner, and stumbling at the same stone that he had done, should want direction, and so fall into inconvenience, temptation, and a snare. David was old when he wrote this psalm, as appeareth, Psa 37:25 , “I have been young, and now am old,” therefore should his counsel here given be the more acceptable. He might as well say to men’s tumultuatiug passions, as once Augustus did to his mutinous soldiers, and thereby quieted them, Audite senem iuveues, quem iuvenem senes audierunt, Hear old men you youth, rather than old men hear the youth. Fret not yourselves, fret not yourselves, I say, to do evil. Be not angry at God, as Jonah was; or aggrieved, as Jeremiah, Jer 12:1 ; and Habakkuk, Hab 1:13 ; as if the Divine providence did not justly divide to every man his due estate, and do him right; but have patience a while, yea, let patience have line and rope, her perfect work, as St James hath it; and quiet your boiling spirits with that word, wherewith Christ becalmed the raging sea, “Peace; be still.” God will unriddle his providences ere long; and then men shall see the reason of all occurrences, and that all was done in singular wisdom. Pompey, beaten out of the field by Caesar, complained that there was a mist over the eye of providence; when as indeed all the fault was in the soreness or dimness of his own eyes, and the twinkling light of Nature’s rush candle. Seneca saw as far and said as much to this matter as a heathen could, in his tract, Cur malis bene sit, &c. Whu is it well for the wicked, But it is the sanctuary alone that can afford sound satisfaction to a soul thus puzzled; as for philosophical comforts and counsels in this case, Cicero said well of them, Nescio quomodo imbecillior est medicina quam morbus, However it cometh to pass, the disease is too hard for the medicine.
Neither be thou envious against, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
This beautiful psalm is a moral and, one might say, aphoristic application from the wicked and his doom to the profit of the righteous who can abide in Jehovah. It has an alphabetic order not carried out perfectly. The preceding psalm rises as far as was possible under the law, though of course only for faith, to enjoy mercy and loving-kindness in God, yea the fatness of His house an the river of His pleasures, wonderfully suggestive of what is our portion as Christians – the communion of the Father and the Son in the power of the Spirit. Here we are shown the blessedness of faith in the moral government of God, which delivers from fretfulness no less than envy – a government which is yet to be displayed in “the land” as nowhere else. But it is ever true in its principles, though for the Christian now in a less visible way. Hence the allusions to the psalm in the N.T., as citations from Psa 34 in 1Pe 3 . The Lord Himself refers to it in Mat 5 .
The next two psalms (Psa 38 , Psa 39 ) constitute a pair, distinct from and rightly following those that precede, and as duly followed by Psa 40 , Psa 41 . They do not express the path of the just sustained by trusting in Jehovah, and tried in the face of confident prosperous enemies, with the land in full view spite of all. Here it is the far deeper distress under Jehovah’s anger because of sins. Nevertheless God is unhesitatingly looked to in the sense of His arrows and of utter corruption in themselves. This is carried out yet more in the companion psalm, where it is rather the sense of self, and man at large, being mere breath or vanity, and all under God’s consuming hand; but the hope is in the Lord, as before in Jehovah.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 37:1-6
1Do not fret because of evildoers,
Be not envious toward wrongdoers.
2For they will wither quickly like the grass
And fade like the green herb.
3Trust in the Lord and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
4Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
5Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
6He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
And your judgment as the noonday.
Psa 37:1-6 This strophe has seven imperatives and three jussives. These are not prayers but admonitions to the faithful (i.e., what to do and what not to do).
1. fret not yourself BDB 354, KB 351, Hithpael jussive, same form in Psa 37:7-8; note Pro 24:19; the word means burn, or be kindled and is used figuratively of anger; here it is paired with envy (BDB 888)
2. do not be envious BDB 888, KB 1109, Piel imperfect used in a jussive sense, cf. Psa 73:3; Pro 3:31; Pro 23:17; Pro 24:1; Pro 24:19
The lives of the wicked look successful and happy but they are short lived; they will not ultimately inherit the promised land.
1. they will wither quickly like the grass BDB 576, KB 593, Qal imperfect, cf. Job 14:2; Psa 90:5-6; Psa 103:15-16; Isa 40:6-8
2. they will fade like the green herb BDB 615, KB 663, Qal imperfect
In light of the transitoriness of the faithless ones, faithful followers should (Psa 37:3-5 has 7 imperatives)
1. trust in YHWH BDB 105, KB 120, Qal imperative, cf. Psa 37:3; Psa 37:5; Psa 52:8; Psa 62:8; Pro 3:5-6
2. do good BDB 793, KB 889, Qal imperative
3. dwell in the land BDB 1014, KB 1496, Qal imperative
4. cultivate faithfulness BDB 944, KB 1258, Qal imperative
5. delight yourself in YHWH BDB 772, KB 851, Hithpael imperative (i.e., not in physical prosperity)
6. commit your way to YHWH BDB 164, KB 193, Qal imperative
7. trust in Him BDB same as #1
YHWH will
1. give (BDB 678, KB 733, Qal imperfect) the faithful follower the desires of your heart, Psa 37:4
2. He will do it (BDB 793, KB 889, Qal imperfect), Psa 37:5
3. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
4. He will bring forth your justice as the noonday (#3 and #4 are parallel and seem to refer to a court case or is figurative of end-time judgment)
Psa 37:4 b This line of poetry has always meant a lot to me personally, but I am not sure I have interpreted it correctly. I usually use this to assert that if we are faithful followers we will desire the right things because YHWH has informed our hearts (cf. Jer 31:31-34; Eze 36:26-27). But it surely could refer to the answered prayers of the faithful follower (cf. Psa 20:4-5; Psa 21:2; Psa 145:19; Mat 7:7-8). The theological issue is the interplay between God’s sovereignty and human freewill (see SPECIAL TOPIC: COVENANT ; NIDOTTE, vol. 3, p. 444). Sometimes careful exegesis ruins a good sermon!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Psalm 37 is an Acrostic Psalm (see App-63), having four lines (a quatrain) assigned to each successive letter of the alphabet, except the fourth (Psa 37:7), the eleventh (Psa 37:20), the nineteenth (Psa 37:34), which each have three lines (a triplet) assigned to them. These three triplet verses occur in perfect order. The seventh verse is the seventh letter from the beginning; the thirty-fourth verse is the seventh letter from the end; while the middle verse (Psa 37:20) marks the end of the first half with the first of the two middle letters.
Title, of David = by David, and relating to the true David. The Psalm is Messiah’s admonition as to present blessing, arising from the fact that Jehovah is His Shepherd.
Fret not = Heat not thyself with vexation.
evildoers. Compare Psa 36:11, Psa 36:12. Hebrew ra’a’. App-44. Hebrew ‘aval. App-44
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 37:1-40
Psa 37:1-40 is an interesting psalm of David in which he begins with the words,
Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity ( Psa 37:1 ).
In verse Psa 37:7 he also says, “Fret not thyself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devises to pass.” In verse Psa 37:8 , “Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.”
Now a common characteristic of our lives is that of fretfulness. How easy it is to fret over situations. How easy it is to worry. How easy it is to become anxious. And the things that create the fretfulness within my own heart are just these things that are spoken of here: the evildoers, those who are prospering in their wicked devises; the fact that wickedness seems to triumph, evil triumphs over good. These things cause me to fret. And yet, these are the very things that I am told I am not to fret over. God is in control, therefore I am not to fret over the evildoers nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. Why?
Because they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb ( Psa 37:2 ).
The day of the wicked is short. He is going to be cut off. Therefore, don’t be envious of him because, man, he has about had it. Why envy a person that is about ready to get cut off? So don’t be envious of the wicked. But rather,
Trust in the LORD, and do good ( Psa 37:3 );
Put your trust in God. Better to put your trust in the Lord than your confidence in man. God knows your situation. God knows your limitations. God loves you. God will take care of you. Just trust in the Lord. Don’t sit there and worry and fret over the situations of your life. Don’t fret because it seems like everything is going down the tubes. Just trust in the Lord.
and so shalt thou dwell in the land, and thou shalt be fed ( Psa 37:3 ).
Secondly,
Delight thyself also in the LORD ( Psa 37:4 );
Have you ever tried to just delight yourself in the Lord? This comes through praise and through times of thanksgiving. So many times I stop and reflect in the goodness of God that He has bestowed upon me. And as I think of God’s goodness and as I look upon God’s blessings, I just rejoice in the Lord. I just praise Him. I just delight myself in Him. “Oh God, it is so good to walk with You. It is so good to serve You. It is so good to know You. It is so good to be a child of the King. It is so good to have the hope of eternal life.” And just delighting myself in the Lord and in the blessings and in the goodness of God is an experience that I indulge in too little. We should be indulging in this much more.
Now, “Delight thyself also in the Lord,”
and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart ( Psa 37:4 ).
So here is a promise with a condition.
Commit thy way unto the LORD ( Psa 37:5 );
And this is so important that we come to the place of commitment of our lives and the commitment of the situations of our lives. How important that we learn to just commit our ways into God’s hands.
trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass ( Psa 37:5 ).
Or, the Hebrew word asa, He shall assemble it. He shall bring it into existence. Commit your way, trust in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. And then finally, when you’ve gotten to the place where you can commit your life and the affairs of your life into God’s hands, then you have arrived at the place of that glorious resting in the Lord. “God, I’m just resting in You. Whatever comes, Lord. However. It’s in Your hands.”
Rest in the LORD ( Psa 37:7 ),
One of the greatest blessings of the Christian walk in life is to be able to rest in the Lord in the midst of the problems, in the midst of the trials, in the midst of a world of turmoil. Resting in the Lord.
Cease from anger, forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Because the evildoers are going to be cut off: but they that wait upon the LORD, will inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked are not going to be: in fact, you will diligently consider his place, and it won’t be. But the meek shall inherit the eaRuth ( Psa 37:8-11 );
Jesus in one of the beatitudes said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” ( Mat 5:5 ).
and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace ( Psa 37:11 ).
The glorious kingdom that Jesus establishes. A kingdom of righteousness and peace, and the meek will inherit the earth and be delighted with an earth that is filled with peace. Can you imagine? No, I don’t suppose we can; we’ve never experienced it. But an earth that is filled with peace. I go by the school grounds and I see the little kids fighting. Seems like everyone is fighting. So much fighting in this world. What a glorious world it will be when we live together in peace, delighted in the abundance of peace.
The wicked plots against the just, he gnashes upon him with his teeth. The LORD will laugh at him: for he sees that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn out the sword, they have bent down their bow, to cast out the poor and the needy, to slay such as be of an upright manner of life. Their sword shall enter into their own heart, their bows shall be broken. For a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholds the righteous. The LORD knows the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever ( Psa 37:12-18 ).
It says concerning Moses that he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Esteeming the riches… or the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. So here we are told that the wicked are going to be cut off. But the inheritance of the upright is eternal.
They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs that are consumed into smoke. The wicked borrows, and he doesn’t repay: but the righteous shows mercy, and gives. For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way ( Psa 37:19-23 ).
How glorious when God orders our steps and God takes delight in our way.
Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD will uphold him with his hand ( Psa 37:24 ).
Oh, I love this! God is going to lead me in the right path, and if I stumble He is going to pick me up.
I have been young, I am now old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor God’s seed begging bread ( Psa 37:25 ).
If you are a child of God you will never need to beg for food.
He is merciful, he lends, and his seed is blessed. Depart from evil, and do good; dwell for evermore. For the LORD loves judgment, and forsakes not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever. The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of judgment. The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide. The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to slay him. The LORD will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged. 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 ( Psa 37:26-34 ).
So several exhortations. From the negative standpoint: fret not, envy not, don’t be angry, cease from anger, and forsake wrath. From a positive standpoint: trust in the Lord, delight thy self in the Lord, commit your ways unto the Lord, trust in the Lord, rest in the Lord, and finally, wait on the Lord.
Mark the perfect man [the complete man], and behold the upright: for the result of that kind of life is peace. But the transgressors will be destroyed together: the end of the wicked will be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD: he is their strength in the time of trouble. The LORD will help them, and deliver them ( Psa 37:37-40 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Psa 37:1. Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
A common temptation. Many of Gods saints have suffered from it. Learn from their experience. Avoid this danger. There really is no power in it, when once the heart has come to rest in God. But it is a sad affliction until the heart does get its rest. Fret not because of evildoers.
Psa 37:2-4. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD;
Make him thy delight, and take care that thou do really delight. Feel a fullness of joy in him.
Psa 37:4. And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Because when the heart delights in God, then its desires are all such as God can safely grant. He does not say to every man, or even to every praying man, I will give thee the desires of thine heart, but Delight thyself in the Lord, and then he will.
Psa 37:5. Commit thy way unto the LORD;
Give it up to him to rule it, and to guide thee and lead thee in every step.
Commit thy way unto the Lord.
Psa 37:5-6. Trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.
It is better to trust our character with God than with the ablest counselor. Scandal may pass over a fair name for a while and cloud it, but God is the avenger of all the righteous. There will be a resurrection of reputations, as well as of persons at the last great day. Only we must commit it to God.
Psa 37:7-8. Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.
A fretful spirit soon comes to be an angry spirit, and when we begin to be jealous of evildoers, we are very apt to become evildoers ourselves. Many an honest man has snatched at hasty gain, because he was envious of the prosperity of the unrighteous; and then he has pierced himself through with many sorrows in consequence. But fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. There is an old proverb that it is hard for an empty sack to stand upright. Therefore, when you are in temporal trouble, ask the Lord to fill you with his grace, for then you will stand upright, and by-and-by you shall be delivered.
Psa 37:9. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.
If there is anything good to be had here, men that wait upon God shall have it. If there is any grain of wheat amidst these heaps of chaff, believers that are trusting the Lord shall find them.
Psa 37:10. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be:
How transient are their joys! Their wealth which they accumulate, the beauty which they think is upon their estate, all this is but as the painted colors of the bubble, which is scarcely seen before it vanishes. Wilt thou envy this? Wilt thou envy a little child his play-toys, which will be broken in an hour? Wilt thou envy a madman the straw crown which he plaits and puts upon his head when he thinks himself a king? Oh! be not so foolish. Thine inheritance is eternal, and thou art immortal. Why shouldest thou envy the creature of an hour? For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be.
Psa 37:10. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place,
His mansion, his house, the grand figure that he cut in society.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 73; Psa 37:1-10.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Psa 37:1-2
RIGHTEOUS REWARDED; WICKED PUNISHED
This interesting acrostic psalm has long been a popular reservoir for the selection of memory verses. Hymns have been written on some of the statements here, notably, the one, “John Wesley translated from the German, `Commit Thou All Thy Griefs,’ or (in some hymnals) `Put Thou Thy Trust in God.’ Also Felix Mendelssohn’s “O Rest in the Lord” (in the Oratorio `Elijah’) is based upon this chapter.
There is no sufficient grounds for setting aside the assignment of the psalm to David in the superscription; and, if indeed, he wrote it, it seems likely that it is one of the psalms from his old age, based upon Psa 37:25.
“The theme of the Psalm is stated in the very first line, `Fret not thyself because of the wicked.’ This is repeated in Psa 37:7 b and Psa 37:8.
The design or the purpose of the psalm was described by Rawlinson:
“The object of this poem is to reassure men whose minds are disturbed by the fact of the frequent prosperity of the wicked, and to convince them that in every case retribution will overtake the ungodly man at the last, and to impress upon men that the condition of the righteous, even when they suffer, is far preferable to that of the wicked, what ever prosperity they may enjoy.
For purposes of this study, we shall break the forty verses of this chapter down into these paragraphs, as suggested by Leupold.
(1) Counsel against irritation over evil-doers (Psa 37:1-2). (2) The need of trust in the Lord (Psa 37:3-7). (3) Further reasons for avoiding irritation (Psa 37:8-11). (4) The futility of the wrongdoers’ activity (Psa 37:12-15). (5) The righteous and the wicked contrasted (Psa 37:16-22). (6). The blessings enjoyed by the righteous (Psa 37:23-28). (7) Further marks of the righteous (Psa 37:29-34). (8). Final contrast between the righteous and the wicked (Psa 37:35-40).
FRET NOT THYSELF OVER EVIL-DOERS
Psa 37:1-2
“Fret not thyself because of evil-doers.
Neither be thou envious against them that work unrighteousness.
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
And wither as the green herb.”
“Fret not thyself, etc.” (Psa 37:1). This entire verse is quoted almost verbatim in Pro 24:19; and there’s also an obvious reference to it in Pro 23:17.
Some have deplored the fact that David in his dealings with the problem of the prosperity of the wicked did not have the advantage of the New Testament teaching regarding the ultimate rewards of the righteous in heaven and the eternal punishment of the wicked following the Final Judgment.
Of course, it must be admitted that Old Testament writers indeed had much less information than Christians about such things; but the psalmist’s words as they appear in this chapter are fully adequate. “His faith that infinite love rules the universe, that righteousness is always gain, and that wickedness is always loss is grandly and eternally true.
Also, it should be pointed out that faith in the resurrection of the dead belonged to “all the Old Testament saints.” The writer of Hebrews noted all of the things that so many of those saints suffered, and `Why did they do it’? The answer is, “That they might obtain a better resurrection”! (Heb 11:35).
DeHoff’s commentary on this is that, “This psalm teaches that the prosperity of the wicked is superficial and temporary, and that those who trust in God may be certain that, finally, they will be the ones who are blessed.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 37:1. It seems a little strange for David to give us this advice, after he has said so much about those evildoers and manifested so much concern over them. It will be well to read the comments at ch. 10:1 in connection with the above remarks. But this verse is good advice, for after all these wicked men are not to be envied.
Psa 37:2. This verse does not teach that the wicked will be put out of existence as materialists claim. It means they will soon come to the end of their wicked plans.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
This psalm has as its keynote “Fret not.” The underlying problem is the prosperity of evil men. It is an astonishment and a perplexity still, troubling many a tried and trusting heart. The psalmist first declares that all such prosperity is short-lived and then tells the secrets of quietness in spite of the problem. There are first positive injunctions. They may be grouped’ thus: “Trust in Jehovah,” “Delight in Jehovah,” “Commit thy way unto Jehovah,” ”Rest in Jehovah.” Then again the fundamental injunction is twice repeated, “Fret not.” It is wrong; it is harmful; it is needless. Let the trusting wait. Events will justify the action.
Continuing, the psalmist works out his contrast into greater detail. The prosperity of the wicked has within it the elements of its own destruction and cannot last (verses Psa 37:12-20). This is all stated by way of contrast. The little of the righteous is better than the abundance of many wicked. This is by no means out of date. It is only to wait long enough and to watch to know that the principle is abiding. Ill-gotten gains and the triumph of wickedness are alike doomed by inherent evil to sure destruction. Then the other side is stated in great fullness (verses Psa 37:21-31). The way established by Jehovah is sure. There may be failure, but there is restoration. With the more complex civilization in the midst of which we live, perhaps sometimes the righteous have been driven to beg, but even now such cases are surely rare, and after some varied experience I would want to subject him who begs one to somewhat severe cross-examination before accepting his testimony against that of the psalmist. Even if it be granted, the underlying principle remains, that the bread of charity is to be chosen in preference to the wealth of wickedness.
In verses Psa 37:32-40 we have the final contrast of this psalm. The first statement is of the safety of the righteous against the machinations of the wicked. The way in which this psalm has appealed to men and continues to do so is a proof of how prone the heart is to rebel against the seeming prosperity of the wicked, and also a demonstration of the conviction of men that it is better to trust in Jehovah than to achieve any kind of success by other means. Faith does falter and demand some explanation. It finds all it asks when resolutely it obeys the injunction to trust, delight, commit, rest, wait!
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
a Sure Cure for Fretting
Psa 37:1-17
This is an acrostic psalm, grappling with the problem of the inequality of human life and the apparent failure of God to reward His servants and punish His enemies as they deserve. Life and immortality, where we know that the balance will be readjusted, had not then been brought to light, and therefore the solution was far harder before the advent of our Lord than for us.
But though the psalmists solution is therefore not complete, his teaching of the blessedness of absolute trust in Gods providence is very delightful. Fret not thyself; that is, do not give way to passionate resentment or bitter disappointment. Live in God; find your delight in contemplating His nature and His works; roll on Him the decision of your life-choices; trust in Him to supply all your need and work in your behalf. Be silent and rest!
How dramatically this picture of the happy, restful child of God is contrasted with the wicked and his certain doom-like barren pastures scorched by heat, or thin smoke-columns vanishing in the air! Wait and trust!
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
We have seen many times how one Psalm links with another. Look at the 12th verse of the thirty-sixth Psalm and then look at the first verse of Psalm 37. Psalm 37 is Gods answer to His peoples cry. In these two Psalms we{pb 217 have had His people crying out to Him, and in the last verse of Psalm 36 we read, There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise. Now look at the first verse of Psalm 37, Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. The very same term that is used in the last verse of the previous Psalm is used in the first verse of the next Psalm. The troubled saint says, Lord, I believe You are going to handle these workers of iniquity; and then the Lord answers, Dont you fret; you have turned it over to Me; I will take charge of you and will deal with them.
I wish we could depict this thirty-seventh Psalm as it is in the Hebrew. It is an alphabetical Psalm. Many people know that we have one marvelous alphabetical Psalm, the 119th. There are twenty-two sections, and every verse in each section begins with the same letter. In the twenty-two sections you have all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet; every verse, for instance, of the first section begins with Aleph which answers to our A. We can easily see that because we get the names of the letters in the headings. The thirty-seventh Psalm is also an alphabetical Psalm, but here it is about every fourth line that begins with a different letter, and this runs through the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. We will just take some of the outstanding features.
We have the Spirits answer to the troubled soul, and so first in verses 1 to 11 we have blessing promised to the righteous. They are not to fret. God will deal with them. Verse 3 says, Trust in the Lord, and do good-that is your part. So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him: fret not thyself because of him who pros-pereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Notice the definite command, Trust in the Lorddelight thyself in the LordCommit thy way unto the LordRest in the Lordfret not thyself. You have often seen the little motto, If you worry you do not trust; if you trust you do not worry. Somebody has written a beautiful little monograph entitled, Why Worry When You Can Pray?
The average person would rather worry than pray. It is our own fault that we worry so much, for it is because we do not pray more. If we would hand it over to Him, commit our way unto the Lord, it would be so different. But now again, Trust in the Lord. My attitude of heart must be right. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil, and it will not be long before the wicked will disappear: God will deal with them. All the heaven they are ever going to know they get in this world, and all the trouble Gods saints will know they are getting here. When you leave this scene the trouble will be left behind. Why not just thank Him and praise Him for all His delivering grace?
But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. When the day comes that God shall manifest His loving favor to the righteous and they have entered at last into their reward, what about the wicked? Look at verses 12 to 15, The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him: for He seeth that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation. Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. It is another way of saying, Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Gal 6:7).
In verses 16 to 20 you have the portion of the righteous, and you know God can take a very little that His dear people have and make it an abundance for them. A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. As long as you have a good conscience toward God and realize you are walking so as to please Him you can be happy, even though you are bereft of everything the worldling thinks he must have. Poor unsaved men have nothing but judgment ahead of them; but the children of the Lord have nothing but glory. The Lord knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
In verses 21 to 29 you have the character of the righteous and the wicked again contrasted. Now let us see if we are not getting down to some rather serious things. What characterizes wicked people? Oh, you may say, cheating or lying or living immorally or getting drunk. Yes, but look at verse 21, The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth. I am afraid there are a lot of people that God calls wicked that we have not been thinking of as wicked. There is something very practical here. God looks for practical righteousness between men and women, and dishonesty is characteristic of the wicked. Then look at the next verse, For such as be blessed of Him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of Him shall be cut off.
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and He delighteth in his way. Somebody once picked up George Muellers Bible and happened to be thumbing it over and came to this Psalm and noticed he had written something in the margin of verse 23. He found this, The steps-and in the margin he had written, and the stops-of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Mr. Mueller had been meditating on it, and the thought came that it is not only the steps but also the stops that are ordered by the Lord. Sometimes you do not do any stepping; sometimes the Lord puts you on your back and says, Now you glorify Me here. We can rest in the will of the Lord under all circumstances. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand.
And now David gives a lovely testimony. I know that temporal blessing was the promise of the Old Testament, and spiritual blessing is the promise of the New Testament; and very often the most devoted saints in this New Testament dispensation are left with very little of temporal blessing. On the other hand I am sure that where people learn to commit everything to God and walk in righteousness before Him, He is going to undertake for them. And so Davids testimony is not without value to us. I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Somebody may say, Well, I do not like that because it makes me feel very bad. I have been in very difficult circumstances, and I have actually had to go and ask for help. I do not like to be put in the category of the wicked. This is not the case, for in our dispensation we do not have the same promise of temporal prosperity. But many of us fail to appropriate the privileges that are really ours in this age of grace. Be [anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God (Php 4:6). I believe that Christians would never have to beg for bread if they talked more to God. If we learned to depend on the living God and to go to Him, we would be amazed to find how He can undertake for us. God is the living God, and He will undertake if you will only trust Him. Is it not strange that we seem to be able to trust men more than we can trust Him? And yet we often get so disappointed in people, but we are never disappointed in Him if walking with Him. So David says, I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
In verses 30 to 40 you have divine government In verse 34 we read, 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. But the wicked seem to prosper in a way we do not Yes, David says, they do: I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.
Now look at the contrast, Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. And so he closes the Psalm with these words, The Lord shall help them, and deliver them: He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in Him.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Psa 37:1
I. None who can honestly say they are trying to serve Christ will make such a mistake as to hold up before their own eyes earthly reward as the fit end of spiritual work, and to look upon it as an unheard-of and monstrous thing that a good man should be less successful in this world than a worldly man. The danger is, not that we shall turn atheists or unbelievers, but that we shall be disheartened, not that we shall lose all faith, but that we shall find our faith weakened.
II. The fact is that even when we have learnt what it is that Christ puts before us, there still remains the hope that He will give more than He promises, and that we shall get the best of both worlds. There are men, no doubt, who utterly fail of success in both worlds, for while their want of faith, and truth, and love makes them no servants of Christ, their want of self-control and of common-sense robs them of all chance in this world. But, on the other hand, the thorough-going servant of this world will succeed in this world better than the Christian. And the Christian cannot learn it too soon.
III. What then follows? This follows: that the service of Christ demands a generous devotion. Christians who wish to serve God shall be rewarded, not by His love-no, for that they have always had-but by being enabled to love Him, for that is the highest of all blessings.
Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 2nd series, p. 267.
Psa 37:1-2
We need words of soothing such as are breathed in the text. There is enough in society, both profane and professedly religious, to vex the spirit and trouble it with bitterest grief. The slanderer’s foul tongue is ever ready to attack a holy character. Envy’s cruel hand is continually outstretched to purloin the crown and the sceptre which would never rightfully fall to its lot. The Psalmist teaches us:-
I. That there has ever been a generation of evil-doers. He refers to this generation with the utmost familiarity. All ages have been blackened with the shadow of evil-doers. Notice the terrible energy implied in the designation “workers of iniquity.” Reference is not made to men who make a pastime of iniquity, or who occasionally commit themselves to its service, but to those who toil at it as a business.
II. That the servants of God are not to be moved from their course by the generation of the unrighteous. The meaning which the Psalmist conveys is this, that however obscure or trying may be the secular position of the godly, they are not to murmur against the social government of God because the unrighteous are surrounded with all the luxuries which the most extravagant ambition can desire.
III. That a terrible doom awaits the generation of evil-doers. There are three facts which call for the attention of Christians: (1) Your fretfulness is an imputation on the Divine government. (2) Your fretfulness falsifies your attachment to Christian principles. (3) Your fretfulness gives society an erroneous idea of the Gospel.
Parker, The Cavendish Pulpit, p. 193.
Psa 37:3
Our text contains three precepts and a promise.
I. The first precept is “Put thou thy trust in the Lord.” Here comes in a most important question: Who is the Lord, that I may trust Him? The word here rendered “the Lord” is in Hebrew “Jehovah,” which was God’s covenant name to His people Israel. In this name, “Jehovah,” was bound up the promise made to Abraham that in his seed should all the families of the earth be blessed. So that when it was said to the Jew of old, “Put thou thy trust in Jehovah,” it was said, Trust in thy covenant God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of His people Israel. The covenant has been now enlarged from the members of one human family to the whole family in heaven and earth. What the Jew saw in shadow, and type, and prophecy we see in its blessed fulfilment. The Desire of all nations is come. Whatever reason there may have been for the Jew to put his trust in the Lord, that reason is now for us very much stronger and more urgent. God, who appeared to them but in the dim and gradual dawn of His merciful purposes to mankind, has risen on us with His full life-giving and cheering power, the Sun of righteousness, with healing on His wings.
II. The second precept has reference to the kind of life which he who puts his trust in the Lord must lead. He is not to be an idle member of society, a burden to the land, but active and useful in the relations of life. “Be doing good.” Christian activity is a necessary condition of the fulfilment of the promise with which the text concludes.
III. Our next precept is of a different kind, and regards that quietness and conformableness to the laws and usages of human society in which, provided they be not contradictory to the express commands of God, the Christian man should always be found. “Dwell in the land.” As the Christian is on the Lord’s Day, so must he be in the week: a God-fearing citizen as well as a God-fearing Christian, consistent, and at unity with himself.
IV. “Verily thou shalt be fed.” Words cannot be plainer than these. The Psalmist himself evidently understood them literally. And to confirm us in this view, we have even a more express command and promise of our Lord Himself: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things” (meat, drink, and raiment) “shall be added to you.”
H. Alford, Sermons, p. 213.
Psa 37:3
I. There is something very significant in the order of thought in the text. It is, “Trust in the Lord, and do good,” not Do good, and trust in the Lord. The Psalmist had his eye on the living root out of which all living goodness springs. Good deeds will have a living greenness and a boundless fertility when the root out of which they spring is planted by the river of the grace and the love of God.
II. But what is good? What are good deeds? The Churches are ready enough with their “Do this and live.” But God goes at once to the root of the matter: Be good if you would do good. Good, beautiful, Christlike deeds are the effluence of a good, beautiful, Christlike life.
III. The promise, “So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.” The Psalmist has no ideal meanings here; he means home and bread. Let a man live out fearlessly the Divine rule, and daily his life will grow richer in love, in honour, and in the supply of all his needs.
J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, p. 344.
Reference: Psa 37:3-8.-H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p. 93.
Psa 37:3-9
God is building up a kingdom that is invisible-a kingdom of holy thoughts, of pure feelings, of faith, of hope, of righteousness. God’s kingdom is advancing surely, though it advances slowly, and though it is invisible to us. Here then is the foundation of our faith, our hope, our patient waiting. We are to rest on the fact that God is carrying on a work in this world; that He never forgets that work; that He never lets it lag or linger; that it is ever going forward, though we may not see it advance, and though it may seem to be receding.
I. Consider the folly of the discouragement which many feel because men are so imperfect, particularly those who go from a higher to a lower state of society. To such men the word is, Wait on the Lord, wait patiently, and by-and-bye He shall give you the desire of your heart.
II. Consider the folly of envying wicked men when they are in power, and thinking that perhaps it is worth while to be as wicked as they are. Their prosperity, says the Psalm in effect, is at the beginning, and not at the end. Wicked men do prosper for a little while; but in the end they shall have their just reward.
III. There is an application of the subject to those that are in trouble. We have no need to hurry. Wait patiently. Trust in God. Do not give up your faith.
H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 1870, p. 334.
Psa 37:4
There is no bodily pain equal to the pain of the heart. Bodily pains call for sympathy, but the sufferings of the heart are hidden; none know of them; none may know of them; they are a concealed, consuming fire, unsuspected by all around.
I. I suppose there are many now past the middle age to whom the fact that the chapter of life is closing, that the romance of life is concluding, causes many an ache. Without resurrection of the dead, new heavens and a new earth, God, and Christ, and eternity, we are of all men most miserable. There is nothing more hopeless than a declining life, nothing more calculated to fill with despair than the ebbing away of life’s forces. “Delight thou in the Lord, and He shall give thee thy heart’s desire.”
II. There is the anguish of bereavement and of unrequited love. Here again the soul will find its only solace in prayer-in prayer for the object of affection. In the kingdom of the resurrection those who have loved hopelessly here will meet with those they loved, and then the loved ones may discover with wonder to whom they owe their place, and who, unseen as an angel, stayed them up when faltering, saved them from falling, by the mighty power of loving, intercessory prayer.
S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. ii., p. 65.
I. Notice what the text says: “Delight thyself in the Lord;” that is, in everything the Lord loves and commands. Without this delight the Lord’s commands will be galling and irksome; but with it the heart will be filled with sunshine. If we cannot bring ourselves to delight in the Lord while we are here, we can hardly expect to be able to delight ourselves in Him hereafter. Heaven is not really desired by sinners. Their delight is not in God, and they would rather flee away from His presence than dwell with Him. The end of that state cannot be otherwise than wretched.
II. The text goes on to tell you that if you delight in the Lord, He shall grant you the desires of your heart. It is not hard to tell what people often do desire in their hearts. Some desire money, and will do anything for it; some poor misguided persons desire strong drink, and will do anything for it. To desire these things and nothing else is very lamentable. But though people desire them, they do not always get them. But if you delight in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart. It is He alone who can do so, for He alone is all-powerful.
III. The next question is what your heart’s desires will be. If you delight in the Lord, your desires will be such as will please Him. In that case one of the first desires must be to be like Him. Set your mind greatly on this, and God is sure to give you your desire, and the result will be to fill the heart with such sunshine as other desires can never give. You will also desire to be useful. As you grow up God will furnish you with opportunities. “He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”
G. Litting, Thirty Children’s Sermons, p. 174.
References: Psa 37:4.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii., No. 454; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 166; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xv. p. 305; H. R. Reynolds, Notes of the Christian Life, p. m.
Psa 37:4-7
“I have been young, and now am old,” says the writer of this Psalm. Its whole tone speaks the ripened wisdom and autumnal calm of age. The dim eyes have seen and survived so much, that it seems scarcely worth while to be agitated about what ceases so soon. The clauses of the text contain the elements which secure peace even in storms and troubles. If we consider them carefully, we shall see that there is a well-marked progress in them.
I. Here is the secret of tranquillity in freedom from eager earthly desires. “Delight thyself,” etc. One desire unfulfilled is enough to banish tranquillity; but how can it survive a dozen dragging different ways? Unbridled and eager wishes destroy tranquillity by putting us at the mercy of externals. Rest comes with delighting in God (1) because that soul must needs be calm which is freed from the distraction of various desires by the one master-attraction; (2) because in such a case desire and fruition go together; (3) desire after God will bring peace by putting all things in their right place.
II. The secret of tranquillity is found in freedom from the perplexity of choosing our path. “Commit thy way unto the Lord,” or, as the margin says, roll it upon God. (1) This is a word for all life, not only for its great occasions. (2) It prescribes the subordination-not the extinction-of our own inclinations. (3) It prescribes the submission of our judgment to God, in the confidence that His wisdom will guide us. These two keys-joy in God and trust in His guidance-open for us the double doors of the secret place of the Most High.
III. The secret of tranquillity is found in freedom from the anxiety of an unknown future. “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” We are sure that in the future are losses, and sorrows, and death. Thank God, we are sure, too, that He is in it. That certainty alone and what comes of it makes it possible for a thoughtful man to face to-morrow without fear or tumult.
A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester, 2nd series, p. 245.
Reference: Psa 37:5.-J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 1st series, p. 18.
Psa 37:7
Rest is the highest condition of man. It is above work. The maturity of everything is its rest. It is an approach to the Eternal One. For what is rest? The balance of the mind, the equipoise of feeling, a harmony of the inner with the outer life, the peace of desire, and the repose of the consciousness of truth. Consider what is the exact meaning of the expression to “rest in the Lord.”
I. Those two words “the Lord” convey to the mind (1) absolute sovereignty, (2) the idea of the work of God. “The Lord” is the essential name of the Second Person in the blessed Trinity. (3) The person of God-the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a real presence, a personal Saviour, the truest reality of every day’s life-“the Lord.”
II. What is rest? (1) Satisfaction. The needle points to its pole; I find all I want, and more, in the Lord. (2) Silence. This silence is a blessed, childlike state, the truest worship. “The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him”-the still sanctities of rest. (3) Absolute reliance, as one who feels that all things are undertaken for you, who feels, “I have omnipotence on my side; an eternity of faith is underneath me.” (4) Perfect peace-the shadow of the rock, the chicken under the wing, the babe asleep on its mother’s bosom, the loved disciple on his Master’s breast. “Rest in the Lord.”
III. Notice one or two ways by which you may secure your own soul and glorify God by rest. (1) You must set out with a simple and undoubting sense of your own forgiveness and your safety in Christ. (2) Learn the happy art of quickly passing on everything to God. (3) There is an active and a passive rest. You will find work a great help to rest. It does more than anything else to prevent what is the bane of rest-self-inspection and the restlessness of idle fancies. And as you work never forget this rule of life, that you have nothing to do with results; results are with God. Do your duty, and leave all issues. That is the rest of work.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 10th series, p. 174.
I. Consider, first, the state of mind here supposed. It is a state of unrest, of a mind ill at ease, a distracted heart going first to this source of relief and then to that, but never satisfied. The text is to remind a man under such circumstances that there is but one way and one strength; that other ways besides that one are but a going about, and other strengths besides that one but a comparison of weaknesses.
II. Consider some classes of persons who are thus laboriously miserable, doing and undoing, like children building up paper houses which are to fall down under their hands. (1) There are the men who have their portion in this present world, not knowing, and perhaps not caring to know, whether they have a portion in any other. (2) The words of the text are addressed to the weary, burdened, conscience-convicted sinner. If we can get no rest in our sins and no rest from them, we are exactly those for whom the proffered relief is prepared, exactly those whom Christ invites to partake of it: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Rest in what Christ is, and wait patiently for what Christ will do.
III. The words of the text may also be addressed to the more established believer under all the disquietudes and trials which he must expect to meet with in his Christian course. Rest and wait, trusting, expecting, like the impotent man at the gate of the Temple, to receive something. He that believeth must not make haste; though the vision tarry, he must wait for it. The general lesson of the text is that we be without carefulness, that we carry our burdens to God and leave them with Him. God in Christ is the soul’s refuge and the soul’s rest.
D. Moore, Penny Pulpit, No. 2998.
Restlessness and impatience seem to be inseparably connected with humanity. They are manifested by all classes at every stage of their existence, from the child who grows weary of its newest toy to the philosopher who is dissatisfied with the result of his patient, lifelong thought. Rest! Some men know not what it means; they have never in their lives experienced it. And for others it has no sooner come than gone, vanished like some transient dream of bliss. Yet rest cannot be quite impossible for man, for it has been occasionally achieved. The Psalmist, for example, had practised what we find him preaching in the text. “The Lord is my Shepherd,” he says; “I shall not want.”
I. Observe that the rest to which the Psalmist attained is an intelligent and intelligible rest. There can be no rest for us in circumstances; they are ever changing. There can be no rest in self, for self is too much at the mercy of circumstances. There can be no complete rest for us in other men, for they may play us false or be taken away by death. The only perfect rest conceivable for man is a rest in the Lord.
II. All forms of restlessness and impatience resolve themselves into a want of faith. They amount to practical atheism. (1) Young men probably more than any other class are characterised by a feverish restlessness and a tremendous impatience. It is our eager craving after ease and pleasure, our indisposition to endure hardness and conflict, our longing to enjoy the present moment, however meanly, rather than work out patiently some future good, however glorious-it is these things that mar us, that keep us from ever becoming what we might have been. There is no cure for this restlessness but faith. Faith in the future and in the God of the future will alone help us worthily to discharge our present duty. (2) There is another very common form of restlessness, arising not from the mere absence of enjoyment, but from the actual presence of pain. To any one in such a predicament I would say, (a) Your present adversity may be the best means, perhaps the only means, to a great prosperity which is in store for you at no distant date. (b) It is a great mistake to imagine that happiness is the chief end of life, and that we have a right to as much of it as we like to demand. The end of life is not happiness, but duty. God has a purpose to fulfil in our existence, and surely it must be evident that with this purpose an indefinite amount of happiness might be quite incompatible.
III. Our restlessness and impatience involve a practical disbelief in immortality. We chafe and fret when our wishes are thwarted, as if there were no life but the present, as if the grave were the end of all things for us. Can we not wait-wait like men-for “the far-off interest of tears”?
A. W. Momerie, Defects of Modern Christianity, and Other Sermons, p. 242.
I. First David speaks to us about rest. All men are craving for rest. In the present day there is a very great danger of many men working too much rather than too little. Where can a man rest? (1) Not in worldly prosperity. How very soon the gourd withers! How often the stream dries up! We are like boys upon the seaside with their sand spades. We dig and dig, but it is all sand, and we cannot build on sand. We are looking to the trees, and we want a tree where we can build our nest; but on every tree there is the woodman’s mark, and soon the trees will fall. Not here, not in the world, can we rest. (2) We cannot rest in the sunshine of home. Very often the hardest blows we receive come to us in the home circle, and the deepest wounds the heart ever knows are the wounds inflicted in the home. (3) A man cannot rest in his own religious experience. David found that his experience changed from day to day. Nor is he alone. The experience of all God’s people has fluctuated: one day in the mountain and then down in the valley; one day in the arctic regions of death, another day amid the tropics. Not in our own experience can we rest. (4) But where can we rest? “Rest in the Lord.” There is an ark upon the troubled billows; O dove with weary pinions, fly there. Rest in the power of God, in the promises of God, in the unchanging goodness of God.
II. Our text speaks also of patience. Many a man waits who does not wait patiently. (1) We have to wait patiently for answers to our prayers. (2) We have to wait patiently for the explanation of many of life’s mysteries. (3) We have to wait patiently for God’s blessing to come upon our labours. (4) On a bed of death we must exercise patience and wait for the Lord to come.
E. S. Gange, Penny Pulpit, No. 1009.
Waiting is the side of faith which develops most slowly. Working is not always a sign of faith. Diversion and oblivion are not faith. Faith’s harder lesson is given in making a man lie still, and not work at all, but simply bear and wait.
I. We are to wait unwaveringly. “Wait on the Lord and keep His way.”
II. We are to wait cheerfully. “Fret not thyself because of evil-doers.”
III. We may wait confidently. “Thou shalt dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.”
M. R. Vincent, Gates into the Psalm Country, p. 127.
References: Psa 37:7.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1333; H. R. Reynolds, Notes of the Christian Life, p. 130; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xx., p. 279; C. Vince, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 81; S. Wilberforce, Sermons, p. 225; J. Martineau, Hours of Thought, vol. i., p. 329. Psa 37:9.-Congregationalist, vol. vii., p. 409.
Psa 37:11
Such a promise as this relates both to the future and the present. The text cannot have its perfect fulfilment until Christ shall come a second time in power and great majesty, but there are senses in which it has a present accomplishment.
I. Who are the meek? We go to Christ for a description of meekness, and we gather it from the portrait given by Christ-that we should be forbearing, forgiving, patient under injuries and contradictions. We must distinguish between that meekness which may be only the effect of constitution and another which is the clear produce of grace. The man who is only meek from constitution will ordinarily prove to be a timid or irresolute man, wholly unprepared to face an emergency or to master an idolatrous sin; but Christian meekness is in the largest sense compatible with Christian boldness.
II. Christian meekness must chiefly result, first, from a deep sense of our own unworthiness, and, secondly, an earnest love of our fellow-men. He who is humble in the meek consciousness of his own vileness as a sinner will invariably be averse to all overbearing; and he who is jealous for the well-being of others will forbear and forgive, and keep down resentment, however injurious the conduct of others.
III. The promise of our text is to be accomplished in the future; for in this life the heir is nothing more than a man who has not yet reached an age on which to enter into possession. Nevertheless the consciousness of being an heir will bring with it a certain feeling of possession, though the time be yet far distant for taking it as his own. The heir of the earth, though not a possessor, may have such a rich and precious interest in the earth as shall bear out the expression of his being now blessed. The meek, fraught with the persuasion that they deserve nothing but wrath, find in the commonest mercies tokens of their being the children of God.
IV. In proportion as a man acquires love for his fellow-men he may clearly be said to inherit the earth. The spot cannot be found where the meek man being placed shall be quite a stranger. Wherever he journeys he may be said to be still at home. He possesses the earth by family compact, by the claims or rights of relationship, and the possession thus obtained is possession by heirship. And if we have thus a home in the earth in its length and breadth, we contend it is fairly and literally made out that the meek man inherits the earth.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2257.
Psa 37:16
I. The Divine power given by the Almighty to true faith and devotion of heart takes up, nourishes, and cherishes whatever is good and comfortable in our condition, makes the most of it, spreads, enlarges, ripens it, as the sun in springtime does the little flowers, which would otherwise quite wither away; while, on the other hand, there is in the love of the world, in all kinds of covetousness, a blighting, withering quality, which gradually causes the most abundant growth of prosperity to shrivel, and contract, and sink into nothing. A little circumstance in a good man’s life may grow Upon him and cause him more happy thought, even in this world, than the greatest prosperity of a bad man.
II. One sure friend that the righteous hath is worth all the companions of the ungodly. Elijah in the wilderness, with now and then a visit from an angel-did he not find that the remembrance of those rare moments cast a light over all his solitary hours which quite prevented them from being tedious?
III. The same rule holds, not only in respect of outward things, but of knowledge also, and scholarship, and acquaintance even with Divine matters. A little drop of knowledge, touched by Divine grace, may swell into a sea.
IV. Such is God’s mercy on the one hand, and the perverseness of men on the other, that even in respect of spiritual blessings also the Psalmist’s saying holds true. A little measure of grace well employed and received into a heart willing to be made righteous is better than the highest spiritual privileges when God, in His unsearchable judgments, has vouchsafed them to unworthy persons.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times” vol. vi., p. 159 (see also J. Keble, Sermons for Saints’ Days, p. 343).
Psa 37:23-24
I. The first truth of the text is that God orders, arranges, establishes, the details of His children’s lives.
II. God is pleased with him who thus lets his steps be ordered.
III. The Psalmist recognises infirmity as an element of the good man’s walk. There is a possibility of his falling, which the text provides for: “The Lord upholdeth him with His hand.”
IV. From these truths we conclude: (1) If God has ordained a way for men to walk in, it is the height of folly to walk in any other way. (2) If God orders our ways, step by step, it becomes us to take heed to the details of our lives. (3) If God orders each detail of our lives, ought we not to get great and solid comfort from the fact? (4) It becomes us to fall in with God’s order, and to attach to the separate steps the same importance that He does.
M. R. Vincent, God and Bread, p. 07.
References: Psa 37:24.-S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 3rd series, No. 15. Psa 37:31.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 261. Psa 37:32-34.-H. Thompson, Concionalia: Outlines for Parochial Use, 2nd series, p. 500.
Psa 37:34
This Psalm is written with a view of encouraging good men who are in perplexity, and especially perplexity concerning God’s designs, providence, and will.
I. The use of difficulties to all of us in our trial in this world is obvious. Our faith is variously assailed by doubts and difficulties, in order to prove its sincerity. To all those who are perplexed in any way soever, who wish for light, but cannot find it, one precept must be given-Obey. It is obedience which brings a man into the right path; it is obedience which keeps him there and strengthens him in it.
II. Let us apply this exhortation in the case of those who have but lately taken up the subject of religion. Every science has its difficulties at first; why then should the science of living be without them? When the subject of religion is new to us, it is strange. Let then every beginner make up his mind to suffer disquiet and perplexity. The more he makes up his mind manfully to bear doubt, struggle against it, and meekly to do God’s will all through it, the sooner this unsettled state of mind will cease, and order will rise out of confusion.
III. It sometimes happens, from ill-health or other cause, that persons fall into religious despondency. Such afflicted ones must be exhorted to keep a guard upon their feelings and to control their hearts. Supposing their state to be as wretched as is conceivable, can they deny that it is their duty now to serve God? Whatever our difficulty be, this is plain: “Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt thee.”
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. i., p. 228.
Reference: Psa 37:35-37.-E. Matthews, Welsh Pulpit of To-day, p. 102.
Psa 37:38
I. The character here presented for our study: the perfect and upright man. The essential principle of the perfectness of which David speaks is a heart right with God, a life whose root and whose aim is God.
II. “The end of that man is peace.” For (1) he knows Whom he has believed, and is persuaded that He is able to keep that which he has committed unto Him until that day. (2) He knows to what he is passing-to a world which is brighter, a bliss which is deeper, than even his most vivid dreams. (3) The rest-and a man has other cares at such hours-he leaves with God. To be able to cast his care upon Him who he knows will care-care with a tenderness of which earth has no measures-is peace, the peace of God in the contemplation of the future of our beloved.
J. Baldwin Brown, Aids to the Development of the Divine Life, No. 8.
Psa 37:38
I. “Keep innocency.” In the strictest sense of all, innocence was a treasure forfeited for ever in Paradise. It is only in a very modified sense that we can speak with truth even of the innocence of childhood. It is but a comparative innocency which belongs to any child of man.
II. “Take heed unto the thing that is right.” How general the language; at first sight how vague, yet in reality how intelligible and how emphatic! We all know, or may know if we will, what is right: the duty of praying always, of loving God, of trusting in Christ, of seeking and obeying the Holy Spirit. But mark well the words, “Take heed unto the thing that is right.” However easy to discover, our duty is not easy to do. If we will not take heed, we shall certainly miss the thing that is right.
III. “That shall bring a man peace at the last”-in its widest sense, at the end of life. A life of innocency and of steadfast obedience shall end in a peaceful death, a peaceful eternity. But there are other endings between us and that last end; and, however inferior to that in importance, they may yet be thought and spoken of without irreverence as affording each a minor fulfilment of the promise here expressed.
C. J. Vaughan, Harrow Sermons, 2nd series, p. 384.
References: Psa 37:39.-Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 151. Psa 38:2.-Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 4th series, p. 162. Psa 38:4.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 353.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Psalm 37
The Blessed Lot of the Righteous Contrasted with the Wicked
1. Waiting for Jehovah and His promise (Psa 37:1-11)
2. The doom of the wicked and the portion of the righteous (Psa 37:12-20)
3. The ways of the righteous and the wicked (Psa 37:21-29)
4. Gods gracious ways with the righteous (Psa 37:30-40)
This Psalm is also alphabetical in structure and somewhat proverbial in character. It is full of sweet comfort and encouragement to faith. All the saints of God have fed on its beautiful statements, and the coming saints of Israel will find help and strength in it for their souls. He who trusts in the Lord and waits for Him needs not to fret on account of evil-doers; they will soon be cut off. But what is the righteous man to do? Trust in the Lord–delight thyself in Him–commit thy way unto the Lord–rest in the Lord. If Gods people will but do this all is well, for He who never faileth adds His promises. He promises safety, the fulfilment of the hearts desire; He will bring it to pass and bring forth righteousness as the light. Waiting for the Lord will end for the godly of that coming day, when the evil-doers will be cut off in judgment and when those who waited on the Lord shall inherit the earth. This is Israels promise which will be realized for the godly remnant when the Lord appears in glory in their midst. These brief hints will help in the study of the entire Psalm. It must be looked upon as prophetic, pointing to the day when the wicked troubles no more, when his end is come and when the Lord exalts the righteous to inherit the land.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
– Title
This is the third alphabetical Psalm. It seems to have been intended as an instructive and consoling ode for the captives in Babylon, who might feel themselves severely tempted when they saw those idolaters in prosperity, and themselves in adversity.
Fret:Psa 37:7, 1Sa 1:6-8, Pro 19:3, Pro 24:1, Pro 24:19
neither:Psa 73:3, Pro 3:31, Pro 23:17, Gal 5:21, Jam 4:5, Jam 4:6
Reciprocal:Gen 26:3 – Sojourn 1Ch 16:4 – to record Job 12:6 – tabernacles Psa 49:16 – Be not Psa 73:21 – my heart Psa 92:7 – wicked Jer 12:1 – Wherefore doth 1Pe 2:1 – envies
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
The manifestation of God for the righteous in their possession of the earth.
[A psalm] of David.
The thirty-seventh psalm, the third and middle one of the series, has already been noted as the hinge or pivot upon which the rest turn, the full blessing brought in for the righteous in Israel, in their possession of the land. And in this Jehovah manifests Himself, and glorifies Himself upon the earth.
The structure has been noted also as alphabetic; and it is almost perfect in this respect, not quite, if the present division of the verses is correct, as, after all, I believe it is, though I had doubted it. This will be examined in its place (verse 28).
The letters, with three exceptions only, have each a couplet of verses attached, in which we are intended perhaps to realize the markedly antithetical character of the psalm -present and future, righteous and wicked, being thus put in contrast.
Contrary to the general character of the psalms of this series also, there is no prayer heard throughout the present one. All is definitely assured, predictive, and admonitory, -prophetic, that is, all the way through, though couched in general terms only, and in this way more suited to the admonitory purpose.
1. The first section insists on the perpetuity of the blessing of the righteous, in contrast with the speedy and perfect end of the wicked: and makes this an argument for entire rest of heart in committing oneself to God. The present apparent success of wickedness naturally excites to fretfulness and envy of him who seems thus to have so much the best of it as to the things here. But this is to forget that faith’s part is necessarily in the unseen: “they shall soon be cut down like grass, and wither like the green herb.”
Faith is next exhorted to, in view of Jehovah’s faithfulness. The soul may be pastured upon this, and dwell secure; -the peaceable fruits of righteousness being thus encouraged. Let the heart cleave to the Lord in love, and love will be sure to respond, and the requests of the heart so purified be fulfilled.
Let the way too be committed to Him, and difficulties will disappear before Jehovah’s sufficiency. Not only will one’s purposes thus be realized, but thy righteousness too will be made plain as the light, and thy right as the noon-day.
But patience will be needed also; and one may be patient when the end is certain. Let the wicked prosper as he is permitted, and even his mischief prosper. Rest in Jehovah Himself: He is still Jehovah.
The government of God is active still, and sure in the end toward which it works. Cease then from anger and forsake wrath, the only result of which is to make one copy the evil he resents. Evil-doers shall be cut off at last and the quiet waiters upon Jehovah, these shall inherit the earth (or land).
The last couplet simply develops this, -the end of the wicked, completely rooted out of the land, and the meek inheriting the land at last, satisfied with abundant prosperity.
2. The second section, which is a short one, occupies itself only with the wicked His enmity against the righteous is noted, his plots, with still their limit. The Lord derides his folly, and foresees his end. His sword, already drawn, enters his own heart; his bent bow snaps, instead of discharging itself. It is an illustration of the Lord’s words, that they that take the sword shall perish with it, and, of course, a pregnant example of divine government.
3. The third section contrasts the portion of the righteous and the wicked. If the righteous have but little, it is better than the abundance of many wicked: one is for a time the other has the enduring support of Jehovah. Jehovah marks and knows the days of the perfect, and even in the evil time they shall not be ashamed, and in famine they shall be satisfied. As for the wicked, they shall be consecrated to the Lord in their death, who would not be in life, and consume away like animals under the ban, consumed by the fire of wrath and not accepted.
4. We have now, contrasted as before, the ways of each, -a longer detail. First, the bounty and grace of the righteous is contrasted with the greed and injustice of the wicked. But those blessed of Jehovah are those in due time to possess the land, while the wicked, grasp as he may, shall be cut off under His curse. This seems to me the evident meaning of the verse, although I may be, perhaps, alone in thinking so. To make the cause of the wicked man’s not repaying to be his poverty, and that under the curse of God, while the righteous gives as already possessing the earth, seems an entire inversion of the facts as the psalm presents them, as well as a justification of the “wicked,” such as in no wise commends itself.
Next we have the steps of a man (like Psa 34:8, gebher, implying strength), his firm and prosperous steps are “established of Jehovah.” It is from Him they get their strength. “And He delighteth in his way” -a way so blessed and strengthened. Thus, if such a man falls, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the hand that he lifts to Jehovah is upheld by Him. He “affords it,” as Delitzsch puts it, “a firm point of support or fulcrum, so that he can rise up again.”
The psalmist adds to this the realization of it in his own experience. From the days of his youth to his present old age he had not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. The character of the righteous is again given as that of one showing grace and ministering -little righteousness has he who can forget the claims of the needy when his own needs are so many -and this the Lord delights to maintain: his seed is,” not merely blessed, but “for blessing,” -the blessing of others his ministry is perpetuated in those who spring from him, and learn his ways.
Thereupon the psalmist, naturally enough, turns from this encouraging assurance to admonition: “Depart from evil and do good: and dwell forevermore. For,” he adds, “Jehovah is a lover of judgment, and forsaketh not his godly ones: they are preserved forever, but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall possess the earth (or land), and dwell therein forever.” * With this the fourth section of the psalm ends.
{*The middle verse here, it will be observed, is of unusual length, and instead of two verses under the Samech, there are three: which does not occur under any other letter in the psalm. This of course might very easily be an intentional irregularity, along with the omission of one letter of the alphabetic structure, which is seldom perfectly preserved in these compositions. The two things coming together, however, -the omission of the letter, with the unusual lengthening of the one verse, which if divided in the middle would make four verses here (the regular number if the letter were inserted), naturally raises a question as to the true division. But this seems more than question when we find the omitted letter (Ain) standing thus, with only a prepositional letter before it, at the head of the verse so made. The interposed letter (l’) is no doubt still an objection; yet but a slight one: for the 39th has also a letter (the copulative v’) before the Tau, which in a similar way is not to be reckoned. The critics mostly therefore correct the division of the psalm accordingly.
But, on the other hand, the numerical structure decides against this, and maintains the common division. The Ain couplet thus restored might be indeed a fifth subsection (a governmental lesson); but the first verse would be but a poor first, if it could be taken as such at all; and the 29th could not stand as a second, while the number 3 is stamped upon both clauses of it. The Septuagint addition, which would make the Samech begin with “the unjust shall be punished,” leaving “they are preserved forever” in the previous section, while it shows that what the critics now accept was not then accepted as the true division, would still less suit the numerical structure.}
5. The last section, as a deuteronomic one, sums up these ways of God, whether with the righteous or the wicked. They are simple enough, while requiring for the present faith to realize them: for still, in the government of God, “clouds and darkness are round about Him.” But the day comes, to which the psalm looks on, in which all will come out fully. In that day “the righteous shall be recompensed on the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner” (Pro 11:31). This is the Old Testament side of the truth, let us remember; and we shall fall into great error, if we take it as the whole truth. So taken, it has been used, and is quite competent to prove, that there is no heavenly portion for the saints of the present and the past, and only annihilation of personal existence for the wicked. I do not imply that this would be a light penalty, however light man may be disposed to make of it; but it is not what such texts mean. If “the future of the wicked is, to be cut off,” this does not mean that he is to have no future, -that his portion is extinction; but simply that the earth is to be freed from his presence, and thus from the misery caused by that presence. Even the Old Testament shows us, as we have seen in the Psalms themselves, a Sheol which man passes into out of the bodily condition; and the New Testament clearly reveals the Gehenna of the lost on the one hand, the paradise of God for the saved on the other.* I cannot enter into this here, of course: but the “cutting off” and destruction of the wicked are distinctly stated to be “from the earth” (Psa 104:35; Pro 2:22; etc.). All application of these earthly judgments to that judgment which is “after” death (Heb 9:27) involves a necessarily materialistic use of terms which is foreign to Scripture.
{*See “Facts and Theories of a Future State,” passim. Loizeaux Brothers, New York.}
We have six subsections here. First, we are given to see the righteous in that obedience of heart to God which makes his mouth meditate wisdom -that is, utter what his heart has meditated. His tongue, therefore, speaketh judgment -practical discernment of things in their moral or spiritual difference. It is the law of his God in his heart that has thus enlightened him; and walking in the light, he walks securely: his steps do not slide.
But just because he is thus obedient to God, he has his enemies in the wicked, who watch him, and even seek his death. They may even go through the form of trial, and encompass themselves with the similitude of justice, to accomplish their cruel ends; but Jehovah is against them, and, spite of all that may seem to be the case, cannot abandon the righteous to their hand, nor condemn him because they do this. Nay, He will surely justify him.
But the way to the inheritance is in a path of patience; yet the righteous shall possess the land, and see the wicked cut off out of it. In the meanwhile, a partial experience will leave the wicked in power, flourishing like a green tree in its own congenial soil. But this is not the end; and every one can furnish examples of the rapid uprooting and passing away of all this show of strength. Presently he is not; and the ends of the two -the wicked and the upright -how different! The end of the one is peace -or prosperity; and of the other, as rebels against God, to be cut off. Victory is for the righteous; their salvation is of One who cannot fail them. Even in the time of strait He is their stronghold; and what a fortress to be beleaguered by the enemy! He shall help and rescue them as surely as they have fled to Him for refuge.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Psa 37:1-2. Fret not thyself Give not way to immoderate grief, or anger, or impatience; because of evil-doers Because they prosper in their wicked enterprises, while thou art sorely afflicted. Neither be thou envious, &c. Esteeming them happy, and secretly wishing that thou wert in their condition. They shall wither as the green herb For their happiness, the matter of thy envy, is but short-lived.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 37:1. Fret not thyself, be not angry or irritated, because of evil doers. Let the consummate courtier gain elevation, let the merchant aggrandize his family, and the rich men buy the lands of the poor: the triumphing of the wicked is short. The peerage shall soon be extinct, and the mansion come to the hammer.
Psa 37:3. Dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Hebrews Dwell in the land, and feed on the truth. Then the Lord will be to thee a satisfying portion, and will strengthen thee, as the oak becomes the more enrooted after the tempest.
Psa 37:4. Delight thyself also in the Lord, in his word, in his worship, contemplating the wonders of his law, and walking in all his pleasant ways; then he himself will be thy portion, and give thee grace and glory. This accords with the next verses.
Psa 37:7. Rest in the Lord. Hebrews be silent, be still and calm, in conflicts and temptations. I held my tongue and kept silence, for it was thy doing. The mute christian under certain circumstances is the most admirable character.
Psa 37:9. Evil doers shall be cut off. This is more fully stated in Psa 37:28.
Psa 37:11. The meek shall inherit the earth, being peaceful, and hating war and strife. Godliness has everywhere the promise of the present life, as well as of that which is to come.
Psa 37:15. Their sword shall enter into their own heart. This was literally fulfilled on mount Gilboa, when both Saul and his body-guard fell upon their swords. 1 Samuel 31. How much happier was David in exile, than those men with all their promotion, riches and feasts.
Psa 37:24. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down. The Chaldaic reads, though he fall into infirmity or sickness he shall not die, for the Lord upholds his hand. The prophet had apparently this in his mind, when he said, Rejoice not against me, oh mine enemy. When I fall I shall arise: when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me. Mic 7:8.
Psa 37:25. Nor his seed begging bread. It is a general maxim, that the children of the righteous shall be blessed. The life of a good man is distinguished by industry, by temperance, and by the promised heritage of temporal good. Yet it is a fact admitted in the sacred writings, that the righteous have suffered great privations; and martyrs and exiles have in certain storms of persecution perished of want.
Psa 37:28. The Lordforsaketh not his saints; literally, his merciful ones. But the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. Dr. Lightfoot remarks here, that this psalm, being an acrostic, the word rash, wicked, has the last letter cut off. There is a verse in the LXX, which seems to have been omitted in the Hebrew. The unrighteous shall be punished, and his impious seed shall perish. This verse makes the acrostic complete in this place.
Psa 37:35. I have seen the wickedspreading himself like a green bay-tree. The LXX, as a cedar of Lebanon, in majestic stature; and like the tree which Nebuchadnezzar saw, but which received its sentence, Hew down the tree. Dan 4:10-17.
Psa 37:37. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright. The two Hebrew words, taim and jasher, are used, the former to designate innocence, integrity, and perfection; the latter to designate uprightness and equity. In this place they are used for characters clothed with every virtue that can dignify human nature. Gen 6:9; Gen 7:1. Psa 64:4. Diogenes went through Athens with a candle in his hand at noon; when asked why he did that, he answered, I am seeking a MAN. This text exhibits the only character worthy of the name of man.
REFLECTIONS.
This psalm is a chain of sacred proverbs, highly adapted to the edification of the church, and to encrease her confidence in providence. Being written in old age, they are all maxims of sober wisdom and mature experience.
Fret not thyself because of evil doers. David had been much grieved: rivers of water had run down his eyes, because of the wicked who kept not Gods law. David gives us a farther explication of his words in Psa 37:8. Cease from angerfret not thyself in any wise so as to do evil. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be, but the meek shall inherit the earth; they shall have long life, worldly good, and eternal joy. Therefore our Saviour has pronounced them blessed.
A farther argument not to fret about the wicked is given in Psa 37:6. Because the little that a righteous man hath, is better than the riches of many wicked men. His one talent shall multiply to two, to five, or ten talents, while the wealth of the wicked shall canker, and the rust testify against them. Therefore the good man having his God, is happier in his cottage, than the prince in his palace. At the same time let the poor man live according to his earnings, and keep clear of all debts; for the wicked borrow and pay not again. It is far better to wear rags, than fine clothes unpaid for.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
XXXVII. An acrostic poem. Its object is to teach patience and hope. The pious Jews, the Hasidim of Psa 4:3* who observe the Law strictly, are at present poor and oppressed. They are to wait for the end, when God will separate the good from the bad and will recompense men according to their deserts.
Psa 37:1 agrees almost verbally with Pro 29:14. For the envy intended, see Psa 73:3.
Psa 37:4 a. Render as mg. Godly men find their delight in Yahweh because they do His will, and He in return answers their prayers.
Psa 37:6. God manifests the righteousness of the godly, i.e. the fact that they are in the right. Their judgment is their plea, which in the end gains the day. The language is borrowed from the courts of law.
Psa 37:8. to evil-doing: render to thine own hurt, i.e. by fruitless anger and jealousy.
Psa 37:11. peace: substitute prosperity.
Psa 37:13. his day: i.e. the day of judgment.
Psa 37:16 b. Read than the great abundance of the wicked
Psa 37:20. Neither RV nor RVm makes any sense. Wellhausens brilliant conjecture sets matters right. The enemies of Yahweh shall be as the burning of ovens, i.e. as the stubble and other rubbish thrown into the oven. As fuel they vanish in smoke, they vanish. The LXX has a completely different text: When they are glorified and exalted, the enemies of the Lord fail utterly like smoke.
Psa 37:35. Read with LXX, I have seen an impious man exalted and rising like the cedars of Lebanon: And I passed by and behold! he was gone.
Psa 37:37. Translate, There is a future for the peaceable man (cf. mg.), in the Messianic age, when Yahweh will establish the pious and expel sinners from the land of Israel.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
PSALM 37
An exhortation to the godly to trust in the LORD, and not allow themselves to be disturbed by the passing prosperity of the wicked.
(vv. 1-2) The first two verses present the theme of the psalm – a warning to the godly not to fret in spirit because of the present prosperity of the wicked. Like the grass they will soon be cut down.
(vv. 3-11) Faith in the Lord is the way of escape from this snare. Thus the word to the godly soul is, Trust in the Lord; delight thyself also in the Lord; Commit thy way unto the Lord; Rest in the Lord; and wait upon the Lord.
Instead of fretting let the godly trust in the Lord, and he will find that while the wicked shall soon be cut down, the one who trusts will dwell in the land and be fed.
Instead of fretting because of evil doers, let the believer delight in the Lord, and he shall be satisfied.
Instead of being stumbled and turned out of the right way by reason of the prosperity of the wicked, let the godly commit his way unto the Lord. However rough it may be at the moment, the Lord will maintain the godly in the way, and make manifest the righteousness of the one who keeps in the way.
Instead of being impatient because for the moment the wicked man prospers in his way, let the soul rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Resting in the Lord the soul is preserved from anger and wrath when he sees the prosperous way in which the desires of the wicked are brought to pass. To fret would only lead the soul into evil. In the Lord’s own time the evildoers will be cut off, and those that wait upon the Lord will inherit the land.
Moreover it is not for long that patience will have to be exercised, it is but a little while and the wicked will pass away and the meek be established in blessing.
(vv. 12-15) Verses 12 to 15 present the Lord’s attitude toward the wicked. Over-occupied with the prosperity of the wicked, we may fret and become angry and impatient; the Lord, however, derides the wicked who plot against the just, for the Lord sees that his day is coming when, in the government of God, the wicked will fall by the very violence that they have used against the upright. They that take the sword will perish by the sword.
(vv. 16-20) The following verses present the Lord’s attitude towards the godly. The little of the righteous is better than the abundance of the wicked, for with that little there is the support of the Lord – He upholdeth the righteous. The Lord knows their days, and has secured an eternal inheritance for them. And though on the way to the inheritance they may have to pass through times of trial and days of famine, yet they shall not be confounded and left to want. The wicked shall perish and consume away.
(vv. 21-38) Verses 21 to 38 present the way of the godly, their present portion, and their end, in contrast to the wicked.
The wicked take without mercy, and come under the curse; the righteous shows mercy, giveth, and is blessed (vv. 21-22).
The steps of a godly man are established by the Lord. He may fall, but he will not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him (vv. 23-24).
The needs of the righteous man are met, and more than met, so that he is able to dispense to others. Let, then, the godly depart from evil and do good seeing that the Lord forsakes not His saints but preserves them for ever and brings them into the land of His choice; whereas the wicked will be cut off (vv. 25-29).
The mouth of the righteous proffereth wisdom and . . . judgment, (JND), from a heart that cherishes the law of God. His steps shall not slide, for the Lord will not leave him in the hand of those who watch for his destruction. Therefore let the godly wait on the Lord and keep His way, knowing that he will inherit the land, while those who seek his downfall will be cut off (vv. 30-34).
The wicked man may, indeed, for a time make a great show of prosperity – like a green bay-tree – yet he will pass away and not be found. The perfect man may pass through trial, but his end is peace, whereas the end of the wicked is to be cut off (vv. 35-38).
(vv. 39-40) However right the walk and ways of the godly, let them ever remember that their salvation is of the Lord. He is the strength in trouble, and help in time of need, and the deliverer from the wicked of all that trust in Him.
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
37:1 [[A Psalm] of David.] Fret not {a} thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
(a) He admonishes us neither to vex ourselves for the prosperous estate of the wicked, or to desire to be like them to make our estate better.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Psalms 37
This wisdom psalm advances the thought of Psalms 36. Note the mention of doers of iniquity in Psa 36:12 and the reference to evildoers in Psa 37:1. Here David urged the righteous not to let the prosperity of the wicked upset them but to continue to trust in God’s justice. Similar encouragements characterize Psalms 49, 73. Here the psalmist used several proverbial expressions to convey his exhortation.
"In a moving way the psalmist deals with the issues of life and death, wisdom and folly, and reward and punishment. He is most sensitive to the question of the future and its rewards and sufferings. The psalmist affirms that the Lord will sustain the righteous and that they will fully enjoy the blessings promised to them. The sage sets before the reader or hearer the highway of wisdom, even as our Lord called on his followers to learn from him the way that pleases our Father in heaven (Mat 5:2-10)." [Note: VanGemeren, p. 297.]
This is also an acrostic psalm, but in this case each strophe (every other verse) begins with the succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet. A strophe is a logical unit determined by either the subject matter or the structure of the poem.
"This is the most obviously sapiential [having, providing, or expounding wisdom] of all the psalms. Indeed it is a collection of sayings that might easily be found in the book of Proverbs. It appears to be a rather random collection of sayings without any order or development. However, there is an important qualification to that statement, for this psalm is acrostic and so is crafted with pedagogical purpose. That carefully ordered arrangement corresponds to the claim made for the substance of the psalm; that is, the world is exceedingly well ordered, and virtue is indeed rewarded." [Note: Brueggemann, p. 42.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. A call to continuing trust 37:1-8
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Righteous people should not envy those who practice evil, nor fret because they prosper. Their success will be only temporary. Even though they may prosper all their lives, their success is brief in the light of eternity.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 37:1-40
THERE is a natural connection between acrostic structure and didactic tone, as is shown in several instances, and especially in this psalm. The structure is on the whole regular, each second verse beginning with the required letter, but here and there the period is curtailed or elongated by one member. Such irregularities do not seem to mark stages in the thought or breaks in the sequence, but are simply reliefs to the monotony of the rhythm, like the shiftings of the place of the pause in blank verse, the management of which makes the difference between a master and a bungler. The psalm grapples with the problem which tried the faith of the Old Testament saints-namely, the apparent absence of correlation of conduct with condition-and solves it by the strong assertion of the brevity of godless prosperity and the certainty that well-doing will lead to well-being. The principle is true absolutely in the long run, but there is no reference in the psalm to the future life. Visible material prosperity is its promise for the righteous, and the opposite its threatening for the godless. No doubt retribution is not wholly postponed till another life, but it does not fall so surely and visibly as this psalm would lead us to expect. The relative imperfection of the Old Testament revelation is reflected in the Psalms, faiths answer to Heavens word. The clear light of New Testament revelation of the future is wanting, nor could the truest view of the meaning and blessedness of sorrow be adequately and proportionately held before Christ had taught it by His own history and by His words. The Cross was needed before the mystery of righteous suffering could be fully elucidated, and the psalmists solution is but provisional. His faith that infinite love ruled and that righteousness was always gain, and sin loss, is grandly and eternally true. Nor is it to be forgotten that he lived and sang in an order of things in which the Divine government had promised material blessings as the result of spiritual faithfulness, and that, with whatever anomalies, modest prosperity did, on the whole, attend the true Israelite. The Scripture books which wrestle most profoundly with the standing puzzle of prosperous evil and afflicted goodness are late books, not merely because religious reflectiveness was slowly evolved, but because decaying faith had laid Israel open to many wounds, and the condition of things which accompanied the decline of the ancient order abounded with instances of triumphant wickedness.
But though this psalm does not go to the bottom of its theme, its teaching of the blessedness of absolute trust in Gods providence is ever fresh, and fits close to all stages of revelation; and its prophecies of triumph for the afflicted who trust and of confusion to the evil-doer need only to be referred to the end to be completely established. As a theodicy, or vindication of the ways of God with men, it was true for its age, but the New Testament goes beneath it. As an exhortation to patient trust and an exhibition of the sure blessings thereof, it remains what it has been to many generations: the gentle encourager of meek faith and the stay of afflicted hearts.
Marked progress of thought is not to be looked for in an acrostic psalm. In the present instance the same ideas are reiterated with emphatic persistence, but little addition or variation. To the didactic poet “to write the same things is not grievous,” for they are his habitual thoughts; and for his scholars “it is safe,” for there is no better aid to memory than the cadenced monotony of the same ideas cast into song and slightly varied. But a possible grouping may be suggested by observing that the thought of the “cutting off” of the wicked and the inheritance of the land by the righteous occurs three times. If it is taken as a kind of refrain, we may cast the psalm into four portions, the first three of which close with that double thought. Psa 37:1-9 will then form a group, characterised by exhortations to trust and assurances of triumph. The second section will then be Psa 37:10-22, which, while reiterating the ground tone of the whole, does so with a difference, inasmuch as its main thought is the destruction of the wicked, in contrast with the triumph of the righteous in the preceding verses. A third division will be Psa 37:23-29, of which the chief feature is the adduction of the psalmists own experience as authenticating his teaching in regard to the Divine care of the righteous, and that extended to his descendants. The last section (Psa 37:30-40) gathers up all, reasserts the main thesis, and confirms it by again adducing the psalmists experience in confirmation of the other half of his assurances, namely the destruction of the wicked. But the poet does not wish to close his words with that gloomy picture, and therefore this last section bends round again to reiterate and strengthen the promises for the righteous, and its last note is one of untroubled trust and joy in experienced deliverance.
The first portion (Psa 37:1-9) consists of a series of exhortations to trust and patience, accompanied by assurance of consequent blessing. These are preceded and followed by a dehortation from yielding to the temptation of fretting against the prosperity of evil-doers, based upon the assurance of its transitoriness. Thus the positive precepts inculcating the ideal temper to be cultivated are framed in a setting of negatives, inseparable from them. The tendency to murmur at flaunting wrong must be repressed if the disposition of trust is to be cultivated; and, on the other hand, full obedience to the negative precepts is only possible when the positive ones have been obeyed with some degree of completeness. The souls husbandry must be busied in grubbing up weeds as well as in sowing; but the true way to take away nourishment from the baser is to throw the strength of the soil into growing the nobler crop. “Fret not thyself” (A.V.) is literally, “Heat not thyself, and be not envious” is “Do not glow,” the root idea being that of becoming fiery red. The one word expresses the kindling emotion, the other its visible sign in the flushed face. Envy, anger, and any other violent and God-for-getting emotion are included. There is nothing in the matter in hand worth getting into a heat about, for the prosperity in question is short lived. This leading conviction moulds the whole psalm, and, as we have pointed out, is half of the refrain. We look for the other half to accompany it, as usual, and we find it in one rendering of Psa 37:3, which has fallen into discredit with modern commentators, and to which we shall come presently; but for the moment we may pause to suggest that the picture of the herbage withering as soon as cut, under the fierce heat of the Eastern sun, may stand in connection with the metaphors in Psa 37:1. Why should we blaze with indignation when so much hotter a glow will dry up the cut grass? Let it wave in brief glory, unmeddled with by us. The scythe and the sunshine will soon make an end. The precept and its reason are not on the highest levels of Christian ethics, but they are unfairly dealt with if taken to mean, Do not envy the wicked mans prosperity, nor wish it were yours, but solace yourself with the assurance of his speedy ruin. What is said is far nobler than that. It is, Do not let the prosperity of unworthy men shake your faith in Gods government, nor fling you into an unwholesome heat, for God will sweep away the anomaly in due time.
In regard to the positive precepts, the question arises whether Psa 37:3 b is command or promise, with which is associated another question as to the translation of the words rendered by the A.V., “Verily thou shalt be fed,” and by the R.V., “Follow after faithfulness.” The relation of the first and second parts of the subsequent verses is in favour of regarding the clause as promise, but the force of that consideration is somewhat weakened by the non-occurrence in Psa 37:3 of the copula which introduces the promises of the other verses. Still its omission does not seem sufficient to forbid taking the clause as corresponding with these. The imperative is similarly used as substantially a future in Psa 37:27 : “and dwell for evermore.” The fact that in every other place in the psalm where “dwelling in the land” is spoken of it is a promise of the sure results of trust, points to the same sense here, and the juxtaposition of the two ideas in the refrain leads us to expect to find the prediction of Psa 37:2 followed by its companion there. On the whole, then, to understand Psa 37:3 b as promise seems best. (So LXX, Ewald, Gratz, etc.) What, then, is the meaning of its last words? If they are a continuation of the promise, they must describe some blessed effect of trust. Two renderings present themselves, one that adopted in the R.V. margin, “Feed securely,” and another “Feed on faithfulness”; (i.e., of God). Hupfeld calls this an “arbitrary and forced” reference of “faithfulness”; but it worthily completes the great promise. The blessed results of trust and active goodness are stable dwelling in the land and nourishment there from a faithful God. The thoughts move within the Old Testament circle, but their substance is eternally true, for they who take God for their portion have a safe abode, and feed their souls on His unalterable adherence to His promises and on the abundance flowing thence.
The subsequent precepts bear a certain relation to each other, and, taken together, make a lovely picture of the inner secret of the devout life: “Delight thyself in Jehovah; roll thy way on Him; trust in Him; be silent to Jehovah.” No man will commit his way to God who does not delight in Him; and unless he has so committed his way, he cannot rest in the Lord. The heart that delights in God, finding its truest joy in Him and being well and at ease when consciously moving in Him as an all-encompassing atmosphere and reaching towards Him with the deepest of its desires, will live far above the region of disappointment. For it desire and fruition go together. Longings fixed on Him fulfil themselves. We can have as much of God as we wish. If He is our delight, we shall wish nothing contrary to nor apart from Him, and wishes which are directed to Him cannot be in vain. To delight in God is to possess our delight, and in Him to find fulfilled wishes and abiding joys. “Commit thy way unto Him,” or “Roll it upon Him” in the exercise of trust; and, as the verse says with grand generality, omitting to specify an object for the verb, “He will do”-all that is wanted, or will finish the work. To roll ones way upon Jehovah implies subordination of will and judgment to Him and quiet confidence in His guidance. If the heart delights in Him, and the will waits silent before Him, and a happy consciousness of dependence fills the soul. the desert will not be trackless, nor the travellers fail to hear the voice which says, “This is the way; walk ye in it.” He who trusts is led, and God works for him, clearing away clouds and obstructions. His good may be evil spoken of, but the vindication by fact will make his righteousness shine spotless; and his cause may be apparently hopeless, but God will deliver him. He shall shine forth as the sun, not only in such earthly vindication as the psalmist prophesied, but more resplendently, as Christian faith has been gifted with long sight to anticipate, “in the kingdom of my Father.” Thus delighting and trusting, a man may “be silent.” Be still before Jehovah, in the silence of a submissive heart, and let not that stillness be torpor, but gather thyself together and stretch out thy hope towards Him. That patience is no mere passive endurance without murmuring, but implies tension of expectance. Only if it is thus occupied will it be possible to purge the heart of that foolish and weakening heat which does no harm to anyone but to the man himself. “Heat not thyself; it only leads to doing evil.” Thus the section returns upon itself and once more ends with the unhesitating assurance, based upon the very essence of Gods covenant with the nation, that righteousness is the condition of inheritance, and sin the cause of certain destruction. The narrower application of the principle, which was all that the then stage of revelation made clear to the psalmist, melts away for us into the Christian certainty that righteousness is the condition of dwelling in the true land of promise, and that sin is always death, in germ or in full fruitage.
The refrain occurs next in Psa 37:22, and the portion thus marked off (Psa 37:10-22) may be dealt with as a smaller whole. After a repetition (Psa 37:10-11) of the main thesis slightly expanded, it sketches in vivid outline the fury of “the wicked “against “the just” and the grim retribution that turns their weapons into agents of their destruction. How dramatically are contrasted the two pictures of the quiet righteous in the former section and of this raging enemy, with his gnashing teeth and arsenal of murder! And with what crushing force the thought of the awful laughter of Jehovah, in foresight of the swift flight towards the blind miscreant of the day of his fall, which has already, as it were, set out on its road, smites his elaborate preparations into dust! Silently the good man sits wrapped in his faith. Without are raging, armed foes. Above, the laughter of God rolls thunderous, and from the throne the obedient “day” is winging its flight, like an eagle with lightning bolts in its claws. What can the end be but another instance of the solemn lex talionis, by which a mans evil slays himself?
Various forms of the contrast between the two classes follow, with considerable repetition and windings. One consideration which has to be taken into account in estimating the distribution of material prosperity is strongly put in Psa 37:16-17. The good of outward blessings depends chiefly on the character of their owner. The strength of the extract from a raw material depends on the solvent applied, and there is none so powerful to draw out the last drop of most poignant and pure sweetness from earthly good as is righteousness of heart. Naboths vineyard will yield better wine, if Naboth is trusting in Jehovah, than all the vines of Jezreel or Samaria. “Many wicked” have not as much of the potentiality of blessedness in all their bursting coffers as a poor widow may distil out of two mites. The reasons for that are manifold, but the prevailing thought of the psalm leads to one only being named here. “For,” says Psa 37:17, “the arms of the wicked shall be broken.” Little is the good of possessions which cannot defend their owners from the stroke of Gods executioners, but themselves pass away. The poor mans little is much, because, among other reasons, he is upheld by God, and therefore needs not to cherish anxiety, which embitters the enjoyments of others. Again the familiar thought of permanent inheritance recurs, but now with a glance at the picture just drawn of the destruction coming to the wicked. There are days and days. God saw that day of ruin speeding on its errand, and He has loving sympathetic knowledge of the days of the righteous (Psa 1:6), and holds their lives in His hand; therefore continuance and abundance are ensured.
The antithetical structure of Psa 37:16-22 is skilfully varied, so as to avoid monotony. It is elastic within limits. We note that in the Teth strophe (Psa 37:16-17) each verse contains a complete contrast, while in the Yod strophe (Psa 37:18-19) one half only of the contrast is presented, which would require a similar expansion of the other over two verses. Instead of this, however, the latter half is compressed into one verse (Psa 37:20), which is elongated by a clause. Then in the Lamed strophe (Psa 37:21-22) the briefer form recurs, as in Psa 37:16-17. Thus the longer antithesis is enclosed between two parallel shorter ones, and: a certain variety breaks up the sameness of the swing from one side to the other, and suggests a pause in the flow of the psalm. The elongated verse (Psa 37:20) reiterates the initial metaphor of withering herbage (Psa 37:2) with an addition for the rendering “fat of lambs” must be given up, as incongruous, and only plausible on account of the emblem of smoke in the next clause. But the two metaphors are independent. Just as in Psa 37:2, so here, the gay “beauty of the pastures,” so soon to wilt and be changed into brown barrenness, mirrors the fate of the wicked. Psa 37:2 shows the grass fallen before the scythe: Psa 37:20 lets us see it in its flush of loveliness, so tragically unlike what it will be-when its “day” has come. The other figure of smoke is a stereotype in all tongues for evanescence. The thick wreaths; thin away and melt. Another peculiar form of the standing antithesis appears in the Lamed strophe (Psa 37:21-22), which sets forth the gradual impoverishment of the wicked and prosperity as well as beneficence of the righteous, and, by the “for” of Psa 37:22, traces these up to the “curse and blessing of God, which become manifest in the final destiny of the two” (Delitzsch). Not dishonesty, but bankruptcy, is the cause of “not paying again”; while, on the other hand. the blessing of God not only enriches, but softens, making the heart which has received grace a wellspring of grace to needy ones, even if they are foes. The form of the contrast suggests its dependence, one the promises in Deu 15:6. Thus the refrain is once more reached, and a new departure taken.
The third section is shorter than the preceding: (Psa 37:23-29), and has, as its centre, the psalmists confirmation from his own experience of the former part of his antithesis, the fourth section similiarly confirming the second. All this third part is sunny with the Divine favour streaming upon the righteous, the only reference to the wicked being in the refrain at the close. The first strophe (Psa 37:23-24) declares Gods care for the former under the familiar image of guidance and support to a traveller. As in Psa 37:5, Psa 37:7, the “way” is an emblem of active life, and is designated as “his” who treads it. The intention of the psalm, the context of the metaphor, and the parallelism with the verses just referred to, settle the reference of the ambiguous pronouns “he” and “his” in Psa 37:23 b. God delights in the good mans way (Psa 1:6), and that is the reason for His establishing his goings. “Quoniam Deo grata est piorum via, gressus ipsum ad laetum finem adducit” (Calvin). That promise is not to be limited to either the material or moral region. The ground tone of the psalm is that the two regions coincide in so far as prosperity in the outer is the infallible index of rightness in the inner. The dial has two sets of hands, one within and one without, but both are, as it were, mounted on the same spindle, and move accurately alike. Steadfast treading in the path of duty and successful undertakings are both included, since they are inseparable in fact. True, even the fixed faith of the psalmist has to admit that the good mans path is not always smooth. If facts had not often contradicted his creed, he would never have sung his song; and hence he takes into account the case of such a mans falling, and seeks to reduce its importance by the considerations of its recoverableness and of Gods keeping hold of the mans hand all the while.
The Nun strophe brings in the psalmists experience to confirm his doctrine. The studiously impersonal tone of the psalm is dropped only here and in the complementary reference to the fall of the wicked (Psa 37:35-36). Observation and reflection yield the same results. Experience seals the declarations of faith. His old eyes have seen much; and the net result is that the righteous may be troubled, but not abandoned, and that there is an entail of blessing to their children. In general, experience preaches the same truths today, for, on the whole, wrong doing lies at the root of most of the hopeless poverty and misery of modern society. Idleness, recklessness, thriftlessness, lust, drunkenness, are the potent factors of it; and if their handiwork and that of the subtler forms of respectable godlessness and evil were to be eliminated, the sum of human wretchedness would shrink to very small dimensions. The mystery of suffering is made more mysterious by ignoring its patent connection with sin, and by denying the name of sin to many of its causes. If mens conduct were judged by Gods standard, there would be less wonder at Gods judgments manifested in mens suffering.
The solidarity of the family was more strongly felt in ancient times than in our days of individualism, but even now the children of the righteous, if they maintain the hereditary character, do largely realise the blessing which the psalmist declares is uniformly theirs. He is not to be tied down to literality in his statement of the general working of things. What he deals with is the prevailing trend, and isolated exceptions do not destroy his assertion. Of course continuance in paternal virtues is presupposed as the condition of succeeding to paternal good. In the strength of the adduced experience, a hortatory tone, dropped since Psa 37:8, is resumed, with reminiscences of that earlier series of counsels. The secret of permanence is condensed into two antithetical precepts, to depart from evil and do good and the keynote is sounded once more in a promise, cast into the guise of a commandment (compare Psa 37:3), of unmoved habitation, which is, however, not to be stretched to refer to a future life, of which the psalm says nothing. Such permanent abiding is sure, inasmuch as Jehovah loves judgment and watches over the objects of His lovingkindness.
The acrostic sequence fails at this point, if the Masoretic text is adhered to. There is evident disorder in the division of verses, for Psa 37:28 has four clauses instead of the normal two. If the superfluous two are detached from it and connected as one strophe with Psa 37:29, a regular two-versed and four-claused strophe results. Its first word (Lolam =” forever”) has the Ayin, due in the alphabetical sequence, in its second letter, the first being a prefixed preposition, which may be passed over, as in Psa 37:39 the copula Vav is prefixed to the initial letter. Delitzsch takes this to be the required letter; but if so, another irregularity remains, inasmuch as the first couplet of the strophe should be occupied with the fate of the wicked as antithetical to that of the righteous in Psa 37:29. “They are preserved forever” throws the whole strophe out of order. Probably, therefore, there is textual corruption here, which the LXX helps in correcting. It has an evidently double rendering of the clause, as is not unfrequently the case where there is ambiguity or textual difficulty, and gives side by side with “They shall be preserved forever” the rendering “The lawless shall be hunted out,” which can be returned into Hebrew so as to give the needed initial Ayin either in a somewhat rare word, or in one which occurs in Psa 37:35. If this correction is adopted, the anomalies disappear, and strophe, division, acrostic, and antithetical refrain are all in order.
The last section (Psa 37:30-40), like the preceding, has the psalmists experience for its centre, and traces the entail of conduct to a second generation of evil-doers, as the former did to the seed of the righteous. Both sections begin with the promise of firmness for the “goings or steps” of the righteous, but the later verses expand the thought by a fuller description of the moral conditions of stability. “The law of his God is in his heart.” That is the foundation on which all permanence is built. From that as centre there issue wise and just words on the one hand and stable deeds on the other. That is true in the psalmists view in reference to outward success and continuance, but still more profoundly in regard to steadfast progress in paths of righteousness. He who orders his footsteps by Gods known will is saved from much hesitancy, vacillation, and stumbling, and plants a firm foot even on slippery places.
Once more the picture of the enmity of the wicked recurs, as in Psa 37:12-14, with the difference that there the emphasis was laid on the destruction of the plotters and here it is put on the vindication of the righteous by acts of deliverance (Psa 37:32-33).
In Psa 37:34 another irregularity occurs, in its being the only verse in a strophe and being prolonged to three clauses. This may be intended to give emphasis to the exhortation contained in it, which, like that in Psa 37:27, is the only one in its section. The two key words “inherit” and “cut off” are brought together. Not only are the two fates set in contrast, but the waiters on Jehovah are promised the sight of the destruction of the wicked. Satisfaction at the sight is implied. There is nothing unworthy in solemn thankfulness when Gods judgments break the teeth of some devouring lion. Divine judgments minister occasion for praise even from pure spirits before the throne, and men relieved from the incubus of godless oppression may well draw a long breath of relief, which passes into celebration of His righteous acts. No doubt there is a higher tone, which remembers truth and pity even in that solemn joy; but Christian feeling does not destroy but modify the psalmists thankfulness for the sweeping away of godless antagonism to goodness.
His assurance to those who wait on Jehovah has his own experience as its guarantee (Psa 37:35), just as the complementary assurance in Psa 37:24 had in Psa 37:25. The earlier metaphors of the green herbage and the beauty of the pastures are heightened now. A venerable, wide-spreading giant of the forests, rooted in its native soil, is grander than those humble growths; but for lofty cedars or lowly grass the end is the same. Twice the psalmist stood at the same place; once the great tree laid its large limbs across the field, and lifted a firm bole: again he came, and a clear space revealed how great had been the bulk which shadowed it. Not even a stump was left to tell where the leafy glory had been.
Psa 37:37-38 make the Shin strophe, and simply reiterate the antithesis which has moulded the whole psalm, with the addition of that reference to a second generation which appeared in the third and fourth parts. The word rendered in the A.V. and R.V. “latter end” here means posterity. The “perfect man” is further designated as a “man of peace.”
The psalm might have ended with this gathering together of its contents in one final emphatic statement, but the poet will not leave the stern words of destruction as his last. Therefore he adds a sweet, long, drawn out close, like the calm, extended clouds, that lie motionless in the western sky after a day of storm in which he once more sings of the blessedness of those who wait on Jehovah. Trouble will come, notwithstanding his assurances that righteousness is blessedness; but in it Jehovah will be a fortress home, and out of it He will save them. However the teaching of the psalm may need modification in order to coincide with the highest New Testament doctrine of the relation between righteousness and prosperity, these confidences need none. Forever and absolutely they are true: in trouble a stronghold, out of trouble a Saviour, is God to all who cling to Him. Very beautifully the closing verse lingers on its theme and wreathes its thoughts together, with repetition that tells how sweet they are to the singer: “Jehovah helps them, and rescues them: He rescues them, and saves them.” So the measure of the strophe is complete, but the song flows over in an additional clause, which points the path for all who seek such blessedness. Trust is peace. They who take refuge in Jehovah are safe, and their inheritance shall be forever. That is the psalmists inmost secret of a blessed life.