2/2/2012 9:03:05 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Gleanings from Psalm 37
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 37
Message of the verses: Today we begin to look at Psalm 37 and it is a lengthy psalm with forty verses in it. Dr. Wiersbe writes that this psalm was written when David was older and more mature and was probably written as part of his instructions for Solomon. Solomon was young when he became king, but God had called him to be king over Israel when David had finished his reign. There was to be a lot of things that Solomon was to do when he became king and one of them was to build the temple of the Lord and so David took the time to show him the plans that the Lord had given him for the temple and also gave Solomon instructions on how to rule the people well (See 1Kings 2:3 and also Proverbs 23:17-18).
There is an age old question that has been asked of many believers, and that question is “Why do those who are evil prosper and why do believers suffer?” David will address this in Psalm 37. In the KJV of the Scriptures we see the word wicked found fourteen times in Psalm 37. Dr. Wiersbe writes that “The theological foundation for the psalm is the covenant God made with Israel, recorded in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 27-30. God owned the land, and if the nation obeyed Him, they could live in the land and enjoy its blessings. But if Israel disobeyed the Lord, He would first chasten them in the land (invasion, drought, famine), but if they continued to rebel, He would then take them out of the land (captivity). The prophet Habakkuk wrote the following at the beginning of his prophecy to address the question of why did not God judge Israel for her sins and why are the wicked prospering: “ 1 ¶ The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2 How long, O LORD, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, "Violence!" Yet You do not save. 3 Why do You make me see iniquity, And cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; Strife exists and contention arises. 4 Therefore the law is ignored And justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore justice comes out perverted.” God will eventually answer his question by saying that He was going to use the Babylonians to capture then nation of Judah, but then Habakkuk will object to that because they are worse than Judah. God had a plan and at times we don’t understand it as Habakkuk did not understand it, but that is where we have to trust the Lord as David writes in Psalm 37:3a “Trust in the LORD and do good.”
Dr. Wiersbe writes at the end of his introduction to Psalm 37 these words: “In the psalm, he gave four encouraging assurances to believers who question how God is running His world (See also Psalms 49 and 73).”
The Lord Can Be Trusted (vv. 1-11) In this section we will see that David will give one negative instruction which is found in verses 1, 7, and 8 and that is “do not fret.” He will also give four positive instructions in the psalm: “trust in the Lord” (v.-3), delight in the Lord (v. 4), commit yourself to the Lord (vv. 5-6), and the last one is to rest in the Lord and this is found in verse seven.
Fear not (vv. 1-2): “1 ¶ «A Psalm of David.» Do not fret because of evildoers, Be not envious toward wrongdoers. 2 For they will wither quickly like the grass And fade like the green herb.” I want to talk about the word “fret” that is seen four times in verses 1-11. I think that I get the idea of what this word means and can explain it from a supplement that I take to help keep my cholesterol down. I take Niacin which is a form of vitamin B and one of the things that Niacin does if you don’t take something else to overcome it is to make you hot. I have to take two baby aspirins to stop this reaction even though what I am taking is a non-flushing type of niacin. My whole body will begin to get hot and turn red if I don’t take the baby aspirins and that is what this word “fret” means, to get hot so David is saying “don’t get hot under the collar because of evildoers.” I suppose that is good advice when one looks at the political situation in 21st century America. What David is really saying is “keep your cool.” There are times when we look at the world and see the evil that is going on and according to Ephesians 4:26 we ought to feel a holy anger, for God is angry with that too, but we are not to ever envy the wicked, wish we had their money or power, for that will led to getting hot. David says in verse two that soon they will be gone, and we know that their fate is going to be hotter than taking niacin without baby aspirins if they don’t turn from their sins and trust the Lord for salvation.
Trust in the Lord (v. 3): “Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.” (NASB) “Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.” (NIV) “Trust in the LORD and do good; live in the land and be safe.” (GNBE)
The reason for so many translations is to show that David is talking about trusting the Lord and do this by staying in the land. When I studied the book of Ruth the first thing that was in the book was that there was a famine in the land and Naomi and her family left the land. (Now I know that was in the providence of God but the point is that they were not trusting the Lord when they left) In the book of Genesis we see that after a famine came into the Promised Land that Abraham left for Egypt and the result was bringing back Hagar, which resulted in a lot more trouble for Abraham.
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Paul wrote these words in Romans 15:13 showing that a faithful heart is a joyful heart but a fretful heart lacks joy and peace.
Delight in the Lord (v. 4): “Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.” Dr Wiersbe’s commentary is so wonderful from this section that I am going to quote all of it here. “The word translated ‘delight’ comes from a root that means ‘to be brought up in luxury, to be pampered.’ It speaks of the abundance of the blessings we have in the Lord Himself, totally apart from what He gives us. To enjoy the blessings and ignore the Blesser is to practice idolatry. In Jesus Christ, we have all God’s treasures, and we need no other. If we truly delight in the Lord, then the chief desire or our heart will be to know Him better so we can delight in Him even more, and that Lord will satisfy that desire! This is not a promise for people who want ‘things’ but for those who want more of God in their lives.” Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on the book of Ephesians is entitled “Be Rich,” and the book of Ephesians is filled with the richness of God.
Commit your way to the Lord (vv. 5-6): “5 Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday.” In 1Peter 5:7 we can see what the verb commit means: “You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon him, for you are his personal concern. (Philips) We are to roll off our burdens. Now God does not take our burdens in order to for us to become irresponsible, but in order for us to serve Him better. Let’s look at verse six in the NIV to help us understand what David means when he writes “bring it to pass.” “He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.” David is talking about the vindication of the people of God who have been slandered by the enemies of God.
Rest in the Lord (vv. 7-11): “7 ¶ Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. 8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing. 9 For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land. 10 Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. 11 But the humble will inherit the land And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.”
The word “rest” means to be silent, to be still. “My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him Psalm 62:5).” We see here one of the most difficult things for many people to do and that is to keep silent, to be still before the Lord in order to seek God, for silence is not something that the culture we live in likes to do, but for the believer it is necessary. I find that this is one of the greatest problems that I have to overcome. My mind seems to be always working and to just sit and be still before the Lord patiently is one of the things that Paul must have known for he could not have written that he had learned to be content unless he knew how to be still and wait patiently for the Lord.
When we see evil in our world it is easy to fret, but if we have spent time in God’s Word, and spent time in stillness before the Lord then we will not fret over evildoers for we know that there will come a day when the evildoers will be judged by the Lord. As believers we are to cease from anger. Numbers 12:3 speaks of Moses being a meek man “(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)” (KJV) Jesus was meek too and we cannot get meekness and weakness mixed up for meekness is power under control, and we certainly know that Moses and Jesus were powerful, but they kept their power under control.
Matthew 5:5 reads as follows, “’Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.’” This is a quotation form verse eleven of Psalm 37 with the exception that Jesus used the word earth and not land and Dr. Wiersbe points out “Inherit the land’ refers to security of future generations in the Promised Land, according to God’s covenant, for God had a great work for His righteous remnant to do in that land, culminating in the coming of Messiah. Eventually, the wicked will be cut off as seen in verses 9, 22, 28, 34, and 38, which in Israel usually meant exclusion from the covenant community, but it could mean execution.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Psalm 37 has spoken to my heart in two ways as I studied these first eleven verses this morning. To learn to be silent before the Lord and to listen to His Spirit like Elijah did when the Spirit of the Lord came to him in a still small voice and not in the noise of the earthquake or the storm. Learning this would help me on my quest to learn contentment. Trusting the Lord to take care of the wicked is another thing that I am learning and this psalm has been a great help to encourage me to do this. I read in Daniel 2:21 “"It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men And knowledge to men of understanding.” Trusting God’s plan for my life and trusting God’s plan for the world truly takes learning contentment.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Learn to get alone and be silent before the Lord.
2. Continue to trust the Lord’s plan for my life and for the world.
3. Continue to learn contentment.
2/2/2012 11:01:39 AM
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