A Christian leader at the beginning of 2020, felt God impressing on him a sense of urgency, of a need for increased intercessory prayer. At the time, few of us had any idea what was coming. Then March came and it seemed as if a door opened and, “all hell broke loose.” As time went on, COVID-19 spread, accompanied by what appears to be underlying deception and manipulation. We witnessed violence and rioting in our streets, anarchist groups destroying national property, political conflicts, a tottering economy. I have ricocheted from fear and anger to hope, to peace, and back again to fear and anger like a pinball in a pinball machine.
Recently, I’ve felt God guiding me to read and meditate on Psalms 37 which deals with the schemes of the wicked, repeatedly declaring their ignoble fate. Yet it also repeatedly asserts God’s holy sovereignty and triumph, the immutability of His plans and purposes and of the happy future awaiting those who fear Him.
I have taken this psalm, composed of forty verses and shared my thoughts and insights, breaking it up into a blog series appearing over the next couple of months.
If we choose to so focus, we will see the good that is already coming from this time of difficulty and pressure: people awakening around the world to their need for God, increased salvations, the church rising up, our own faith stretched and strengthened. More, Lord, more! Praise to Your Name.
Vs. 1- Don’t worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong.
We see two sides of the same coin here. We can worry about the wicked and their godless schemes and how they will impact on our lives. Or we can see their temporary success and how they enjoy the good things in life and we can begin to think, “Why am I, a godly person, having a hard time of it and they’re getting off easy?”
Job asked the same question. God answered him out of a whirlwind, showing him that Job actually knew little to nothing about everything but that God knows everything about everything for all of time. We forget that as sinners, we do not earn or deserve God’s favor and blessing but that He extends his patient mercy to us so that we might have a chance to repent and come to Him for true life. And then, as this verse foreshadows, He asks us to trust in His goodness and justice. He will even the score in the end.
Vs. 2 – For like grass, they soon fade away. Like spring flowers, they soon wither.
Cut off by their sins from the living water of a relationship with God, evil people and their plans will wither up and die like plants in a hot, dry desert. Any joy or success they have is short-lived for it is impossible for evil to triumph over good. The unrepentant will ultimately face eternal punishment in hell. And often, God metes out justice in this world.
But the righteous, though it may appear that God has forgotten them, are always in His presence, always surrounded by the Father’s love. Jesus suffers with them. For their every cross, there will always come a resurrection. They will one day hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matt. 25:21).
Watch for Part 2 in which I will continue to comment on this psalm.
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