Psalm 37--He Will Not Forsake His Saints

Psalm 37
English Standard Version

He Will Not Forsake His Saints
Of David.
37 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
    be not envious of wrongdoers!
2 For they will soon fade like the grass
    and wither like the green herb.

3 Trust in the LORD, and do good;
    dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the LORD;
    trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
    and your justice as the noonday.

7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
    fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
    over the man who carries out evil devices!

8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
    Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,
    but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.

10 In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;
    though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
11 But the meek shall inherit the land
    and delight themselves in abundant peace.

12 The wicked plots against the righteous
    and gnashes his teeth at him,
13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked,
    for he sees that his day is coming.

14 The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows
    to bring down the poor and needy,
    to slay those whose way is upright;
15 their sword shall enter their own heart,
    and their bows shall be broken.

16 Better is the little that the righteous has
    than the abundance of many wicked.
17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,
    but the LORD upholds the righteous.

18 The LORD knows the days of the blameless,
    and their heritage will remain forever;
19 they are not put to shame in evil times;
    in the days of famine they have abundance.

20 But the wicked will perish;
    the enemies of the LORD are like the glory of the pastures;
    they vanish—like smoke they vanish away.

21 The wicked borrows but does not pay back,
    but the righteous is generous and gives;
22 for those blessed by the LORD shall inherit the land,
    but those cursed by him shall be cut off.

23 The steps of a man are established by the LORD,
    when he delights in his way;
24 though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,
    for the LORD upholds his hand.

25 I have been young, and now am old,
    yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
    or his children begging for bread.
26 He is ever lending generously,
    and his children become a blessing.

27 Turn away from evil and do good;
    so shall you dwell forever.
28 For the LORD loves justice;
    he will not forsake his saints.
They are preserved forever,
    but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
29 The righteous shall inherit the land
    and dwell upon it forever.

30 The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom,
    and his tongue speaks justice.
31 The law of his God is in his heart;
    his steps do not slip.

32 The wicked watches for the righteous
    and seeks to put him to death.
33 The LORD will not abandon him to his power
    or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial.

34 Wait for the LORD and keep his way,
    and he will exalt you to inherit the land;
    you will look on when the wicked are cut off.

35 I have seen a wicked, ruthless man,
    spreading himself like a green laurel tree.
36 But he passed away, and behold, he was no more;
    though I sought him, he could not be found.

37 Mark the blameless and behold the upright,
    for there is a future for the man of peace.
38 But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed;
    the future of the wicked shall be cut off.

39 The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD;
    he is their stronghold in the time of trouble.
40 The LORD helps them and delivers them;
    he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
    because they take refuge in him.

---

This psalm sounds a lot like some of Jesus' teaching from the Sermon on the Mount.  Don't worry or let your heart be troubled because of the evildoers--their time is coming when they will quickly die off like the grass or flowers of the field.  Instead we are to trust in the LORD, fulfill the covenant He has given us ("dwell in the land"), befriend faithfulness and delight in the LORD.  We will see the phrase "delight in the LORD" several times in this psalm.  This time, we are told that if we delight in the LORD, He will give us the desires of our hearts (because when we delight in Him, our desires are His desires).

We are told to commit our way to the LORD and we are to make our righteousness and justice shine brilliantly for all to see so that they will praise, honor and glorify the LORD with us.  We wait patiently for the LORD to accomplish His purposes in His time, specifically His judgment of the wicked.  We do not worry when we see them prospering here and now because we know that judgment is surely coming upon them one day soon.

We are not to become like them--angry, full of wrath, and only ever thinking and doing evil continually.  Such people will be cut off from the LORD's blessings and His covenant people--they were not allowed to live in the Promised Land and their high-handed sins of rebellion were punishable by death.  The would even be "cut off" from the blessings of heaven if they chose not to submit to God and His plan of salvation for them.  Those who wait on the LORD will "inherit the land" (for us, this is the promise of heaven) and while we are told here that the meek will inherit the land, Jesus changes this in the New Testament to say that the meek will inherit the earth (which I think refers to the New Heaven and the New Earth that will be part of our eternal inheritance as children of God).  We just need to wait for God's perfect timing to deal with the righteous--for God has been patient with all of us so that many of us would have time to come to repentance.  All of us deserved condemnation and wrath, but God made a way for us to be saved.  Don't we want as many who are currently in the camp of the wicked to repent and become children of God before the judgment comes?

​The wicked make plans and plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth (probably in angst when their plans are spoiled by God), but the LORD high and lifted up sees the wicked and their plans.  He delivers His saints and He laughs at the plotting of the wicked.  He turns their own plots against them so that they are caught in their own snares and they die by their own swords, and He breaks the bows of them that imagine themselves to be powerful and use that power to torture and persecute the innocent and the righteous.  We pray for the LORD to intervene and do this again in so many places in our world today where it seems like there is no safe harbor for those who follow the LORD and where wicked men seem to prosper.

The LORD knows our days and will make sure that we always have enough, even in hard times.  We are to trust in Him for everything that we need, and we are to trust that our eternal inheritance and blessings are secure, even if we do not seem to experience material blessings in this life.  "Better is the little the righteous has than the abundance of the wicked."  O how I wish that so many today would learn this lesson and not covet the riches and power and prestige of the wicked people among them--the ones who they even call their "idols."  We need to learn to be content with whatever the LORD gives us because He is a good, good Father who would not withhold any good thing from His children, yet for our sakes, He did let His own Son experience some pretty terrible things that ultimately were for the good of the whole world.  Can He not also be doing the same in our lives where He knows that things we go through will ultimately work out for the good of others--particularly when it comes to others believing to gospel?

The LORD knows the way of the blameless (one of my favorite things to identify as God's will for me is to be blameless and holy and to be a person of integrity).  Such a man has nothing to fear from the LORD, but the wicked are like the flowers of the field, just like we talked about before.  Here today and gone tomorrow, like smoke or a vapor that disappears quickly in the wind.

The wicked man "borrows" with an intent to steal and never pay back, but the righteous man is both giving and generous, giving what the LORD has blessed him with with no intent of ever being paid back.  How we look at and handle money says a lot about what is in our hearts.  Are we trying to acquire and hoard money because we find security in it or we worship it, or is money just another resource that God has made us stewards of to allow His blessings to pass through our hands as they are passed along to other people?  This is in the same thought for David as those who are blessed by the LORD that will inherit "the land" (which we've already pointed out is our inheritance of eternal life in the New Heaven and the New Earth in the New Covenant) and those who would be "cut off" from these covenant blessings.  Again, how we handle money says much about our hearts.

"The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in His way. Though he stumble, he will not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand."  This is another great promise and a comforting verse to all of us when we mess up that God does not cast us aside and abandon us.  He helps us back up and takes us by the hand and walks with us ever step of the way--just like a parent that holds firmly onto the hand of their little child.  Even if the child trips, they will still be securely held by their father (or mother).  David adds in the next stanza that in all of his years here on earth he has never seen the righteous man forsaken or the children of said righteous man begging for bread.  As far as David knows, God has always taken care of all those who belong to him, and David has no reason to doubt that God will continue to do so.  Such a righteous man has money to lend, and his children are a blessing to him (and probably to everyone else too).

We are therefore to turn from evil and do good so that we can have the blessings that God promises to those who belong to Him and avoid the judgment and curses that will fall upon the wicked.  The LORD will preserve and keep His saints (those who belong to Him), but the wicked will be destroyed and forgotten.

The righteous man loves the Word of the LORD and memorizes His Word so that he will not stumble or sin.  Such a man, full of the Word of God, speak wisdom and justice that all who know him should listen to.  The LORD watches over the righteous so that even when the evil make plans to kill him in public, that man is protected or when they try to take such a man to court, that righteous man is not condemned.

David again trusts that God will be the Righteous Judge in the end that will make sure His saints inherit the blessings He has promised, and the wicked will not prosper forever and will receive the just consequences of their sin and rebellion.  The man of peace has hope and a future, but the wicked will be cut off both from their blessings as the nation of Israel and of the family of God that will reside with Him in heaven.

The LORD will deliver all those He has made righteous and will be their safety, refuge and strength in times of trouble.  He is their salvation.