Psalm 37 | "A Refuge in Uncertain Times"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

One of the principles of teaching Scripture and preaching before God's people is that you must always teach and preach to yourself first.

And sometimes the Lord causes us to be taught right up to the moment of speaking.

And the Lord has done that for me yet again this morning.

A few weeks ago, I stepped behind this pulpit and told you that I was distracted.

Does anybody remember what I was distracted by?

My socks.

And what about my socks?

They were falling down, right?

Falling down around my ankles.

That's not happening this morning.

But I am distracted.

Because there's a hole in my socks right at my big toe.

Yeah.

We're all distracted.

Thank you.

Thank you, Doug, for reminding us of the things that are distracting us in our world.

And you may have something that is not in our world or something that's in our country.

You may have something that's intensely personal that's distracting you.

But we're all distracted by something.

And unfortunately, what ends up happening is that those distractions end up eventually distracting us from the way that God wants us to think.

The way that God wants us to view life.

The way that God wants us to act, to live in life.

I've been sensing this a lot in our world, even in God's church.

So I thought it was appropriate this morning to interrupt Matthew and take us to Psalm 37, to be reminded of how God wants us to think, how he wants us to process the things in our world that distract us, that concern us, and then how to live.

So if you would take your Bible, I'd like to read Psalm 37.

I was reminded this week that this is a long psalm, and how am I going to cover everything in it?

And I said, I don't know.

But let's read it, if you would follow along.

Again, it's Psalm 37.

If you have a Bible or a device to follow along, you'll notice in small print that this was written by David, the king of Israel, the man after God's own heart.

Fret not yourselves because of evildoers.

Be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.

Trust in Yahweh and do good.

Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

Delight yourself in Yahweh, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to Yahweh.

Trust in Him and He will act.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday.

Be still before Yahweh and wait patiently for him.

Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the one who carries out evil devices.

Refrain from anger and forsake wrath.

Fret not yourself.

It only tends to evil.

For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

In just a little while the wicked will be no more.

Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.

But the meek shall inherit the land, and delight themselves in abundant peace.

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

The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and the needy, to even slay those whose way is upright.

Their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.

Better better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.

For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but Yahweh upholds the righteous.

Yahweh knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will remain forever.

They are not put to shame in evil times, and the days of famine they have abundance, but the wicked will perish.

The enemies of Yahweh are like the glory of the pastures, they vanish, like smoke.

They will vanish away.

The wicked borrows but does not pay back.

But the righteous is generous and gives, for those blessed by Yahweh shall inherit the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off.

The steps of a man are established by Yahweh when he delights in his way.

Though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for Yahweh shall uphold his hand.

I have been young, David writes, and now I am old.

Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.

He's ever lending generously, and his children become a blessing.

Turn away from evil and do good, so you shall dwell forever.

For Yahweh loves justice, he will not forsake his saints.

The preserved forever.

But the children of the wicked shall be cut off.

The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.

The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice.

The law of his God is in his heart, his steps do not slip.

The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks to put him to death.

The Lord will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he's brought to trial.

Wait for Yahweh and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land.

You will look on when the wicked are cut off.

I've seen a wicked, ruthless man spreading himself like a green laurel tree, but he passed away, and behold, he was no more.

I sought him, and he could not be found.

Mark the blameless, and uphold the upright, and behold the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace.

But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed, the future of the wicked shall be cut off.

The salvation of the righteous is from the culture.

No.

Salvation of the Lord is from the government.

No.

Salvation of the righteous is from Yahweh Himself.

He, He is their stronghold in the time of trouble.

Yahweh helps them and delivers them.

He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in Him.

Amen.

Some time ago in our study of Matthew's gospel, we spent time thinking about Matthew 5, 5.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Meekness is not weakness.

It is a strength that God's people exhibit in life because they trust in God.

In the Sermon on the Mount, meekness is a characteristic of those who belong to Christ the King.

They become the children of God through faith in him, and therefore they have this inherent strength in them because of him in whom they trust.

And Jesus took that truth from this Psalm from verse 11.

But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.

Commentator Derek Kidner wrote, There is no finer exposition of the third beatitude than this psalm.

It's almost as though God hadn't things flipped around.

The New Testament somehow came before the Old Testament.

But Jesus is looking back at this psalm and saying, Listen, I'm not telling you anything new.

I'm here to fulfill the law.

Do you know what the law said?

It said the meek are going to inherit.

Now this psalm, this psalm has a unique characteristic.

It's addressed to you.

It's addressed to you.

Now the first readers and singers of this song were ancient Israelites.

But they did not sing it to God.

They sang it to one another.

It was written by one person, David, struggling to trust God.

And it was written to other people struggling to trust God.

And in that way, God inspired David to write something thousands of years ago for you today, in whatever circumstances you find yourself distracted.

In fact, he wrote it to you, so that you might be meek, so that you might trust him and have an enduring strength to face the trials of these days.

Not in your own strength, but in his.

But that's not all.

As David wrote it for his people, God intended those people to pass it on, to encourage one another, to strengthen one another with the truth of God's word, using scripture to strengthen others in uncertain times.

And here's how he did it.

And here's how we must do it.

By watching.

By watching.

That's all.

Watching.

How do you how do you go through these days of bitter and angry politics without getting sucked into it and then being pitted against others that you're called to love?

How do you do that?

By watching.

How do you go through these these days with a hopeful trust in God instead of fear of COVID?

By watching.

How do you go through these days of looking at your television or or your phone or even your community and watching your world change before your very eyes?

You do it by watching.

How do you go through these days of your your freedoms, religious and and otherwise, being slowly eroded?

What's the answer?

By watching.

How do you go through these days of financial uncertainty, of shaky employment, of rioting and fear and unrest?

By watching.

But it's not enough to simply watch, is it?

If if all we did was watch the news channels, do you think we would be molded into meek people?

No.

If we simply watch what we find on the on the internet, do you think we would be drawn into trust of God?

No.

I doubt it.

If we watch social media, do you think that we would become faithful trusters of God rather than guided by fear and uncertainty?

I guarantee you, no.

Do you think that if we simply watch the unrest and rebellion and deceit in our world, that we will be sufficiently motivated to become holy people?

No.

No, we will be drawn, instead, by watching all of those things, we will be drawn into the divisiveness and we will begin then to spread it ourselves.

You see, simply watching is not enough.

I would suggest to you that we have done far too much watching without discernment, without seeing and processing everything that we're seeing through the lens that God has given us.

And as a result, we are split apart, we are divided, we are unloving, we are pitted against one another, and God's church is no longer being the light and the darkness that it was intended to be.

John Calvin, hundreds of years ago, wrote that we deceive ourselves in presuming to take the government of our lone lives upon ourselves and providing for all our affairs as if we were able to bear so great a burden.

And he said, Our only remedy, our only remedy is to fix our eyes upon the providence of God and to draw from it comfort, consolation, and all of our sorrows.

I want you to be impressed this morning with the providence of your God.

That he is working in your life, he is working in your world.

And you can trust him, but you have to watch him.

This idea of watching is woven throughout this psalm.

And in the very first verse, it it sets up for us kind of the pattern that we fall into by nature.

We end up watching what's going on around us, and we get stirred up by it.

We start to fret because of what's going on.

We're watching what's going on in people who do evil and do wrong, and they seem to be thriving and succeeding, and we might watch and become envious.

If you look down at verse 10, we're told to watch the work of God.

He says, listen, if you just watch what God's doing, you're gonna look carefully.

You're gonna watch and not find the wicked at some point in time.

Verse 25, we're told to watch for the faithful provision of God.

Verse 34.

He says, there's gonna be a time when you will look, when you will watch on and when the wicked are cut off.

Verse 37.

There's gonna be a time when you're watching the blameless and beholding the upright.

Supposed to watch God's faithful people.

So this idea of looking, of seeing, of observing, of watching is woven all throughout this psalm.

And I want to point out some very important characteristics of how God's people are to watch from this psalm that are important for us living today.

So, number one, we must watch trustingly, delightfully, freely and quietly.

This psalm begins with the negative.

We like to have upbeat songs, right?

We like to have happy songs.

This is not a happy song.

This is a song that is recalling the sobering reality of life.

And it says, fret not yourselves.

Apparently, fretting is a problem for God's people.

Three times in eight verses, we are commanded to fret not.

Fret not, fret not, fret not.

Verse 7, verse 8, along with verse 1.

Now, some of us, and maybe you fret.

You fret about the unrest that you see in our world.

Maybe you fret about the rioting.

Maybe you have family members or friends that are that are close to dangerous areas presently, and you fret about them.

You fret about criminals being set free because of COVID.

You you fret about stories of some international crime connection amongst the super wealthy.

You fret about government officials getting away with murder, and you fret about evil, overcoming good.

Maybe there are other things that you fret about.

Some of us fret not so much about those things that are happening away from us, but we fret about how they might impact me.

See, we we see what's going on around us and we look at our world and we fret, don't we?

Maybe we get angry.

And then we fret some more.

Don't go there, the psalmist says.

Don't go there because it only tends to lead you, the fretted one, into evil just like the ones that you're watching.

Immediately, then we are given some perspective in verse 2.

All those about whom you fret are going to fade away.

Isn't that true?

We get stirred up about things that don't really matter.

We get stirred up about things that don't last.

May I give you an extreme example?

I I know that you are extremely gracious people, and you're not going to read into this more than I mean.

Our world, our our governments, our political leaders, and many of us are stirred up, are fretted, if you will, about the coronavirus.

Now, those with with poor health or physical conditions that lead to a compromised immune system naturally have a reason to be concerned.

But COVID will fade away.

In weeks, months, perhaps years, we don't know, the coronavirus will wither like a green herb.

In a few decades, it will be forgotten almost altogether.

The rioters and the murderers and the thieves will not remember it except on those yearly at New Year's Eve news reminders.

Right?

Don't fret over that which will not last.

Notice the string of commands right at the beginning of this Psalm.

There's a string of them.

Trust and do good.

Delight in Yahweh.

Commit your way to Yahweh.

Be still for Yahweh.

There's another one towards the end of the chapter in chapter 34.

Wait for Yahweh.

Let's think about those briefly.

Trust.

Trust in Yahweh and do good, verse 3.

Most of us are familiar with Proverbs chapter 3, right?

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

Chapter 3, verses 5 and 6.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Lean not on your own understanding.

And all your ways know Him.

And He will direct your paths.

What's important there is two elements.

Don't lean on your own understanding.

Don't look at life through your set of filters.

Don't look at life through somebody else's set of filters.

Don't go to your news app and pull it up and read what somebody else has to say and believe every bit of it because you're looking then at life through their lens.

Whose lens are we supposed to look through?

God's lens, right?

In all your ways, know him.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

How do you trust in him?

By not looking through your own lens, through your own perspective, but instead through his, right?

It's through knowing him that we come to trust him more.

And when we trust him more, we can then delight in him.

Delight yourselves in the Lord.

Verse 4.

Now he we We often in Christian circles we like to focus on the second half of the verse.

He will give you the desires of your heart.

Because we want the desires of our heart, right?

That's the wrong thing to do.

We need to delight ourselves in him.

Let me ask you a question.

Is Yahweh your delight?

Does he bring you more joy than anything else?

Does he bring you more satisfaction and more comfort and more peace than anything else?

Are you delighted by coming to worship him and gathering with his people?

You see, when he is our delight, he becomes all consuming in our lives.

And when he's all consuming, our motives and our desires become conformed to his motives and his desires.

And pretty soon we realize God's given me everything I want.

Not because I'm looking at life through my lens, but because I'm looking through his lens, I've come to know him, because I've come to know him, I've come to trust him, because I trust him, I now delight in him in every sphere of my life.

Commit your way to Yahweh, verse 5.

That word commit is literally means to roll, to roll something.

So roll your life, roll your way onto Him.

Imagine 200 years ago when things were often packaged in barrels, right?

Maybe you've seen images or drawings of the old Western way of life, and you see barrels being rolled onto rail cars.

You're rolling something heavy, a burden onto something else.

But when you roll it onto something else, it takes the burden, the weight off of you, right?

Roll your way, roll it, roll it off of you.

Onto the one who can bear it.

Roll away your life, roll away your anxieties, your frets, your concerns.

Not so you can deal with them tomorrow.

Not so that you can pick them up next week.

But so that the one who's really truly capable of bearing them can deal with them.

Ultimately, God Himself is the one who acts to guide your steps.

Commit to your way, roll your way unto him, trust in him, and he will act.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday.

That explains for us what God's going to do.

When we say to God, I'm not going to fret anymore about these things.

I'm taking these distractions in my life.

I'm going to roll them onto you so that you can care for them.

God says, Wonderful, I'm going to make you more like me now.

I'm going to make you righteous like my son.

He's going to work then to do everything and anything to bring about your complete and perfect righteousness in Christ.

Will you permit me another extreme example?

Nobody brought in rotten tomatoes, right?

If somehow, if somehow contracting the coronavirus is in your eternal good because it makes you more like Christ, you're going to get the coronavirus.

And it will be good for you.

Because it will make you righteous.

You can do all you want to prevent it.

You can wear masks, you can do social distancing, you can stay home.

I'm not saying any of those things are wrong or inappropriate.

But you you can work in your own power and your own efforts to do everything you can to avoid it.

But if God knows that it will bring about, it will be a part of bringing about your perfect and complete righteousness in Christ, you're gonna get it.

And it will be your good.

Most of you know that one of, if not the most impactful moment in my life, was a February day in 1978 when there was a head-on collision with a semi and a blizzard, and my mother and two sisters were killed instantly, and my dad and I were the only ones that survived.

I could be full of fret and overcome with fret every single time I take my family out in a car.

Or I can trust that somehow God meant that for good and my eternal righteousness and roll that onto him and say, I can trust you with that.

See, here's what you can trust perfectly, wholly, completely.

The child of God, the one whom he loves, God determines that everything that comes into your life is for your eternal good and his glory.

Therefore, you can trust in him.

You can delight yourself in whatever he brings to you.

You can roll everything in your life onto him and wait for him.

The psalmist is telling us that God can be trusted with our way in life.

No, he doesn't say be reckless and without caution.

He doesn't say he doesn't say throw caution to the wind.

Don't be stupid.

But in not wanting to be reckless, we can go too far in the other direction, can't we?

And we can fearfully trust ourselves more than God's control over our lives.

But when we properly commit our way to Him, it's freeing.

It's freeing because we've taken the fretting of our lives and we've rolled it onto the one who can bear the burden.

There's another command in verse 7.

I want to just stand up here and preach on this one verse for an hour.

I won't do that to you.

Be still.

Be still before Yahweh and wait patiently for him.

You know, most of us, when we when we read or hear this, we we imagine something like sitting in a quiet room with no distractions, with no noises.

For once, the kids are being quiet and not fighting.

For once, I have some solitude and some peace and quiet.

Or maybe maybe we envision being at a lake and it's that that evening with not even the hintest, the smallest hint of a breeze, and the the surface of the lake is just calm and still like glass, right?

Well, let me let me throw a rock in that lake.

Because that's not what it means.

Literally, this this Hebrew word means be silent.

Be silent.

Stop talking.

Or in the vernacular, shut up.

Pardon me, parents, that don't want your kids to say that.

What do we tend to do when we fret?

We talk about it.

We talk about our worries, we talk about our concerns, we let someone know how we feel.

But here we're told to keep our mouths shut.

But it's more than just our mouths, because when this word, when this was translated into the Greek language, because remember the Israelites were carted off to Babylon for 70 years, well, when they came back, they struggled to read Hebrew.

So they started to translate the Hebrew into the Greek so they could read more of it.

When they did that, they chose a word for be quiet.

That means to be subject to.

Watch.

Be silent.

Wait patiently.

Fret not.

You see, when when we cannot wait patiently for our God, when we struggle with that, when we struggle with waiting patiently for God to act, it shows us that in some way we're not fully trusting, we're not fully delighting, we're not fully rolling our burdens onto Him.

There's an element in which we're saying to God, no, you're not trustworthy enough.

I have to take care of this.

But this is a reminder that the world is not ours, it's God's.

And He's the one who determines what does and does not happen in this world.

And one day He will make all things right.

Or as C.S.

Lewis wrote, everything wrong will come undone.

Sometimes we just need to shut up our complaining hearts and mouths and trust that God will act when the time is right.

Oh, but Pastor, what about what about my feelings?

I feel these feelings are so strong and they have to have come from God.

Not if they're sinful feelings.

Don't validate sinful feelings.

If things are causing you to not trust, if things, if your feelings are not leading you to delight in your God, if they're keeping you from rolling your burden onto Him, don't validate those feelings.

Squash them.

Or as John Knox would say, sorry, John Owen, mortify them, kill them.

Because they only tend to evil.

God will act when the time is right.

It's not our place to be full of anger or full of wrath.

When we get all worked up, it rarely turns out well.

In fact, verse 8 says it only tends to evil.

How ironic.

How ironic that when we get all bent out of shape about our world or about our lot in life or about our mistreatment, we can actually be guilty of promoting the exact same kinds of evil.

Yikes.

John Calvin again wrote, We see, we see how prone the minds of people are to distrust.

How much they are vexed, they're strained by an excess of cares and anxieties from which they are unable to extricate themselves, while on the other hand, they fall into another error in being more anxious regarding the future than there is any reason for.

Nothing, nothing, therefore, is more profitable for us than to have our eyes continually set upon the providence of God, which alone can provide best for us everything we need.

Watch.

But watch trustingly.

Watch in a way that commits your life to him and delights in him.

And then you'll see what it's like to live freely and quietly resting in him.

Secondly, watch with perspective.

Watch with perspective.

Verses 9 through 26 are the longest section of this psalm, and we're just gonna zoom through this.

Not with zoom, but never thought that would become weird.

Watch with perspective.

What's the key perspective?

Well, it's it's summarized in verse 1 already.

All kind of evil, all kind of sin, all kinds of things about which we fret in this world are gonna fade away.

That's the perspective.

It cannot last forever.

And now the psalmist gives us a lengthy reason as to why we should trust God rather than get all worked up.

And the reason we shouldn't get all worked up is because it's the meek who will actually inherit the earth.

Habakkuk was a man who could empathize with us.

Listen to what he says in the first few sentences of his prophetic book.

O Yahweh, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear?

Or cry to you, violence, and you will not save.

Why do you make me see iniquity?

And why do you idly look at wrong?

Destruction and violence are before me, strife and contention arise, so the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth, for the wicked surrounds the righteous, and justice goes forth perverted.

Sound familiar?

But what are we told in this psalm?

What does the psalmist remind us of?

How does he tell us to look at those feelings about our world and those perspectives about our world?

He says, look through the right lens.

Verse 9.

The evildoers are gonna be cut off.

Boom, gone.

Verse 10.

In just a little while the wicked will be no more.

You're gonna look carefully, you're gonna take a microscope and look for him, but you can't find him.

Verse 13.

I love this image.

You know what God's doing in our world right now?

He's laughing.

You think that you're so so powerful, you think you're something.

Being lawless, doing whatever you want to do.

Yahweh laughs.

Verse 17.

The arms of the wicked shall be broken.

Verse 20.

The wicked are going to perish, they're gonna vanish like smoke.

Poof, it's gone.

A day is coming, David promised, when you can do an intense investigation and not find anything about which you're fretting right now.

It's gonna be gone.

Cut off, removed.

Why?

Because it's God's purpose that those who truly trust Him will receive all that He has promised them.

They're described as the meek, as people who in this Psalm, in this context, are lowly, are poor, are disenfranchised, are crushed, are beaten down, are driven out, are humbled, and yet they show a strength in the midst of evil times because they trust their God.

So those who trust in God to make all things right have something beyond the present world in which to hope.

But the wicked, the sinful, the evil people, all they have is right now.

What you see in our world right now is people making the best of life that they know because this is all they've got.

All they have is this world.

So the only option they have is to do whatever it takes to get ahead.

Verse 12, the wicked plots against the righteous.

Verse 14, they they war and they they fight and they take advantage of the poor and the needy.

Verse 21, they borrow and they do not repay.

And all the while the wicked and the evil of the world believe they're succeeding.

They think they're thriving, they think they're winning, they think they're making progress, they're accomplishing change.

Who cares if people die?

Who cares if wrong is made right?

Who cares if injustice thrives?

Who cares if we kill three million babies?

If they're thriving, then things are going right.

And sometimes we look on and think, that's that's how it feels sometimes.

My two favorite words in the Bible come next.

But God.

Verse 13.

The Lord laughs.

Why?

Because the day, his day, is coming.

Right now it's the day of mankind, but his day's coming.

Verse 15, he's gonna cause their practices, their evil to come back on them.

Verse 17, he's going to break them.

Verse 20, they're going to perish, vanishing like the smoke.

Don't think that this world is perfect, even with God on your side.

We've not been promised a bed of roses.

Instead, you've been promised persecution.

Yes, there are general proverbs like verse 4, but that doesn't mean that life is easy.

Instead, look at the life of the righteous person, the humble person, the one who is meek and trusting in God, whom God desires as his own.

Verse 12, they are the subject of all kinds of evil plots.

Verse 14, they're the recipient of acts of terrorism, war, and murder.

Verse 16, they're often poor.

Verse 19, sometimes they will have to endure famine.

Verse 21, they give and they give, even though they don't have very much to give.

That's why Habakkuk cried out, how long?

Oh, just Lord Jesus, come back.

Right?

It's why we groan inwardly, as the book of Romans describes.

It's why we endure what we do in this life.

And yet, in the midst of it all, verse 11, who's the one who has peace?

The righteous one.

Who's the righteous one?

The one who's meek.

It's the righteous person who's still standing at the end of the day, not because he has his own strength to do it, but because, as verse 17 says, God is the one who will uphold him.

That's why the psalmist says in verse 23, the steps of a man are established by Yahweh.

You're going to fall in this life.

Probably more than once.

I don't think this is talking about moral failing here.

I think in the context of this psalm, it's looking at life in this sin-cursed world, and it said there's all kinds of things that are going to trip you up.

It might be losing your job.

It might be getting COVID.

It might be losing a loved one.

It might be struggling with cancer or some other sickness or disease.

But he shall not be cast headlong.

He will not fall down as though he can never get up.

You may trip and fall, but it's not eternal because God is the one who determines your steps.

And he never forsakes his own.

Watch with perspective.

Don't get distracted by the lens of today.

Don't get distracted by the lens of seeing everything through somebody else's perspective.

Instead, go back and look through the only right lens.

See it as God sees it.

Thirdly, watch, but watch obediently.

Verse 27, all the way through verse 38.

My time's up here this morning.

Let me just highlight some things.

Verse 27.

Turn away from evil and do good.

Why would you turn away from evil and do good?

Well, look at verse 31.

It's because the law of God is in your heart.

Why is the law of God in your heart?

It's because you delight in him.

The law of God is in your heart because you trust him.

You've come to know him through his word, and you have been moved to trust him and delight in him.

And so you take in everything and you bring it within you.

What does the psalmist say?

I take your word and I hide it in my heart so that I obey your law, so I don't sin against you, right?

Verse 34, wait for Yahweh and keep his way.

See, here's something that happens.

God's people are told, look through his lens.

Look through his lens.

And when you see his lens, you're going to see the right way to go.

And when you see the right way to go and you're delighting in him and his way, you're going to want to go in it.

And when you're going in his way, and you're looking to him and you're delighting in him and you're rolling your burdens onto him, an amazing thing begins to happen.

You can be patient.

You can wait.

Yeah, you might get frustrated occasionally, but you can wait.

This section here is an exposition of sorts of the section of Deuteronomy that highlights God's blessings and cursings for Israel.

God set before them blessing, and he set before them curses.

He said, If you do this, then you're going to be blessed.

If you do this, you're going to be cursed.

And the psalmist is saying, listen, when I when I when I watch the right things.

And when I watch in the right way, I am drawn to obey and be blessed.

Let's look at the end.

Verses 39 and 40.

The salvation of the righteous is from Yahweh.

He is their stronghold in the time of trouble.

He helps them.

Yahweh helps them and delivers them.

That verse 40 is emphatic.

Yahweh helps them.

It's not the government handout.

It's not the community incentives.

It's not pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and working extra hard.

It's not putting in 80 hours a week.

If that's your perspective, then you're going to fall headlong.

No, Yahweh helps them.

Yahweh helps them.

If we back up a little bit to verse 35, I've seen a wicked, ruthless man.

I've seen him spreading like a green laurel tree, but he passed away.

And behold, he was no more.

He says, Listen, people, I've gotten a glimpse of God's promises in this life already.

I can see it at work.

Mark the blameless, though, and uphold the upright.

There's a future for the man of peace.

See, what's happening here is we're being challenged to exchange our myopia for hyperopia.

Those of you who wear glasses will know what I'm meaning, right?

Everybody else, you're blessed in ways you don't know.

Rid yourself of nearsightedness and instead exchange it for hype, for hyperopia, for far-sightedness.

Don't be nearsighted people that all you do is see what's going on today and you get all fretted and worked up about it.

Instead, it says, No.

Look out.

Lift your eyes up and look and see what God has in mind, not just today, but tomorrow and forever.

And when we do that, we can be reminded to watch faithfully.

What are we being reminded of here?

He says, listen, though it's those who patiently wait for Yahweh who are going to find deliverance and refuge.

It's those who wait for Him, who trust in Him as their salvation, that are really going to have the peace that surpasses all understanding.

The peace that guards your hearts and minds.

Trust in the Lord and do good.

Dwell in your appointed place and promote faithfulness to God.

Find exquisite delight in him, making his will your desire, making God's way your way.

Be silent and wait patiently for him, and you will find he acts.

But when you're all myopic and all you can see is three feet in front of you, you often miss what God's doing.

The one who does this, the one who looks out, knows that today is probably going to be full of frustration and disappointment and fretting and pain.

But they know that there's always tomorrow for God's people.

There's always a refuge in the midst of fear.

There's coming a day when God will ultimately rescue us, and only those who have trusted in Him will receive the fullness of His promises.

For blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Our Redeemer is near.

He's going to deliver us from all the evil in this world.

So don't get all worked up about it.

Trust that He's going to do the right things in His time.

Maybe you're listening to this and thinking, I just don't get it.

I don't get it.

Well, if that's you, let me encourage you to take a step back.

You can't get it if you don't get Jesus.

If you have not come to trust in the one who gave himself for you on the cross, then you're not going to get it.

That's the first step is to trust in him as your refuge, as your salvation.

And now is the time to do it.

You might not have tomorrow.

I told my guys in our pastoral meeting this week that I wanted to include this closing element written by Samuel Rodegast, and I wanted to do it at least because I like his name.

Samuel Rodegast.

He was a German pastor written, and he wrote this in 1676.

We don't know exactly the circumstances surrounding the writing of this poem.

It's a hymn.

There are two hymns that are attributed to Samuel Rodhegast.

And some think that he wrote this because his friend asked him to write a song for his funeral.

We don't know that, for sure, but this particular song translated from German is called Whatever My God Ordains is Right.

Just let that sit for a minute.

Whatever my God ordains is right.

Here's what Samuel Rodegest wrote.

I will be still, whatever he does.

I'll follow where he guides.

He is my God, though my road be dark.

And he holds me so that I shall not fall.

Therefore, whereto for?

I leave to him my all.

Whatever my God ordains is right.

He never will deceive me.

He leads me by the right, by the proper path.

I know he won't leave me.

So I take content what he has sent.

His hand can turn all of my griefs away, and patiently I wait his day.

Whatever my God ordains is right.

Though now this cup in drinking may bitter seem to my faint heart, I take it all unshrinking.

For my God is true, and each morning a new sweet comfort yet shall find my heart, shall fill my heart.

And pain and sorrow shall depart.

Whatever my God ordains is right.

Here shall my stand be taken.

No sorrow, no need, or even death be mine.

And I am not forsaken.

My father's care is round me there.

He holds me, so I shall not fall.

And so to him I leave it all.

Lord Jesus, give us grace to leave it all with you.

So many things about which we could fret, so many things about which we could fear, so many things about which to be uncertain.

Help us to watch you.

Help us to watch you and to watch you well.

And may others see us watching you and be drawn to watch as well.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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