Trust in the Lord and Do Good (Ps. 37:1-11) (6/28/26)

Let us go before the Lord and ask him for the

blessing of the preaching of his word. Our God

and our Father, we thank you for sending your

Spirit to give us life and to empower us for

the call you have given us to carry your words

of life to the ends of the earth. Please allow

the words of my mouth and the meditations of

all our hearts to be acceptable in your sight.

O Lord, our rock and nearest kinsman redeemer,

Jesus Christ, our risen Lord. Amen. Today's sermon

text is going to be out of Psalm 37. I've often

said that, as we know, the book of Proverbs is

the book of wisdom. Certainly all of God's word

is wisdom, but it's particularly focused on that.

But I've often said that the book of Psalms is

the book of maturity. It's the book to maturity.

And so I want us to keep that in mind, that the

book of Psalms helps us to have a right understanding

of reality, and it helps us with our maturity.

One other thing I want to say before we read

the text, and that is this. In this portion of

Psalm 37, verses 1 through 11, well really throughout

Psalms 37:1–11

the whole chapter of Psalm 37, God's covenant

name Yahweh appears 15 times. 15 times in 40

verses. That's significant. And this is what

I want you to think every time you hear God's

covenant name. I want you to think about this.

Because of the work of Jesus Christ, we are in

covenant with the Lord. So every time you hear

The name Yahweh, what you should be thinking

is, ah, that's my covenant God because of Jesus,

because of his mercy and his grace and his work

on the cross. So Psalm 37, beginning of verse

one, a Psalm of David. Do not fret because of

evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity,

for they shall soon be cut down like the grass

and wither as the green herb. Trust in Yahweh

and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on His

faithfulness. Delight yourself also in Yahweh

and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him

and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring

forth your righteousness as the light and your

justice as the noonday. Rest in Yahweh. and wait

patiently for him. Do not fret because of him

who prospers in his way, because of the man who

brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger.

Forsake wrath. Do not fret. It only causes harm.

For evildoers shall be cut off, but those that

wait on Yahweh, they will inherit the earth.

For yet a little while, and the wicked shall

be no more. Indeed, you will look carefully for

his place, but it shall be no more. But the meek

shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves

in the abundance of peace." These are the words

of Almighty God. Receive them in your hearts.

We are continuing our foundation series. These

are Christian foundations. This is during the

time of the Pentecost season, which turns back

to green. And so we're growing in Christ. We're

growing. We're maturing as the church, as the

people of God. And so our sermon title today

is Trust God and Do Good. Trust God and Do Good.

Now, of course, good could be defined in many

ways, but scripturally, I think for the Christian,

good is defined by two things, right? The fruit

of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, long -suffering,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

self -control, right? So that's one part. And

the other part is how in which we do that, and

that is this. Faithfulness in our post. faithfulness

in our post. Doing good is to see the fruitfulness

of the fruit of the Spirit developing in yourself

and in others in whom are your responsibility.

And you do all that by standing at your post.

We should walk, live, and be led by the Spirit

in order to have the fruit of the Spirit flourishing

in ourselves and others. And again, additionally,

God's people must stand faithfully in our specific

fiefdom. What's a fiefdom, you say? Well, back

in medieval times, there was a big lord of the

manor. He had all this land. And he would give

out a portion and say to this man and this family

over here and that person over there, here, here's

your allotments. Here's what you're given to

do, your area to make grow and flourish. Christ

Jesus is the Lord of all the earth, and He has

given you all. Children, look up here. Every

man, woman, and child in here has been given

allotment in the kingdom of heaven, and so too.

As Jesus is the King over all things of heaven

and earth, He has graciously given each one of

us a piece of His kingdom to manage. Our realm

is an allotted portion in Jesus' kingdom, and

we are to faithfully stand our post, take dominion

over it, and be fruitful. If we are to have the

mind of Christ and are conformed to Christ Jesus,

we should stand steadfastly in our post and live

with the fruit of the Spirit abundantly flowing.

from us. That's just the setup. Here are the

three things that I would like you to consider

as your lenses as we look at Psalm 37, this portion

of it. As Christians, we are not to fret or be

envious. As Christians, we are not to fret or

be envious. Second, we are to trust in the Lord

and do good. We are to trust in the Lord and

do good. And finally, in God's sovereignty, the

meek will inherit the earth. In God's sovereignty,

the meek will inherit the earth. Psalm 37 sets

the standard of how to walk in maturity in the

circumstances in which we as Christians find

ourselves in. Right now across this room, many

people are undergoing good times, prosperous

times, and there are others who are not living

in peace and who are clearly undergoing hardships

and difficulties. How are we to walk When we

both see and experience hardship and suffering

Especially when we see the wicked prospering

Right now Amongst us different experiences and

maybe you say I'm kind of in the middle. I've

got some hardships. I have some blessings Right,

but Lord why are those wicked people prospering?

Why are those who were scheming against you and

against your people? Why are they prospering?

That's the question we're looking at. Psalm 37

is set up into four sections. The first section,

verses one through 11, we'll look at today. The

second section is verses 12 through 20, and it's

a deep dive into the wicked schemes and plots

against the Lord and his people. The third section

is verses 21 through 24, and it compares the

righteous and the wicked with the central theme,

which is this. The steps of a good man are ordered

by Yahweh, and he delights in his way. Though

he fall, he shall utterly, he shall not be utterly

cast down, for Yahweh upholds him with his hand.

And remember, we hear that, we think, ah. because

of the work of Jesus. Every time you hear Yahweh,

that's Jesus' work. He's our covenant God. The

final section, verses 25 through 40 is this,

is David, who we now know is an old man, and

so now with his closing thoughts are with observation

and admonition to these eternal truths. And here

the very end of Psalm 37. But the salvation of

the righteous is from Yahweh. He is their strength

in the time of trouble. And Yahweh shall help

them and deliver them. And He shall deliver them

from the wicked and save them, because they trust

in Him. Now our passage this morning begins in

verse one. It says, do not fret because of evildoers,

nor be envious of the workers of iniquity, for

they shall soon be cut down like the grass. And

wither is the green herb. Now every one of us

want to see the wicked cut down in one of two

ways, right? I hope for all of us it is our first

desire that people be cut down by being transformed

and brought into the kingdom of heaven. But if

not, we ask that the Lord convert them or remove

them. But for those that are wicked and are rebelling

against God, they will be cut down. You know,

the base sinful position of all men is to fret

and to envy. If you're uncertain of that, look

at your children. When they're real small, you

can see this real evidently. What happens? They

become agitated and disturbed. They're fretting.

They're moving and flailing around. Why? They're

agitated. How come? because they're envious of

those around them. Whether the person, that child,

their brother or sister, is doing good to them

or not, in some fashion they become envious.

And it's interesting, Webster's 1828 dictionary

says this, that to fret is to corrode, to gnaw,

to eat away as a worm Fret or eats away the plank

of a ship to wear away to chafe What is it that's

going on in your life that's eating away at you

that's causing you to chafe To not to be not

at to be disturbed Dearly beloved God directs

our lives all history is God's story. We have

been graciously given a place in God's story

and as we go along we see the sins of our fathers,

the civil magistrate, the wicked, the rebellious

anarchists who at every turn are plotting and

scheming to destroy God's people and the whole

world if they could. One thing that can overwhelm

us and cause us to fret and to be eaten up is

that we see these evildoers prospering and Because

of that we're tempted to become envious What

do we worry over And become agitated over and

yes even disquieted in your soul, what is it?

that's disturbing you. What drives you to envy

and discontent? God lovingly through the psalmist

here, that's David, gives us a correction on

our misunderstanding of reality. Here, he is

straightening us out. We can't perceive what

he's doing and what his plan is. But God gives

us clear direction. clear reality. God knows

the end of history and the story around all of

us and he tells us that evildoers will soon be

cut down like the grass and they will wither

away. And you know, we look at that, we hear

those words and we go like, I wish it would happen

sooner. I wish God would get it done already.

But God doesn't do it that way. He's got His

plan. He's got His story. He is telling you,

don't fret. Don't be covetousness. Don't be full

of covetousness and envy. Don't worry about what

they're doing. Proverbs chapter 24 has often

Proverbs 24 · chapter mention

been associated with this chapter in Psalms because

here are these several verses. In Proverbs chapter

Proverbs 24 · chapter mention

24, it begins with this. Do not be envious of

evil men. nor desire to be with them. For their

heart devises violence and their lips talk of

troublemaking. Through wisdom a house is built,

and by understanding it is established. By knowledge

the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant

riches. Do not fret because of evildoers, nor

be envious of the wicked. Also, down if you drop

down, verse 20, for there will be no prospect

for the evil man, the lamp of the wicked will

be put out. God makes it very clear that through

wisdom and true understanding that a house is

established and built. Dearly beloved, the wicked

have no future. Their lamp will be put out by

God. Don't envy or be discontent in another's

prosperity or superiority or perceived superiority.

Their time, the wicked's time, all those that

are plotting against God and his people, their

time is short. Proverbs 3 .31 tells us, do not

envy the oppressor and choose none of his ways.

For the perverse person is an abomination to

Yahweh, but his secret counsel is with the upright.

Our hearts often go and look at all the plots

of the wicked, and we see how they thrive and

they're having success. And our envy presents

itself by becoming discontented. We churn in

a consuming way and we look for vengeance in

some fashion The sinner is not an object of envy

or vengences wait for God and his vindication

The Bible is full of true stories that show that

the plots of the wicked Lay that that are that

are done against God are laid aside by God's

sovereign plan, and all their wicked schemes

come back upon them. As Proverbs tells us in

chapter 26, whoever digs a pit will fall in it,

and he who rolls a stone will have it roll back

on him. Proverbs 28, 10, whoever causes the upright

to go astray in an evil way, he himself will

fall into his own pit, but the blameless will

inherit good. Let us consider together that the

greatest plot against God and Man was carried

out by some great scheming and evil men two thousand

years ago when they brought false charges against

Jesus and they killed him and They thought they

had won what looked like the greatest strategy

tragedy of all time That all the schemes of Satan

and all his minions and all those who rose up

to conspire against God and what happened Men

were delivered from their sins and it becomes

a victory And the wave is growing And his kingdom

is growing throughout the world and throughout

history You know, they plotted to keep men trapped

in sin so that they could maintain themselves

and their families. This is what their focus

was. And you see this all through scripture.

It's all about, oh, as long as it's not in my

generation or it's not in my family, the masses

don't matter. But God is faithful to his son

and thus to us, his people, the church. God allowed

Jesus to suffer and die, and the father vindicated

Jesus. Jesus trusted the Father and did good

in order to inherit the earth and all of its

peoples. Do not fret or be envious of the wicked.

If we're not supposed to do that, what then should

we do? Verse 3 of Psalm 37 tells us, trust in

Yahweh and do good. Dwell in the land and feed

on his faithfulness. Delight yourself also in

Yahweh and he shall give you the desires of your

heart. Trust God and do good. Just like Jesus

trusted the Father, we are to trust God knowing

that he always keeps his word and is faithful

and just. Earlier we mentioned That doing good

is taking dominion Over our portion of the world

and causing the fruit of the spirit to flourish

While we stand at our post Dearly beloved your

post is where God has sovereignly placed you

each and every day In your marriage God has sovereignly

put you in your marriage And some of you are

going Others are like, man, it's really good.

Sometimes the seasons ebb and flow. But God has

sovereignly put you in your marriage. Look at

your children. Some days you may feel run over.

But God has sovereignly put you in there. Trust

God and do good. Trust God. and do good. What

about your varying vocations? Across this room,

there's all these vocations represented here.

Trust God and do good. God has sovereignly put

you in that place. In sickness and health, in

teaching and discipling your families. All of

these things, all of the people that God brings

in your path each and every day, that is a sovereign

appointment. You might have thought you made

it. Trust God and do good. We're to dwell in

the land. That is the place where God has assigned

us. We're told to dwell in that land. And we

need to know this, that as we do this, dwelling

there, even if the wicked are plotting and seemingly

winning, We are told to delight ourselves in

the Lord and He will give us the desires of our

heart Now I know every one of you in this room

has desires right now that you know are unfulfilled

Trust God and do good believe God and then stand

at your post Now sometimes we hear the verses

like this, what about that person with corrupt

desires? God's not gonna answer that. But he

says, he'll give us the desires of our heart.

When we delight in the Lord, we are given a new

heart and a mind so we can actually have rightly

ordered loves, affections, and yes. even desires.

And when we trust God and do good, we stand at

our post and we be faithful in it. We rest and

God will give you the desires of your heart.

Verse 5 tells us, commit your way to Yahweh,

trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.

And He shall bring forth your righteousness as

light and your justice as noonday. Instead of

fretting and being full of envy, we are to commit

our way to Yahweh, to the Lord, trusting Him.

that as we take all that he has given us here

on earth and Rearrange it thy will be done on

earth as it is in heaven. He's giving you your

portion And he's saying here's what you're gonna

do you're gonna take that portion and you're

gonna rearrange it so everything that you're

responsible for Reflects the priorities of heaven.

That's what you're going to do committing yourself

to the to the Lord and What are you gonna do?

In His great faithfulness and mercy, He will

bring our desires to pass and He will bring forth

the righteousness of Christ in us. And it will

be a light to others in your life. The light

of Christ Jesus proceeding from you. And you

will find your justice. What is this? It is vindication.

at Noonday. It will be so vindicated that it

will be as if nothing is hidden. Trust Him. Commit

yourself to Him. This is of course Christ in

His gospel. And it is revealed in us by our steadfastness

and the faithful fruit. Verse 7 tells us rest

in Yahweh and wait patiently for him. Do not

fret because of him who prospers in his way,

because of the man who brings wicked schemes

to pass. We keep having these, it just keeps

repeating itself. Why is this? Because he knows

how we are. He knows our hearts. He knows that

we have difficulty with this. We are to rest

in God. Now this word rest here is a little bit

different than some of the other Rests that you

might find in the Hebrew language this one means

to seemingly grow dumb and to hold your peace

while patiently waiting on God That's a different

kind of rest than we normally think about Right

in this particular case, it's telling us to seemingly

grow dumb That is what? There are all these things

in your life each and every day that are screaming

for your attention and most of them don't even

matter and What one of the things that God is

telling us right here in this passage is to say

all those that are scheming around you All those

who are plotting against God no matter how great

they are. They're gonna all perish So what do

you got to do? Treat that as what? I'm going

to trust God even though it seems overwhelmingly

I can't figure this out. And do what? Hold your

peace while we wait patiently for God. And again,

He told us not to fret. Do not churn with angst

and become discontent. The psalmist continues.

He connects these things here in verse 8. Hear

me out now. I'm especially going to tell you,

men, look up here. Cease from anger and forsake

wrath. Do not fret. There's that word again.

It only causes harm. Cease from anger. Forsake

wrath. When God repeats a word again and again,

we must pay attention. Do not fret appears three

times in eight verses God is telling his people

that he is Lord of the story all of the stories

including your story The beginning and the middle

and the end it's all his story Trust Him, not

in blissful ignorance, but rather trust Him by

completing the task, that mission that He has

given you, to make disciples of all the nations

by baptism and teaching them all that Jesus has

commanded. Complete the mission of Christ and

His Church from heaven to the whole earth so

that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will

cover the earth as the waters cover... See now

we think about that on the grand scale and we're

like, I don't know how that works out. That's

right That's not your portion. Your portion is

what he is giving you to do And not fretting

we are told to cease anger and forsake wrath

when we become angry and seek vengeance This

is real important. When we become angry and seek

vengeance, we are bringing charges against God

Almighty and His story. We are bringing charges

against God for what He has allowed in His sovereignty.

And that undermines and harms us. It'll harm

you and your mission. To be clear, I'm not saying

walk around in a hapless and fatalist mentality.

No, I'm not saying bury your heads in the sand.

No, I'm calling you, as Christ is calling you,

to be faithful to God. and his ongoing mission

in your life with all the peoples and all the

circumstances within your realm of responsibility

and whomever else, God brings along to your path.

We are not to ignore wickedness or evildoers,

but do not become angry and emotionally consumed

by that wickedness. Trust and obey. Now you're

starting to see why we sang that song, right?

Do what God has for you. Be faithful for what

God has given you. And He will reward you with

more responsibilities. Isn't that the biblical

principle? Be faithful in little and you'll be

given more. We want to see politics change. We

want to see the world change. We want to see

greater morality. Be faithful in your calling,

in your portion. Don't be full of anger and angst

be faithful and What will happen God will give

you more responsibility perhaps some of you will

even be called to leadership in your businesses

and your vocation in your church and the civil

magistrate we want to see different laws pray

be faithful to your portion and Consider if I

am faithful in my portion What else does God

have me to do to restore biblical truth in the

world? Be faithful in what you're doing and perhaps

He will give you more responsibility. Perhaps

you can even ask Him if you should seek more

responsibility. But you must trust God and be

faithful where you are right now. For a second

time returning to the text for a second time.

We see that God says that evildoers will be cut

off But those who wait on the Lord shall inherit

the earth all of you are familiar with Psalm

2 and it says that God says of his son the father

says of the son that if the son asks him for

the nations as An inheritance he will give it

to them inheriting the nations Jesus tells us

in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5 that the

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

meek shall inherit the earth. Those who wait

with restraint. That's what meekness is, restraining

great power. Those who wait with restraint will

inherit the earth. Think about Jesus. We know

that Jesus said he could have called down 12

legions of angels to deliver him and vindicate

him right now and Every single one of us would

have still been in our sins So he restrained

himself that we might be delivered the meek inherit

the earth And now for a third time God in verse

10 says for yet a little while and the wicked

shall be no more Indeed, you will look carefully

for this place. You'll look for the wicked. You

know, we think we know history. There have been

billions and billions of people on this earth.

And we have remnants of portions of history,

and some of it's been written down. And I know

some of it's been corrupted. But the truth is

that there's been many wicked people, many influencers,

many kings, many tribal chiefs. Many leaders

in their community who plotted against God and

did wicked, and nobody knows who they are. If

I were to say, list 100 names of the most wicked

people in the last 500 years, you might could

do that. Maybe, maybe. I suspect after about

10, most of us would be tapped out. You look

for them, and you won't find them. God is assuring

his people that the wicked will not prosper in

the long term why? Because God is sovereign in

this his story Verse 11 tells us that the meek

shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves

and the abundance of peace now right now in your

life, I Don't know a single person who says they

have enough peace in their life And I talk to

all of you. I don't know one person who says,

it's all working out. I've got all the peace

I need. It's totally sufficient right now as

it is. The meek shall inherit the earth and shall

delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

We do not have to fret and become emotionally

distraught and consumed about the wicked condition

of the world. Jesus has delivered us from our

sins and the Father has adopted us, his people,

as his children. Romans chapter 8 verse 17 says

Romans 8:17

this, and if children, that's us, then heirs,

heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if

indeed we suffer with him, that we also may be

glorified together. When suffering comes, it's

God's work of maturity in our lives. In maturity,

we stay on task, the very mission that He has

given us, to worship Him and to glorify Him in

all that He has given us dominion over. The meek,

those who in restraining great power will accomplish

their mission. and shall inherit the earth. And

yes, delight in the abundance of peace found

in Christ Jesus. Dearly beloved, hear these center

words from Psalm 37, speaking of the righteous.

For those blessed by Him shall inherit the earth,

but those cursed by Him shall be cut off. The

steps of a good man are ordered. by Yahweh, the

covenant God brought to us by Jesus Christ, and

He delights in His way. Speaking of the righteous

man, though he fall, he shall not be utterly

cast down, for Yahweh upholds him with His hand.

The hand of God is in your life in your story

every single day. Dearly beloved in God's sovereignty

the meek inherit the earth trust in the Lord

and do good God upholds you all because he is

drawn near to us in the gracious work of Christ

Jesus He has given us he has marked us out in

baptism and placed his name upon us So all of

you, be at peace and delight in God's grace towards

you all. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we give

you praise for the grace and mercy that you have

bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus. We have been

made strong in the promises of your word today

from Psalm 37. Help us, we pray, to trust in

you, to put away all fretting. envy, and anger,

that we may stand our post and do good in the

circumstances that you have given us. Let our

hearts be full of your abundant love, joy, gratitude,

and peace. We ask all this for Jesus' sake, who

reigns with you and the Holy Spirit forever and

ever. Amen.