Wisdom For When The Wicked Are Winning

Psalm 37, this one's a long one, hang in there.

Of David, fret not yourself because of evildoers.

! Be not envious of wrongdoers,

for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.

Trust in the Lord and do good.

Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

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

Commit your way to the Lord.

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 the Lord.

Wait patiently for him.

Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,

over the man who carries out evil devices.

Refrain from anger.

Forsake wrath.

Fret not yourself.

It tends only 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 needy,

to slay those whose way is upright.

Their sword shall enter their own heart.

Their bows shall be broken.

Better is the little that the righteous has

than the abundance of many wicked.

For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,

but the Lord upholds the righteous.

The Lord knows the days of the blameless,

and their heritage will remain forever.

They are not put to shame in evil times.

In the days of famine, they have abundance.

But the wicked will perish.

The enemies of the Lord,

they're like the glory of the pastures.

They vanish.

Like smoke, they vanish away.

The wicked borrows and does not pay back,

but the righteous is generous and gives.

For the blessed by the Lord shall inherit the land,

but those cursed by him shall be cut off.

The steps of a man are established by the Lord

when he delights in his way.

Though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,

for the Lord upholds his hand.

I have been young, and now I'm old,

and yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken

or his children begging for bread.

He's ever lending generously.

His children become a blessing.

Turn away from evil and do good.

So shall you dwell forever,

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.

The righteous shall inherit the land

and dwell upon it forever.

The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom.

His tongue speaks justice.

The law of his God is in his heart.

His steps do not slip.

The wicked watches for the righteous.

He seeks to put him to death.

But the Lord will not abandon him to his power

or let him be condemned when he's brought to trial.

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.

I've seen a wicked, ruthless man spreading himself like a green laurel tree,

but he passed away.

Behold, he was no more.

Though I saw to him, he could not be found.

Mark the blameless 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 Lord.

He is their stronghold in the time of trouble.

The Lord helps them, delivers them.

He delivers them from the wicked and saves them

because they take refuge in him.

Amen.

Psalm 36, if you remember from last Sunday,

concluded with a provocative vision of the end for the wicked.

Just look back at the very last verse of Psalm 36.

There, look, David says,

the evildoers lie fallen.

They're thrust down.

They're unable to rise again.

It was a glorious statement of God's triumph over the wicked.

Set in contrast to the steadfast love that he shows to his own people.

Though the wicked are thrust down, unable to rise,

yet those who belong to him will rise as their king has risen.

It's a big moment at the end of the Psalm.

Psalm 37 is written to concerned believers

who are trying to do what David says to do in that last verse,

which is to look there.

Look and behold the wicked.

They lie fallen.

They're struggling.

God has defeated them.

They're looking around and they're trying to see it,

but everywhere they look,

it doesn't seem like any of that is actually happening.

The wicked aren't cast down.

They actually seem to be thriving.

They're not only thriving,

they're thriving on the backs of the righteous.

Everywhere this Christian looks,

this believer looks,

the one who's being addressed in Psalm 37,

everywhere he looks,

the wicked just seem to be winning.

They disregard the law of God

and yet they still prosper.

Their abuses of others,

even of the righteous,

those who belong to the Lord,

seems to go unpunished.

They just get by with it.

They increase in power.

They increase in wealth.

They increase in all the successes

that we as just humans desire to have

and to flourish in

and they succeed in those things

often by mistreating the less fortunate,

the poor and the needy

and the upright, David says.

This scenario is disorienting, isn't it?

You don't have to look far to see

that this is true all around us.

It's disorienting.

And not only is it disorienting,

it's potentially devastating,

spiritually speaking.

It seems to call into question

the truthfulness of God's word.

What are we to do at the end of Psalm 36

when we're living in the place

of the person of Psalm 37?

Is God really just?

Is he really watching?

Are the wicked really defeated?

It calls into question

the truthfulness of his word.

It seems to call into question

the righteousness of his own character,

perhaps even his very existence.

And it's not just a problem for believers.

If you're here today

and you're not a Christian,

I want to first say that

I'm just so glad that you're here.

You are welcome here

and we are happy that you're here.

But perhaps this very scenario

is what has kept you

from embracing Christianity.

If this God that Christians speak of

really is good,

you may ask,

why is it that bad people seem to increase

and good people seem to keep suffering?

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Why do good things happen to bad people?

We're wrestling with the problem of evil

in Psalm 37 in some way.

Unfortunately for us,

the Bible doesn't ignore this question.

Many Christians try to ignore this question.

They're not really sure what to do with it.

The Bible doesn't do that.

And Psalm 37 confronts it head on.

Helps us to process it.

Not only the reality

of what is happening around us,

but it helps us to process that reality

with actually tremendous hope

and hopefulness and trust.

It's a wisdom Psalm,

which means that the content here,

it looks a little more like the book of Proverbs

than it does many of the other Psalms

that we've been studying together.

And that's important for us to recognize

because we might stumble over

some of the statements that David makes here,

thinking that there's contradiction here,

that it's just not true.

We need to think for just a moment,

what exactly is a proverb

and how are we to process?

A proverb is,

it's really just a,

it's a wise principle of life.

It's wise principles of life and godliness.

We might call them general rules of thumb.

It's not saying that there are explicit guarantees

in every situation,

that there aren't exceptions that may come around.

One of the key verses in the Psalm is verse 25.

I've been young and now I'm old

and I've not seen the Lord forsake the righteous.

But then David throws in this one statement

that you may stumble over just a little bit.

He says,

I've never actually seen even the children

of the righteous begging for bread.

We might come to that and say,

well, that almost sounds like David is saying

that if you really just have enough faith

and you live the right way

and you say your prayers at the end of the day,

that you won't go through hardships,

that your children won't suffer

and won't struggle in any way.

And that's when we need to understand

exactly what he's doing here.

These are proverbial statements.

It's not saying that hardship doesn't come.

Of course it does.

The Psalm is clear that the righteous here

are experiencing tremendous hardship.

But what he's saying is that generally

when we do what God says,

we reap the consequences and blessings of obedience

and of God's faithfulness in our lives.

We need to get that right.

This is a wisdom Psalm.

This is what David is doing here.

He's passing on wisdom for those of us

who are trying to wrestle with this issue

of the prosperity of the wicked.

We find Psalm 37, God's king,

is leading his people in godly wisdom

on just such occasions.

Time is a major feature in the wisdom

that David conveys.

He doesn't talk about time explicitly,

but it's all woven throughout

all of these proverbs here.

He writes as an older man, for instance,

he's an older man who's been around long enough

to see how these things tend to play out.

Whereas a younger man might lose control

a little faster emotionally

at the prosperity of the wicked.

He's been around long enough to see

that what you see in the immediate

is not really all there is to see.

And as he reflects on his years,

he has come to understand

that the Lord is always faithful.

He always preserves the righteous.

He's good.

So time features in that way.

It features in a different way.

He's constantly pointing us

away from present circumstances

in order that we might look further down the road

at future realities and promises.

With great wisdom, David,

and of course, ultimately,

Jesus is teaching us here

not to obsess over what we see now

and ignore the promises that God has

for our future and for the future of the wicked.

So time, it's featuring in that way.

But there's another way that it's featuring,

maybe a little more subtle.

Time features somewhat in the structure of the psalm.

It's an acrostic poem

compiling all of these proverbial statements,

which means that there's not a clear structure here.

Rather than moving thematically and systematically

from one theme to the next,

working as our minds like to work,

just through one truth

that builds upon another truth throughout,

David's not doing that in this psalm.

Rather, he's got these primary principles,

these themes that he's interweaving together

throughout the whole thing.

And what that's telling us to do is slow down.

Stop just trying to reach for a quick answer

in this situation.

He's trying to get us to meditate on a few things,

to meditate on some wise principles

that we need to consider in such moments.

So what are we to do then

when we look around

and we observe that the wicked are winning?

I think there's four crucial responses

that we can pull from David's wisdom here

that will help us in these moments,

whether you're in one now

or we'll be in one later.

Four crucial responses.

Here's the first one.

First thing to do

is learn to control your frustrations by faith.

Learn to control your frustrations through faith.

Now this is woven, like I said,

all throughout the psalm.

It seems to be emphasized in the first 11 verses.

And right from the beginning,

David highlights two emotional responses

to the prosperity of the wicked

that we need to actually beware of.

We need to watch out for.

Look at verse one.

Fret not yourself because of evildoers.

Be not envious of wrongdoers.

Fret not yourself.

It's an interesting word.

We typically use that to refer to anxiety and worry.

Underlying this word here

is not really the idea of worry.

It's a little more nuanced than that.

It literally means to burn with anger.

To get hot under the collar, so to speak.

Some translations will render it agitated.

Don't be agitated at evildoers.

Don't be incensed by the prosperity of the wicked.

It's more than a righteous anger.

Of course, we all would possess that as God's people.

We see that modeled even in Jesus himself.

No, this is more than a righteous anger.

This is a kind of unbridled fury

that we're told tends only to evil.

And we see that filled out with a little more clarity

in verses seven and eight.

David repeats it.

Be still before the Lord.

Wait patiently.

The contrast to that would be fretting again,

he says in verse seven.

Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,

the prosperity of the wicked.

Fret not yourself over the man

who carries out evil devices.

Instead, refrain from anger.

Forsake wrath.

Fret not yourself, he says.

It will only lead you to evil.

You becoming the evildoer

because you haven't learned with this question

and with this issue

to control your emotional responses.

Don't fret, he says.

This unrestrained anger,

it doesn't trust God to deal righteously with the wicked.

It attempts to take matters into one's own hands.

David says when the wicked prosper and you notice it,

one of the things you're gonna immediately feel is anger.

And he says you need to get a grip on that anger.

You need to submit that anger to the Lord.

You need to trust the Lord.

You need to wait on the Lord.

And of course, the scriptures repeat this for us.

James tells us, James chapter one,

let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

Why, James?

Because the wrath of man, the anger of man,

it doesn't work the righteousness of God.

David seems to be saying the same thing here.

Fret not yourself.

It tends only to evil behavior on your part.

It doesn't work God's righteousness

even though you think you're working for God's righteousness.

But that's not the only emotional response

that David highlights here.

The second one is envy.

Look again at verse one.

Fret not yourself because of evildoers.

Be not envious of them.

This one is one that perhaps we maybe feel

a little more personally and a little more continually.

It involves craving the worldly successes of the wicked

so that your temptation is to abandon God's principles

and God's wisdom and God's law

to adopt the ways of sin

and to adopt the ways of the wicked.

And this is all over this psalm.

A couple of different places,

David is highlighting the issue of wealth.

We read it a moment ago.

We'll see it again in just a minute.

He says, look, it's better to just have a little bit

as a faithful one who's living a life that pleases the Lord

than it is to throw away faithfulness

and live a life of sin

and have all that the wicked has.

We see that repeated again and again.

There is generosity of the righteous

that's later contrasted with the stinginess

and the selfishness of the wicked.

That's cluing us in on something

that this envy is something that's real for us.

We look and we see that.

Here I'm trying to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.

I'm trying to be faithful to Him

and I'm kind of struggling a little bit.

But I look at my friends and my family members

who they've cast aside faithfulness.

They don't care to live in a way that's pleasing to the Lord.

And it seems like they're just so happy.

They just seem so fulfilled.

And I just would like to have a little bit of that.

Do you see the danger there?

David's getting on to that danger right here from the very beginning

because envy doesn't consider what's right.

Envy just considers what's effective.

And it can quickly become our fatal response

when we observe the prosperity of the wicked.

Now the reason we're to avoid these things is clear in verse 2.

David tells us right off the bat,

don't fret, don't be envious

because those that you're envying,

those you are angry over,

they're going to fade.

They're going to fade like the grass.

God will deal with them.

They're going to wither like the green herb.

He echoes that later in 9 to 11.

The evildoers will be cut off

while those who wait for the Lord will inherit the land.

Just a little while, the wicked will be no more.

You're going to look at his place

and suddenly you'll be gone.

But the meek shall inherit the land

and delight themselves in the abundance of God's peace.

Don't miss this language.

This is covenant language.

Did you notice when we read the whole psalm,

there's this refrain of the righteous inheriting the land

and the wicked being cut off.

If you've been reading in your Old Testament

very much this year,

you're going to see that over and over and over,

this idea of promise and covenant promise in the land.

When David writes about this here,

he's not talking about a piece of dirt in Middle East.

Israel already has the land when David writes this psalm.

It's already their inheritance.

That's not what he's referring to.

He's referring to the covenant blessings of God.

He's looking beyond a piece of dirt in the Middle East.

He's looking at eternity.

He's looking at eternal blessings.

He's looking at the new creation

that all who belong to Christ will inherit.

And he's saying those who are faithful to the Lord,

those who are blessed of the Lord,

will receive that eternal inheritance.

But all the wicked, they're going to be cut off.

He says, don't fret.

Don't be envious of them.

Don't be like them.

They're all going to be judged.

How then are we to control those fatal responses?

Well, the answer is through faith.

In verses 3 to 7, over and over,

he's giving us this answer.

Trust in the Lord's sovereignty, verse 3.

Trust in Him.

Then he says, obey His word by doing good in verse 3.

Trust in the Lord and do good.

Commit your way to Him.

Trusting that He is going to work for your good.

We see that in verse 5.

Commit your way to the Lord.

Trust in Him.

He will act for you in time, in His time.

Have faith that He will vindicate your righteousness

and bring justice to the ungodly.

We see that in verse 6.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,

your justice as the noonday.

Isn't that what we long for?

Vindication.

Justice.

David says, look, don't get worked up.

Trust the Lord.

He will do it.

And then we have verse 4 is so wonderful.

Delight yourself in the Lord.

And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Now, we need to be careful not to stumble over that.

We could misunderstand that.

That's why I said at the beginning,

we need to understand these proverbial statements

and how they're working.

But look at the contrast that he's making here.

It begins with the Lord being your greatest desire

and your greatest delight.

And when He is your greatest delight

and your greatest desire

and your greatest satisfaction,

you have all that you need.

He holds nothing back.

Now, that's helpful when we're struggling

with envy over worldly goods

and worldly successes, isn't it?

We can work and work and work

and do all the things

and still never have what we want.

But David says,

if God is what you want,

you'll never be disappointed.

You'll never lack.

He'll never hold back.

He'll give you the desire of your heart.

Faith and obedience,

they're not just alternatives

to anger and envy.

They're the antidotes.

No one ever fretted over evildoers

whose trust was transfixed

on the righteousness of God

and the goodness of the Lord.

No one ever envied the wrongdoer

whose greatest desire

was to know and to please God

with their lives.

So what do we do

when the wicked are winning?

David, I think, says in wisdom,

the first thing that you're probably

going to have to do

is get a grip

on your emotional responses.

Offset those things.

Overcome those things

by trusting the Lord

and doing what is right.

But there's a second thing we're to do.

Another crucial response

we should do is

we should consider

the end of the wicked.

Consider their end.

And again, we've already talked about that

in some extent.

It seems like in verses 12 to 22,

David is really leaning

into the description

of the wicked

and what will come of them

in their future.

12 and 13,

they plot against God's righteous one.

A callback, no doubt,

to Psalm 2,

but they will not finally

be successful.

God laughs at them.

He laughs at their pride

knowing that

he will bring them to an end

at his appointed day

of judgment.

That's their end.

Verses 14 and 15,

we see the wicked

are abusing the poor

and the needy

and the upright

to have their way now.

But then,

we have this promise

that what's coming for them

is that God's going to take

even their own devices.

He's going to trap them

in their own devices.

Their own sword

will pierce

through their heart

as God breaks their bows,

their instruments

of sin

and wickedness

against the vulnerable

and the upright.

It makes me think

of the book of Esther

and you remember

Mordecai and Haman.

Haman has these massive

gallows built

thinking that

he has the favor

of the king

and he's going to be able

to destroy

righteous Mordecai

who has refused

to bow to him

and what ends up happening?

Haman gets hung

on the gallows

that he's built

for the righteous.

It's a picture

of what will come

of all the wicked.

David wants us

to think about that.

He wants us to see it,

consider it,

meditate on it.

We get to verses 16 and 17.

Those who envy

the wicked's prosperity

are warned here.

You're better off

with just a little

as one who is faithful

to the Lord

because the Lord

is going to break

the strength

of the wicked.

But in contrast

to that,

those who trust

and obey the Lord

will find him

to be their strength

and their provision.

In 18 to 20,

we're reminded

of God's omniscience.

He's not blind

to any of our ways.

He sees the quiet

righteousness

of your life

and he also sees

the wickedness

of the unfaithful.

And it's according

to that divine knowledge

that he moves

toward judgment,

namely a final judgment

where all will be exposed

and even the things

that you don't see

and you don't understand,

maybe you look

and you see

that righteous person,

but God knows

there's wickedness there.

Or perhaps you're seeing

the wickedness

of that other person

and you're just wondering

what's ever going

to come of this

and it's all moving

somewhere.

It's all moving

to a final judgment

where God will expose

it all

and he will deal

decisively

with each of us.

The wicked will perish.

He blesses the faithful

even though

he ordains

evil times

and famine

that they must endure.

He upholds them

but the wicked perish

like the grass.

They vanish

like a drought.

And then we get

to 21 and 22

and David repeats

this promise

of land

and being cut off.

There's blessing

and there's cursing

and if we read

those two verses

backward

we might get

the sense

of why he's

suddenly introducing

this idea

of generosity.

He's saying

that those

who understand

or believe

themselves

not to have

a real future

that this is really

the only life

there is to live for

you only live once

right?

So do all

that you can

gain all

that you can

it's a selfish

way of life

that that mindset

produces

but the faithful

they understand

there's far more

than this life

and in fact

things get

far greater

therefore that

affects the way

that they live now

rather than

hoarding

and gaining

and gaining

and gaining

they're generous

they're giving

and giving

and giving

because they know

their future

is secured

in the blessing

of God.

As noted

last week

remembering

the end

of the wicked

is what kept

Asaph

in Psalm 73

from slipping

when he observed

the prosperity

of the wicked

wisdom

it demands

that we look

beyond our

present circumstances

to future realities

if we're going

to remain faithful

ourselves

but there's

there's a warning

here that we can't

miss

there's a warning

here for the

unbeliever

that this is not

the only life

that there is

to live

and that there

is indeed

a judgment

that's coming

unless you receive

God's mercy

by faith

you will perish

with the wicked

you will be

counted

as wicked

and the cares

of this world

and of this life

they are not

worth

an eternity

cut off

from God's grace

and goodness

so God

as we've

just sang about

in his marvelous

love

he sends his son

Jesus

who bears

that curse

for us

he bears

the curse

for all

who will turn

from sin

to trust in him

Paul said

to the Galatians

Christ redeemed

us from the curse

of the law

becoming a curse

for us

so that we might

receive the promised

spirit

through faith

see the righteous

in the psalms

ultimately

are not

sinless people

they're not

people whose

good outweighs

their bad

they're counted

righteous

because they

believe God

because they

trust his mercy

because they

wait on his

promises

because they

believe in his

promised king

and that faith

produces a life

of righteousness

as we read

about in 1 John

just a few

moments ago

and if you

come to God

by faith

in Christ

and his

Messiah

his provider

of salvation

you will then

be counted

righteous

even though

you're not

you'll be

counted righteous

by faith

and won't

perish

says John

in his

gospel

the famous

verse

God so

loved the

world

he gave

his only

son

so that

whoever will

believe in

him

his son

won't

perish

as do the

wicked in

Psalm 37

they'll have

eternal life

they'll inherit

the land

so what is

David telling

us to do

well we need

to get a grip

on our initial

emotional responses

to this issue

we need to take

some time to

contemplate

the future

what will

actually come

of the wicked

in the end

we need to

lean into that

there's a third

thing I think

we find

and that is

we need to

count

on God

to be

faithful

we need to

count on God

to be faithful

and again

it's all over

the psalm

but maybe

it's highlighted

and underscored

in verses

23 to

33

David almost

contrasts the

description of

the wicked

and the end

of the wicked

with a description

of the righteous

and God's

blessing on the

life of faith

verse 23

they delight

in God's way

and verse 26

they're intent

on blessing

others

even their kids

are a blessing

to others

verse 30

they speak

truth and wisdom

verse 31

God's law

is near

to their

heart

28 to

29

verse 33

the Lord

is preserving

them

God is being

faithful to

them

special emphasis

though here

is being given

to the Lord's

faithfulness

verse 25

may be the key

verse of the

whole psalm

as an old

man with many

years to reflect

on David

says he's never

seen God

forsake his

own

I've been

young

now I'm

old

I've not

seen the

righteous

forsaken

verse 28

for the Lord

loves justice

he will not

forsake his

saints

verse 33

the Lord

will not

abandon

his people

to the power

of the wicked

in other words

David's saying

the Lord

is faithful

he will be

faithful

count on him

to be

faithful

fall

is summarized

so well

perhaps best

in verse 24

though he

fall

he shall not

be cast head

long

for the Lord

upholds his

hand

fall there

is not sin

it's hardship

it's trouble

it's difficulty

the promise

is not that

you won't

fall

the promise

is not that

things won't

get hard

for you

the promise

is that

God will

uphold you

even when

they are

hard

and even

when you

are in

trouble

and even

when you

are struggling

Charlie's

at that

age where

you have

to hold

her hand

everywhere

you go

because if

you don't

there's no

telling what

might happen

we can go

to the store

and we'll

walk around

Target

or something

like that

and I'll

be on

one side

and Julie

will be

on the

other side

and she'll

grab each

of our

hands

and she's

learned that

if she's

got each

of our

hands

she can

play a

game with

us

which is

when mom

and dad

aren't paying

attention

I can just

lift my

feet up

and hope

that they

are holding

on

and as long

as we're

holding her

hand it's

great

and she

loves it

her feet

go up in

the air

sometimes

she gets

a little

bit more

risky

and it's

not when

both of us

have our

hand it's

just when

one of us

has her

hand and

she hasn't

processed yet

that it

doesn't work

exactly the

same way

when I don't

have stability

on this

side

she'll

suddenly lift

up her

legs and

I'm walking

down the

sidewalk with

her and

sometimes she

skins her

knee but

as long as

dad has

her hand

she's safe

as long

as dad

has her

hand

she's not

ultimately

going to

fall

he's got

her

she's

going to

be okay

that's how

the lord

holds his

people

see what he

says in

verse 24

he establishes

their steps

even though

they fall

he upholds

them by

the hand

can I just

tell you

you may be

struggling right

now for one

reason or

another maybe

it's it's

the prosperity

of the wicked

actually that

is the reason

for your

trouble right

now can I

just tell you

the lord has

you and you

may feel

fallen but

he's got your

hand and

he's faithful

and he's

going to be

faithful and

you can count

on that he

will always be

faithful there's

a fourth thing

it's at the

very end

what do we

do when we

look around

and the wicked

are prospering

well we

wait we

just wait

but we

wait in

faith and

in obedience

again it's all

through the

psalm seems

to be highlighted

here at the

end

give verse

34

wait for the

lord and

keep his

way

do you know

what the

instruction to

wait means

that there are

going to be a lot

of times that you

look around and

you're thinking

lord where's

this promise

you said that the

wicked life

fallen

I don't see

it

the bible's not

hiding from

that

at present

things are not

as they ought

to be

the promise is

that one day

one day soon

god's gonna make

all things

right

therefore

wait

just wait for

him

just stay

faithful

just keep

going

wait for the

lord keep

his way

he will

exalt you

to inherit

the land

again that's

it's not a

promise for you

to inherit a

piece of dirt

in the middle

east that's

that's a

promise of

an eternal

country

that's the

new heavens

and the new

earth he will

exalt you

there you

will look

on in that

judgment and

you will see

the wicked

perish

not that you'll

delight in it

but you'll

delight in the

justice of

god for all

who will not

turn to him

verse 35

david speaks

again of

experience i've

seen a wicked

ruthless man

spreading himself

like a green

laurel tree

but he died

he passed

away

he was no

more i

sought him

and he could

not be found

but wicked

are not

immortal

we get a

taste even

now of

god's

judgment that

will be brought

to completion

in their

future but

then he tells

us as we're

waiting that

there's another

group to pay

attention to

verse 37

mark the

blameless

behold the

upright for

there is a

future for the

man of peace

though transgressors

are altogether

destroyed the

future of the

wicked will be

cut off

there's a

different future

for the

blameless one

for the

upright one

and it's

salvation in

verse 39

the salvation of

the righteous is

from the lord

he is their

stronghold in

that time of

trouble the lord

helps them and

delivers them he

delivers them from

the wicked he

saves them because

they take refuge in

him so david says

as you're waiting

on the lord watch

the wicked and see

what actually comes

of them in time

they won't prosper

the way that you

think but don't

just look at the

wicked he says

watch the righteous

ones that god has

put in your life

watch their way of

life watch their

faith watch their

patience watch their

holiness and their

righteousness lived

out watch the

peace that god

gives them see how

things end for

them what do we

do we wait and

while we wait we

watch we watch what

the lord does

it's a real issue

isn't it and it's

going to be a common

issue for each of

us where does jesus

fit into all of

this we talk about

that all the time

that the psalms are

are uniquely

christological they're

pointing us forward

to a greater king

and a greater david

but jesus not only

lived this wisdom he

taught it he quotes

an earlier verse in

the beatitudes the

meek shall inherit the

earth he taught us

this wisdom he taught

us to do this he he

lived this out he

modeled it but he but

he does more than

that jesus fulfills the

wisdom of the psalm he

fulfills the experience

of the psalm jesus is

the righteous one

persecuted by the

wicked ones in his

day it was the wicked

that seemed always to

win

israel as a nation is

under oppression from

pagan rome and even

within israel there was

great wickedness abuse of

the spiritual leaders

jesus has the full

experience of that but he

remains faithful he knows

their end and he counted

on the father to vindicate

his righteousness and he

did his vindication came in

his resurrection from the

dead in other words god

has proven his

faithfulness he has he

has proven the

faithfulness of psalm 37

through the work of jesus

christ and his death and

in his resurrection all of

us who thus hope understand

that because jesus has been

vindicated and because his

detractors have been judged

so will ours and our

vindication will come as well

not because there's something

unique about us but because

we're in him and we're his

people by faith so when you

see the wicked winning be like

jesus

don't fret or envy

remember their end relish god's

faithfulness and wait for him to

act for he surely will let's pray

you