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 the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.” Psalm 37:1-3.
According to H.A. Ironside in his book, “Studies on the Psalms”, published by Loizeaux Bros. Inc. Psalm 37 is part of an ensemble of three Psalms, 35, 36, and 37.
He tells us that that the emphasis in these three Psalms is on God’s holiness in grace and judgment, as you read them you might look for that connection.
When you read them check out the last verse of Psalm 36 and the first verse of 37 quoted below.
“There the workers of iniquity have fallen; they have been cast down and are not able to rise.” Psalm 36:12.
“Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.” Psalm 37:1.
In the last verse of Psalm 36, the psalmist confirms his belief in God’s justice and predicts the fall of evildoers. And at the beginning of Psalm 37, God replies, “Do not fret”, that is to say do not worry, this will be done. In this manner, Ironside shows the connection between these two Psalms.
This twofold witness is a good place to continue our discussion of God’s justice.
“Do not fret…” Psalm 37:1, while the words worry and fret are very similar, fret has a little more force to it, and it should be taken to heart.
Fret has to do with worry, annoyance, discontent, but its other uses denote, to corrode, gnaw, or erode, as an acid would.
Is that happening to you, is something gnawing at you?
God says, “Do not fret”, do you believe this?
Bear in mind that God’s character is on the line here. If He says, He will do something He will carry it out. It may not be the way or when we expect, but it will happen.
There is a good example of this in the book of Daniel. Here we have a prophecy of the future Antichrist, the beast, given full rein to persecute the saints of God for three and a half years, “a time and times and half a time”.
“He [Antichrist] shall speak pompous words against the Most High [God], shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time. But the court [God’s court] shall be seated, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it forever. Then the kingdom and dominion, And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His [Jesus Christ’s] kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.” Daniel 7:25-27.
This is further elaborated in Daniel chapter 12.
“Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time [3 ½ years]; and when the power of the holy people [Jews] has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished.” Daniel 12:7.
“Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.” Daniel 12:10.
This all has to do with the persecution of the saints, primarily the Jews, but saved Gentiles will also suffer during the tribulation. The point is this; God allows all this horror to happen for a purpose, which is explained in Daniel 12:10 above.
But the people are sore tried and even after death they call out to the Lord.
“ And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’” Revelation 6:10.
God answers this question later in Revelation chapter 13 below.
“If anyone has an ear, let him hear. He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” Revelation 13:9-10.
Once again, the promise is that evildoers will be punished in accordance with their deeds. Even with all the prophecies being fulfilled before them believers will cry out. Yet His promise is there, justice will prevail.
“Do not fret”, do not let your circumstances grind you down, or eat you up like an acid. You cannot see God on His throne, but He is there, you cannot see that He is in control, but He is.
Do not be ashamed that you are coming apart at the seams, you are in good company, but look to Jesus, sit at His feet and lay your burdens down.
There is no power in all creation like His, stay close to the center of power and cast yourself upon His mercy, He did not die for you for nothing. He sacrificed Himself on the cross because He loves you. You will not find this faithfulness in men.
They will fail. In fact, God says this about reliance on man:
“Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord.” Jeremiah 17:5.
Have you put your trust in a man to help solve your problem? Perhaps this is partly why you can’t seem to get free of whatever is hindering you from living a full life of peace.
The second part of verse one of Psalm 37, contains something, which is similar to fret in a way, “…nor be envious of the workers of iniquity”. To envy is to want something you think you do not have. This envy can make you fret about these things, or worse it can cause you to try to get them.
Envy and coveting will rob you of your joy, nothing will ever be enough. It is good to work hard and stretch, but this is bondage do not do it.
In this case we are not to envy workers of iniquity, for they will be cut down like grass.
“But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” Psalm 73:2-3.
“When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me – until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end. Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awakes, so, Lord, when You awake, You shall despise their image.” Psalm 73:16-20.
“…nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.” Psalm 37:1b-2.
Now grass is a good analogy, especially if you have a lawn. In a temperate climate, you see the grass constantly growing and it is quickly mowed, and that which was, is no more.
That tall blade of grass is gone and is nowhere to be found, look at your lawn before you mow it, pick out a few particular blades of grass, and afterward look for them. Not to be found, in fact it is likely you will not be able to find the exact location where they were.
Men are like this, dictators, gangsters, petty tyrants on the workforce, all have a period of time and when it has elapsed, they are gone.
“He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” Proverbs 29:1.
God deals with these people just as He does anyone else. And they will be held responsible just like anyone else; you will see this on Judgment Day.
However, to you He says:
“Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall 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 the Lord, 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.” Psalm 37:3-7.
It is important to note that the above passage has conditions and promises, so be careful how you read it. If you say you tried all that and found it to be untrue, you may not have fulfilled the conditions properly. Do not write God off too quickly.
You may have been too careless in your taking hold of God’s promises. “Trust in the Lord…” Psalm 37:3a is a pat answer given out carelessly by too many.
The problem is the answer in the heart of those receiving this advice is, “That’s easy for you to say you haven’t walked a mile in my moccasins”.
Sadly, there is a lot of truth in this response, many of these advisors are just mouthing the words and quite often have not taken the same advice.
Power comes from living in Christ, meaning, doing the whole sentence in Psalm 37:3. “…and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.”
“Trust in the Lord…” are not just words, they are an action. It is an action of taking every part of what is troubling you and laying them at the feet of Jesus.
This is not easy to do because there is always a part of you that says, “What if this doesn’t work?” Maybe it will not. Are you doing good? Do you feed on His faithfulness?
To understand the concept of doing good consider these two verses in 1 John 3 below.
“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” 1 John 3:21-22.
So doing good is not just, doing good deeds but it is tied into being right before God. This is not a matter of being legalistic; it is a life lived before God.
You see, the closer you stick to God, the more easily you do the things which are pleasing to Him.
All the good deeds flow out of this, it is not just saying, “Well I have my list of good things to do today, and I will just check them off as I go along through the day”.
Of course, there will be another list tomorrow, and God will be very pleased.
You are now making this into a job, you might feel good about it, but I doubt that you will experience much joy. In fact, you may find it quite exhausting after a while.
This is not what God wants; but things that come from the heart, this pleases Him.
Even people in day-to-day life, your parents, your spouse, etc. all have a greater appreciation of the things you do for them out of love.
People can tell the difference between things done out of duty and those for love. God is no different, He wants our love not mindless works done out of debt, though we owe Him a very great debt.
Good deeds then are both a matter of doing right by those around you, simple stuff like opening doors for people, or being kind when most people would not bother to be, there are many ways to do good, even the godless often do good at times.
However, to do good is also to walk with your God and seek always to emulate Him.
“He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8.
The believer has the Holy Spirit within them, and as indicated in 1 John 3:21-22 quoted earlier; the Holy Spirit shows our hearts where we are in relation to God. By this we can know whether we are heading in the right direction or not.
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12.
God’s Spirit also uses the Bible to guide us. “The word of God is living and powerful”, God uses His word to cut into the heart of our being, and He uses it to shed a brilliant light into the darkest recesses of our souls.
He shows us in this way the very thoughts and intents of our hearts; by this, our hearts either are convicted of sin or have a confidence before God. In this manner, we can do good.
Justice Continued, Part 1 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 7-11-15, updated on 8-30-24 ck.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.