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.

If anyone is convicted of sin, there is a simple way to return to a right relationship with God.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.

When convicted of sin; confess it! Anyone who sincerely wants a relationship with God will do this from the heart. God wants a humble confession, not a devious or cynical attempt at getting what one wants from Him.

Deviousness is futile He knows everyone’s heart and any attempts to fool Him will only distance themselves further from Him. God does not move away from anyone; they move away from Him.

Notice that it says, He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The idea is not so much that of cleansing from sin, but of cleansing us of that particular sin.

For instance, if someone who is a habitual liar is saved, their sins are forgiven.

However, that does not mean they will automatically stop lying.

So, what happens? Well one day they are going along like always and they tell a lie, immediately the Spirit taps them on the shoulder and says, “That was a lie.”

Suddenly they see it, as if they had never really seen it before. And they cry out to the Lord and confess their sin. God is working in their heart, not keeping track; they see the sin and repent.

Something else is happening too, God is cleansing them of that sinful habit.

Minutes later, they tell another lie. Tap, tap on the shoulder again, “That was another lie.” Again, they call on the Lord and confess it. This happens again, and again, they confess and God forgives.

Nevertheless, as this process goes on the tendency to lie becomes less; in fact, this person finally reaches a point where they cannot tell a lie.

All this is done without any legalistic ritualism or some form of penance. God is in the business of repairing ruined lives. There is no end of Christian witnesses who will testify to that fact.

You need to watch out for something though; Satan is watching all this too. He will not hesitate to try to make you feel embarrassed before God to keep you from confessing your sin; he will attempt to make you feel as though God is tiring of your failures.

As long as you are sincerely coming to your Father, you will not wear out your welcome. You cannot tire God, you cannot wear Him down, He has been putting up with us for over six thousand years, you are not going to wear Him down in your short lifetime.

“Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:33-39.

“Trust in the Lord, and do good…” Psalm 37:3a.

To do good is something that God has put His resources at our disposal to accomplish. However, are we willing to do this?

Too often Christians are unwilling to put God first in their lives and so they become blinded to the right thing to do.

Selfish-ambition, the world’s goods, and the desire for independence blind them.

These things make us indifferent to what God calls good and causes us to seek to do the things we think are right. This is blindness and destroys our ability to trust in God.

Then the statement is made, “I trusted in God and it didn’t work.” We are unbelievably myopic! If you have ever watched a billiard game, or played yourself, you will know that the idea is to make your shot and have the cue ball (the white ball) stop in a good position for the next shot.

Sometimes though the ball winds up in a really bad spot. If the player cannot see another clear shot, it helps to walk around the table. In so doing, the cue ball may be seen from different angles and a new shot may appear.

This can work in life too, step back and look at your priorities, be honest; the pool player will not get a good shot by lying to himself. Neither will you.

“…dwell in the land…” Psalm 37:3b.

One thing folks need to bear in mind when reading the Scriptures is who is being addressed. In this case, is it the Christian or the Israelite?

The obvious answer is Israel, David is writing this Psalm to his people, and in his own time. Even so the Psalms are timeless and have wisdom for all peoples.

As you have seen we have been able to use this Psalm for our own lives, so, “dwell in the land”, refers to the land of Israel, but can also be used to teach Christians great truths.

All of the children of Abraham (which includes Christians) are called strangers and pilgrims (sojourners) in the book of Hebrews.

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Hebrews 11:13.

Dwell in this case has the idea of living wherever God has put you, in a state of contentment. Work the land, care for your property, do everything to the best of your abilities, but don’t make a god out of it.

Do not forget to do good for your fellow men, be at peace as much as lies within you. And though this earth is not our home be sure to vote in every election, because this is God’s gift to all Americans.

It is all here for our use but our home is in heaven and as the Lord told us, we are to store up our treasures in heaven. This is the difference between mature Christians and those in the world.

The world system tells us to constantly strive for more, yet more will not make us happier. Beware here; Scripture tells us that, God has given us all things to richly enjoy.

So enjoy your spouse, children, your home, flowers, trees, green grass, and if you need something, work for it, but maintain your balance.

You see the devil will delude you into valuing things more than Christ, and once your mind shifts in its perspective, possessions will devour you.

There is another very subtle thing that can happen here. Often men will say they are content with their circumstances, but in their mind they are thinking that God has something better and maybe this is so; however it can also be an excuse covering real feelings of discontent with what they have.

“Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.” 1Timothy 6:6-9.

There is a true contentment and it is here linked with godliness, which really is seeing things from God’s perspective. To achieve this it is necessary to devote yourself to learning from and listening to God.

Initially this will mean a real concentrated effort on your part to see God as everything with any meaning. You cannot imagine what a tremendous upheaval this will be to your worldview.

All our lives we have been taught that the gaining of possessions is what brings happiness.

That is the history of this earth; men have gathered riches, accrued possessions, sought power and fame, done everything imaginable to satisfy the heart.

Philosophers have tried to explain why there is no real satisfaction, and have attempted to formulate some kind of a way to find true happiness.

To this day they have failed, in fact philosophy has now become such a morass that men are in greater despair than ever before.

If you study philosophy, you will see that all the formulations leave out a key ingredient, God.

Try baking a cake without eggs or milk; even your children will not eat it.

Godless philosophy is just as unappetizing. However, to dwell in the land in complete reliance on the living God is true wisdom.

The fourth exhortation is to:

“…feed on His faithfulness.” Psalm 37:3c.

This is a natural progression, from trusting, to doing good, to dwelling in faith. As His faithfulness unfolds you will feed on it.

Think of the manna in the wilderness, every day the children of Israel would step out of their tents, and there it would be enough food for the day. Day after day, they would find this food faithfully provided by God.

Nowhere else in the world could you find this phenomenon, a miraculous provision sent by God. Unfortunately, in time familiarity deadens the wonder, even to the point that they began to despise the miraculous bread.

When I was younger I read I the account of the children in the wilderness and thought to myself, “What is wrong with these people, God gave them food or water and a few days later they are complaining about some other thing. Can’t they remember the last miracle that God did for them?”

It was a great shock when I realized that I was no better than they were. Yes, God answered my last prayer, but He is not likely to answer the next one.

Where does that kind of thinking come from?

Well Satan is the great instigator, but I cannot put all the blame on him, after all, I am listening to him am I not?

The final blame falls on me for not feeding on God’s faithfulness. This feeding should start with a grateful heart, not just taking the good things given, but thanking God for answering a prayer or providing something that was unforeseen.

“Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.” Psalm 30:4.

“…giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…” Ephesians 5:20.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7.

“And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Colossians 3:17.

“Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving…” Colossians 4:2.

“…in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

“Therefore by Him [Jesus] let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” Hebrews 13:15.

Thankfulness keeps the manna fresh in our experience. There is a verse, in the gospel of John which is related to this thought.

“And of His [Christ Jesus] fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.” John 1:16.

Christ Jesus, who is all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form, when we are saved Christ’s Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us, in this way we have received of His fullness.

It is a shame that the average Christian has no idea what great resources have been put within their grasp, both for their own help and for the good of others around them.

Think of it, Christ in you, God closer to you than your next breath! The phrase, grace for grace, is what we feed on. What it means is grace piled upon grace.

We experience the grace of God when we are eternally saved (“For by grace are you saved”), it does not stop there though, God showers grace after grace upon us.

When we examine our lives and see how rebellious and unworthy we are of all the good God does to us and His patience as He works to bring us to the full measure of a man (or woman) in Christ Jesus, then you can only marvel at how grace piles upon grace for our sakes. Even this though can become trite if you do not continually feed on the faithfulness of God.

There is another fascinating illustration of feeding on His faithfulness, also found in the gospel of John.

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, ‘How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?’ Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven – not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” John 6:51-58.

For your own benefit, please go back and read this entire chapter six. This unbelievable debacle separates the Lord’s true disciples from the hangers on. Moreover, it has confused many a Christian since too.

You will find that the more people resist the word of God, the more difficult it becomes to receive it. In this passage, the Lord starts out with some simple statements in verses 32-40.

Then as they begin to resist, His statements become much harder to accept. Nevertheless, for the true disciple these are words of life.

As you read the above passage, do so with the following in mind. Verses 51 and 53 are in the aorist tense and mean, “Whoever has done so”.

In which case verse 51 could be read in part as follows, I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. If anyone has eaten of this bread, (whoever has done so) he will live forever.

And verse 53 could read, Most assuredly, I say to you unless you have eaten (whoever has done so) the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.

Verses 54, 56, and 57, change to the present tense. The idea here is one of continuous feeding. This is most clearly seen in verse 57, “so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.”

This is a good illustration that an individual is saved by the blood of Christ (verses 51 and 53), but it does not stop there; Christian growth is gained by continually feeding on the word of God (verses 54, 56 and 57).

It must be emphasized here that this passage clearly teaches that there is no other way to enter heaven than by the shed blood of Christ. Without this, “you have no life in you”.

So, to feed on His faithfulness encompasses much; that is to meditate on His word, to be thankful, to recognize grace piled upon grace, always in a fresh and new way.

Justice Continued, Part 2 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 7-11-15, updated on 9-9-24 ck.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.