Psalm 37

This is an acrostic psalm loaded with popular proverbs of David’s time. It’s the age old question of why it seems the wicked prosper and the righteous are blown by the winds of blind fortune. On the surface, it appears that David merely reaffirms what Job’s three friends said, but we happen to know they were literalists, whereas David is a poet full of parables. One must read between the lines to find the real treasure here. That is, living justly by the revelation of God is its own reward. If you read this expecting a literal fulfillment of the promises, you’ll miss the point. It’s also a subtle slam on activism, particularly political activism.

When you view the world through a proper moral lens of the heart, it’s as if you have stepped into an alternative universe. While you still have your feet on this fallen planet, your perception is radically altered. If you live in your head, all you can see are what the five senses and your human reason can tell you. When you live by your heart, committed to God’s revelation of the truth, you lose your obsession with material comforts and seek the peace of a clean soul. Human suffering fades into the background as mere transient context.

Thus, David jumps right in asserting you should not envy the sinners who cannot see what the godly see. When sinners die, the good times are gone. For the righteous, it’s just the beginning. Bear the toils of life with grace and embrace the truth of moral purity. That puts you in a position to sense the divine power and presence of God, and you can talk with Him knowing He hears you. Let Him worry about human events. Perhaps the wicked won’t see or understand, but God will publicly reward your private devotion to Him. So let the fools chase their broken dreams. Don’t let your sense of logic make you burn with some impossible demand for practical justice. Sooner or later it will come, but God hardly wastes that much effort to correct hearts closed to His truth. Let justice fall on sinners at God’s timetable.

David treats nature as a living being, a separate creature. The righteous will live in peace and know that all Creation is on their side — they “will possess the land.” The same land will hardly remember the passage of the wicked. There will always be oppressors and the oppressed. At some point their tools of oppression will be turned against them. Give God room to work. Turn loose your fearful grip on earthly possessions and don’t let such things possess you. Let God take care of your needs, because He really knows what’s in your best interest. Particularly when He sends His wrath through natural means, you’ll be surprised at how nature responds and still feeds the godly, if they simply wait on God and keep their eyes open for His fingerprints.

There is one noteworthy contrast that comes from too far back in the mists of ancient times to trace it down: The wicked don’t even pay just debts, but the righteous give freely beyond what they owe to men because of what they owe to God. Again, nature itself revolts at immorality and cooperates with the righteous. Even if you fall, God will catch you. David mentions that he has lived a long life and has never seen the genuinely righteous actually starving when they cry out to God. Nature provides one way or another, if you abide where God calls you.

It continues in this vein until the acrostic of the Hebrew alphabet is complete. It’s not as if righteous people don’t ever suffer empty bellies, but that they don’t starve to death unless God is ready to bring them home. He grants a peace that does not rely on mere human senses, so don’t seek your fleshly desires, but seek God personally.