Promises to Believers
The book of Psalms is often taken for granted, this book of 150 chapters is often only used in snippets. Many will look at a few verses, but avoid the majority of the book, which is to their detriment. The book of Psalms is filled with verses discussing Jesus, the end times, knowledge for present day believers, and even promises. As part of my own personal Bible study, I read a Psalm a day. In doing this, I am finding out more and more about our God. Today, I want to share with you one of the new things that I have found.
“Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! 2 For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. 7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! 8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. 9 For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. 10 In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. 11 But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.”
Psalm 37:1-11
We see right off that God is telling us not to worry or be envious of those who are not following His commandments. While it might appear now that they are getting everything they want, in the end those who are not found in the book of life as described in Revelation 20:11-15 will wither and fade. Their reward is here on earth, for the believer we have greater things coming!
However, throughout the rest of this section of Psalm 37, we can see that God makes a pledge to those who follow Him. The first pledge is in verse three. “Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.” There is a duality in this pledge, first to the people of Israel about their promised land but also to those saved throughout human history with what Christ has made for us. This first pledge is a reminder to the promise God gave to mankind in Genesis 1:26-28; “Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” We are called to have dominion over this earth, not to worship the created but to dwell and grow in faithfulness the things that God has given us.
Our second pledge is in verse four, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” When we seek to put God’s will and desire for our life above our own, we quickly see that our desires align with what God wants. God is a good Father, He wants to give us good things. “11 Now which one of you fathers will his son ask for a fish, and instead of a fish, he will give him a snake? 12 Or he will even ask for an egg, and his father will give him a scorpion? 13 So if you, despite being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” Luke 11:11-13. It is only through our own sinful nature that seeks to rebel against God that we find ourselves in situations that cause us to be tempted.
Our next pledge is in verse five, “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.” To commit your way to something means that you are following it without hesitation or reservation. When we place this kind of commitment and desire to follow the Lord, our trust in Him grows. This also allows for us to be able to see how God is able to act upon His will for us.
Finally, we see the last pledge in verses seven and eight. “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! 8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.” Be still or rest before the Lord. This is a hard concept when we feel as if the enemy is not receiving any punishment. It can be all too easy to give into anger and wish to take matters into our own hands, this type of anger does no good and as we see in verse eight only leads to evil. This pledge is a reminder to allow God to punish those who plan and enact evil. “20 for a man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness of God.” Now this is not the same thing as righteous anger; we are called to love the things God loves and hate the things that God hates, this is righteous anger. What verses seven and eight are discussing is the anger we feel when we believe that someone is not receiving what they deserve. We forget that God is aware of everything that occurs and He is the One who ultimately deals out the punishment. It is why verse seven tells us to be still before the Lord and wait for Him.
Now that we have seen the four pledges found in Psalm 37; I do want to point out one more thing, and that is the culmination of these pledges. This can be found in verse nine. “For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. 10 In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. 11 But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.” We see again that God will deal with those who reject Him, this is a pledge to those who are not born-again believers who have placed their faith in the works of Jesus Christ. But then it continues and we see that God has one last message for those who belong to Him, the wicked will eventually be no more but those who trust, delight, commit, and rest in the Lord will inherit the land.
Seek the truth and encourage one another,
Alex