The Psalter teaches us about the life of faith, about honest dialogue between us and our Creator. The Psalter gives us hope that the life of faith is worth the effort, often by contrasting the righteous and the wicked. Themes from the Wisdom literature of the Bible (Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon) are prominent in some psalms. (Examples: Psalms 37, 49 and 73)
People in whom God is acting to make them like Him are contrasted with
people who deny God and live like He doesn’t matter.
Righteousness “is much more like a verb than a noun, because it refers to the power of God to make right what has been wrong.” (Rutledge, The Crucifixion, p. 134). Also, God’s righteousness and his justice are essentially the same thing. God is acting in restoring righteousness and justice to Israel: God does righteousness. And, thanks be to God that He does, because Israel eventually flunks out and can only throw itself on the mercy of God.
But back to Psalm 37, a wisdom psalm, that has much to teach us about the reality of the life of faith. In his chapter on “Life” in Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, Dietrich Bonhoeffer refers to Psalm 37 as evidence that “God wants the devout to prosper on earth”:
Bodily life is not disdainful. Precisely for its sake God has given
Bonhoeffer, p. 44
us his fellowship in Jesus Christ, so that we can live by him in this
life and then also, of course, in the life to come. For this reason he gives us earthly prayers so that we can better recognize him, praise him, and love him. God wants the devout to prosper on earth
(Psalm 37). And this desire is not set aside by the cross of Christ,
but is all the more established by it. Precisely at the point where
men must make many sacrifices in following Jesus as did the disciples, they will answer, “Nothing!” to the question of Jesus, “Did you lack anything?” (Luke 22:35) The presupposition of this is the insight of the Psalms: “Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of the wicked” (Psalm 37:16)
The instruction of Psalm 37 is wisdom indeed, a hymnic reflection on envy of the wicked and not being deceived by appearances. This lengthy Hebrew wisdom poem starts each verse with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is an alphabetic acrostic poem which goes through the Hebrew alphabet (22 letters) almost twice, imperfectly, as is typical. Boring!! But maybe not if you view it through the lens of its purpose and allow it to come to life. I’ve prayerfully yawned my way through it many times. But this time, God did an Epiphany thing and illuminated Psalm 37 “as never before,” to quote Father Paul. Here’s how God woke me up.
He showed me that a major purpose of this psalm is to teach His people to replace habits of envying the wicked with habits of delighting in the LORD. What habits of envy do I see in myself? What habits of delighting in the LORD am I developing?
He wants to helps us recognize the destructiveness of our preoccupation with other people and our habit of comparison. He wants to help us use our thoughts and emotions to remind us of our need for Him, for God-centeredness.
We can pray like our 7 year old grandson Casen does, “God, catch me when I’m doing something bad, so you can help me do better. Don’t let me get away with stuff.” That’s the big idea in Psalm 37.
Psalm 37 is about wise living in our crooked generation. It sets before us the highway of wisdom, even as our Lord called on his followers to learn from him the way that pleases the father in Heaven (Matthew 5:2-10).
Outline of Psalm 37:
I. 37:1-6 An Exhortation to Hope in the LORD’s Deliverance
II. 37:7-11 The Comfort of Divine Retribution
III. 37:12-26 The Contrastive Ways of the Righteous and the Wicked IV. 37:27 Call for Wise Living in View of the Belief in Divine Retribution
V. 37:40 An Exhortation to Hope in the LORD’s Deliverance
How can we guard ourselves against becoming our destructive thoughts and feelings as we “think thoughts” and “feel feelings”? (Learning more about ourselves helps us learn more about God, experience more of God, and love God more.)
What experiences or people have helped you to keep negative thoughts and feelings in perspective? “ Fret” in Psalm 37:1, 7 and 8 comes from the Hebrew root that means “to heat up.” (Don’t be incensed by people who do evil, to do evil yourself. See Ephesians 4:26.)
What has helped you to develop trust in God, to grow in faith? How has God worked in you to create “affection” for Him? Psalm 37:3 instructs us to trust in God, do good, abide in his provision and befriend faithfulness (shepherd or chase trust). How “friendly” are you with your faith/trust in God? How are you shepherding your trust in God?
Compare 37:4 with Matthew 6:33, 37:11 with Matthew 5:5, 37:13 with Ps. 2:4, 37:16 with I Timothy 6:6, 37:20 with James 1:11 and Matthew 6:30, 37:24 with II Cor. 4:9, 37:26 and Matt. 5:42 and Luke 6:35, 37:33 and 2 Peter 2:9.
How does the continuity of biblical teaching impact your motivation to learn?
Presented January 19, 2020.