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Psalm 37- Trust In The Lord and Do Good
Both Exciting/paralyzing; I chose Ps 37 because it has been a meaningful Psalm for me the last few years. Daniel mentioned I was giving a charge. I think what he meant was that I was going to speak on something that would help us as we look to entering a new year. This Psalm has meaningful truth every day but this time of the year does allow us time to step back and look at our life as we enter 2026.
in Psalm 37 David speaks to his people about not fretting because of the evildoer. We may be tempted to think that the days we live in are the most evil age that’s ever been. And I am not discounting the daily displays of evil in our nation and throughout the world. However after the fall of man evil has always abounded in the world.
Cain, who was the first person in history to be born on earth, grew up and murdered his brother, Abel. And it only gets worse after that. In Genesis 6 we read:
The pages of scripture are filled with descriptions of the evil and wickedness of man including among God’s own people. Our nation, though it was founded on Judeo-Christian values, has a long history of sins including racism, greed, the murder of unborn children and rampant immorality.
In the 20th century (a century) it is estimated that 150 to 175 million people died as the result of war.
Sin abounds, evil and wickedness abound. And in the words of theologian Francis Schaeffer this should provoke the question of “How should we then live?”. How should the Christian live in a world full of evil and evil doers? As we approach 2026 this is a good question to ask ourselves. It is what David is instructing his people in Psalm 37. To sum up his encouragement we could use his words in verse 3: Trust in the Lord and do good. That is a good summary of the call on the Christian’s life. Let’s pray.
How Then Shall We Live In A Fallen World: Fret Not, Have an Eternal Perspective, Wait on The Lord and Commit Our Way To Him and Trust in The Lord and Do Good;
When it comes to understanding a Psalm like all Scripture we must first understand the context of it. What is it that the author is communicating to his original audience and how should we view it in light of the New Testament and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Most of the Psalms involve David or another Psalmist engaging God in the midst of life - whether it’s in joy or in sorrow or in the midst of a great trial. Psalm 37 is not like that. It involves David as king speaking directly to his people, the people of God.
David is writing to the people of Israel as an older man. In verse 25 he says I have been young and now am old. The structure of the Psalm suggests it is a psalm of wisdom. So David is writing to his people on how to live wisely. And though the Psalm is forty verses long we get its general sentiment in the first two verses: 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.
Scripture is full of encouragements for us not to envy the evil person especially those who may be prospering. In Psalm 73 the Psalmist, Asaph says:
Psalm 37 is a little different. David uses the word fret which besides using it in this Psalm three times is only found in one other place in Scripture: .
In our language we tend to think of the word fret to mean “be constantly or visibly worried or anxious”. (An English Dictionary) But the Hebrew word here in Psalm 37 actually means agitated, preoccupied; Charah (Ka ra)
In verse 8 of our text it reads Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
This description of fret kind of describes the state of America in the twenty-first century. Many people are agitated and angry and their wrath kindled (including Christians). This could have to do with things political or spiritual or a host of other issues. And obviously these emotions are not restricted to our times. In 1976 there was a famous scene from a movie called Network. In it newscaster Howard Beale encourages his listeners to open up the window and shout “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”
We don’t have to do that anymore because we have the internet! We have X, we have social media. And even if one does not engage much in those mediums our minds and affections can still be riled up. Preoccupied with strong and angry emotions even if we are not expressing those feelings to others.
David is saying. Fret not. Don’t get burned up about the evil doer! In verse eight he tells us it only leads to evil. David is not telling us to be passive towards evil. But he is saying that we should not respond to evil in sinful ways. Paul also addresses these heated emotions in Colossians 3:
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Colossians 3:5-8
Here Paul is equating unrighteous anger and wrath with such sins as sexual immorality, passion, evil desire, covetousness and idolatry. There is a sinful way to respond to the evil doer and a righteous way to respond. We will talk about that in our next few points but before we get there we should address the question of who is the evil doer?
We must be careful with this word, evildoers. In a very broad sense we are all evil and thus evil doers. In the Sermon on the Mount we heard Jesus chiding his disciples, saying “if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children.” We are all fallen creatures. The gospel message tells us that we all fall short of the glory of God. We are all sinners.
And even when we come to Christ and put our faith in Him we still struggle against the temptation to do evil deeds. David acknowledges this in verse 27 when he tells his people: Turn away from evil and do good; God’s grace calls the Christian to daily repentance against doing evil. However in this Psalm both the word evildoers and wrongdoers seems to fit into a more narrow definition of evil.
If you look both at the context of Psalm 37 and in the 15 other Psalms that we find the word evildoers in, it becomes apparent that it is describing someone who fits in the following categories. Lying, bloodthirsty, deceitful, hypocrites, evil, enemies of God, those who are boasting and strutting in their sin. It includes those who seek to ambush and kill God’s people. Those who are crooked in their ways, workers of inquiry. These are not descriptions of a believing Jew who is struggling against the evil of indwelling sin but a person who is seeking to perform evil with no regard for God. (essence) They are committing evil deeds that are worthy of righteous anger but not the sinful wrathful, self-righteous anger that we can be tempted to engage in.
This sermon is not just about not fretting or not being really angry but rather how should a Christian live in a fallen world where evil abounds. Or just how should a Christian live. One of the encouragements of Psalm 37 is that we should have an eternal perspective - this is our second point. It’s very much connected to don’t fret over evil doers. Seeing things from God’s perspective both towards the evildoer and the believer helps us to view life more clearly.
Now this Psalm is very much about how to live life in this present age. We are called to live here and live well and be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us. But this must be done in light of eternity. All joys and sorrows, responsibilities, callings, vocations, enjoyments should be viewed in light of the day of Christ and the light of eternity. In C.S. Lewis’ book The Screwtape Letters, Lewis states how Christians should view time.
We are to live in the present and we are to live in light of eternity. There are a number of verses in our text that reveal an eternal perspective. In verse two we read: For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. In verse 10 David muses: In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
When it says “in just a little while” that could be quite literal. God’s judgment can sometimes be very sudden. But this “in a little” while may be in terms of years. Sometimes in God’s mercy and forbearance he allows the evildoer to live a long earthly life. 2 Peter 3 tells us:
Whether it is a sudden judgement as when the Lord struck down King Herod when he was speaking or when He allows an evildoer to live long and to die in His sleep - either way in light of eternity is a little while.
Now we should rejoice that God will bring to bear his justice against evil and injustice but we should not rejoice that the wicked die apart from Christ. We can hate what the evildoer is doing and we should pray (and work towards) stopping evil deeds while at the same time praying for the evildoer to come to Christ.
One way we can personally grow in having an eternal perspective is through regular prayer. I encourage you to pray prayers similar to the one in Psalm 39 :
This is not to condemn or belittle us or make us feel guilty about enjoying the blessings that God gives to us in this life. But it was written to help give us a proper perspective of life and eternity. We must be on guard that entertainment, sports and social media and even God’s blessings here on earth don’t dull us and keep us from remembering that life is fragile and short and temporal. We are all tempted to think that life will just keep going on as it is until one day it doesn’t. A close friend or relative dies suddenly. Or we or someone we know find out we have a major medical condition. Life is short.
This brevity of life should not discourage us or cause us to shrivel up in pity or depression or fear but to push us towards the Savior. He who went to the Cross (for our evil deeds) knows the frailty and brevity of life and its challenges. He will comfort and strengthen us in our souls. In fact He is to be the anchor of our soul. It is not that we are to be unaware or afraid of the brevity of life but that through Christ we live in it. Live victoriously with hope and with strength and joy because of the indwelling Christ.
So how do we do that? Well that takes us to our next point which is to wait on the Lord and to commit our way to Him. Those phrases are found in verses 5-7. We live in a fallen and evil world, a dangerous world. Our first impulse should be to entrust our lives to our Creator.
These two activities definitely intersect with one another and with biblical faith. Both waiting on the Lord and committing our way to Him help us to understand what it means to trust the Lord (and how we do it) David tells us three times in this Psalm to wait for the Lord. This word in the Hebrew means to look for/to, to hope in, to expect. One commentator writes that waiting for the Lord marries patient expectancy with active seeking. We learned in Matthew 7 that we are to ask and seek and knock in prayer and that is part of active waiting on the Lord.
In verse 7 we read: Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, When it seems as if evil is winning or when things are not going well for us waiting confidently on the Lord is a means of strength and comfort. And yet waiting on the Lord can be challenging.
And I would add faith. Waiting should encourage us to press into the Lord and continue to trust and believe His promises.
Waiting on God is a disposition in which we are hoping and trusting in God as we wait for His deliverance and redemption both for matters in this life but also in the age to come. Ultimately the believer is waiting for the coming of Christ and the fullness of the Kingdom of God. This is reflected in verse 9 For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
To inherit the land is a metaphor of inheriting the eternal kingdom of God. Five times in this Psalm we are told that those who are waiting for and trusting in the Lord, shall inherit the land. To an Israelite inheriting the land was the fulfillment of their salvation.
Part of trusting God and waiting upon Him also involves committing our way to Him. In verses five and six we read: Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Now we might be uncomfortable with that language because we know we struggle with being righteous in our behavior in our thoughts, words and actions.
But this is part of the wonder of the gospel. For those who have believed upon Christ with saving faith He is for us even as we struggle and fight against sin. And as we commit our lives to Him and our ways to Him He does far more than we could ask or think. Do we deserve this? No but that is part of the beauty of grace. So commit your way to the Lord and trust that He will make a way for you despite your fallenness. .
This includes all the things that God has given us to do in this life: working and parenting, ministering, serving, evangelizing - all our responsibilities here on planet earth. These are areas that we can commit (consecrate) to our God and know that He will work for us. This word commit in the Hebrew means to roll or to roll away. Three different literal translations of the Bible translate this verse like this:
Don’t you love that our God is big enough, strong enough and loving enough that we can roll all things upon Him. Isaiah 40 declares:
This is our God and we can trust Him. We can roll all things upon Him. Our cares, our worries, our joys, our sins including the things we are ashamed of, our desires and dreams, our fears. our future, our children and grandchildren ALL THINGS. This is the essence of saving faith and sustaining faith where we entrust ourselves to God. Faith in God involves trusting Him and entrusting ourselves to Him. It is the same faith that Jesus demonstrated in his life and ministry:
Our last point is to trust God and do good which is what David tells us in verse 3. We commit and entrust our way to HIm and then go and do good. A few weeks ago when Daniel was Corrie Ten Boom in his teaching on forgiveness. She was a Dutch Christian who survived the concentration camps of the Nazi’s in World War II. She grew up in a Christian home. She was very involved in her father’s watch shop and became the first woman licensed as a watchmaker in the Netherlands.
The Ten Booms belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church and were very active in their faith. This translated into much service and ministry. They cared for foster children. including taking care of missionary’s children and children with special needs. Corrie ran a youth club for teenagers which provided religious instruction and classes in the performing arts, sewing, and handicrafts.
And when the war began they hid Jewish refugees in their home. They would stay there until they were “moved on” to be able to escape the country. It would have been easy for them to not do so and to continue to live their lives as watchmakers. But they risked everything by taking care of whoever showed up at their door. Through their home and others in the underground they were able to help over 800 people escape. Eventually Corrie, her father and sister were arrested by the Nazi’s. Her father only lived a few days but she and her sister Betsy, were sent away to the infamous Ravensbrück Concentration Camp in Germany.
There they ministered to the women in the camp many who came to know the Lord. Betsy died there but Corrie miraculously lived and because of a clerical error was released from the camp. After the war she helped organize centers that provided healing for war victims. She traveled around the world to over 60 countries sharing the gospel message and the need for forgiveness.
Now most of us will probably not have the opportunity to serve the Lord in such a dramatic way. However our text does call us to trust God and do good. This will look different for each person. But as James says in his epistles genuine biblical faith results in works. Our text does give us some ideas, some categories of what this may look like.
Verse 3. This is definitely not as “flashy” or spectacular as Corrie Ten Boom’s life and ministry. However remember that up until the war Corrie was living a relatively “normal” faithful Christian life in the small areas of faithfulness that God often calls us to. .”
Depending on which translation you read it’s difficult to know whether David is saying for the believer to cultivate faithfulness towards God or to be enriched and blessed by God’s faithfulness. Scripture as a whole advocates both of these but the commentaries that discuss this land on this verse being about God’s faithfulness towards us. The ESV footnote offers the following alternative phrasing: and feed on faithfulness, or and find safe pasture;
But the entire verse seems to stress both. Dwell in the land. Don’t flee to Egypt just because of adversity or the evil being done around you. Stay put unless God clearly calls you somewhere else. Wherever God has placed us we should seek to serve him there. Faithfulness in our vocations, in our family, in our church and ministries is what God has called us to.
Verse 23-24 encourages us in this way: The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand. So even when we stumble God is there to help and to sustain us.
For the Christian a good question to ask is “what has the Lord called me to?” Faithfulness in small and big areas of life is a big deal to the Lord. Being a faithful Christian probably won’t get you on the list of the Top 100 influential people but you will be great in the kingdom of God. As we go into 2026 it is a good time to review your areas of (responsibilities) faithfulness to God. How are you doing? Our friend Mickey Connley once said we need to decide whether we need to start it up. step it up or keep it up.
This is what verse 4 commands us to do. Seek to grow in your knowledge and delight in God. This is the number one calling of our lives. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Take advantage of the many means of grace there is to do so. Bible reading and study, home group. private and public prayer. Reading devotional or theological books. Spending time with other Christians. This is the normal Christian life. Verse 31 tells us that the law of God is in the heart of the righteous.
It’s often when we exercise the spiritual disciplines of prayer and worship and Bible study that we grow in our awareness of an eternal perspective of life. We see this in Psalm 73. Remember the Psalmist was struggling with the prospering of the wicked. He writes:
When we engage the Lord in prayer, in worship, in His word we grow in seeing life as it really is.
Verse 26 tells us that He is ever lending generously, and his children become a blessing. As a church you have shown yourself to be a generous people so I am definitely preaching to the choir. And generosity goes beyond giving financially and includes a generosity of the spirit as opposed to the wicked who is described in verse 21 as one who borrows but does not give back. Corrie Ten Boom and her family gave themselves generously to others - whoever God in His good providence brought into their paths.
Parents, one of the ways we push back against a wicked and perverse culture is to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Our influence can live on beyond us as our children and grandchildren carry the torch of the gospel and the glory of living for Christ. And if you are single or an empty nester you can still have influence on the younger generation especially here in our church family.
To our children and young adults who are walking with the Lord we would say Thank You! Thank you for following Jesus and living for Him. We echo the Apostle John when he said in his third epistle, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth. The fact that God is no longer just your parents God but He is your God absolutely thrills us. Know that there is a great call on your life to run after the Lord and do His will. May the Lord help you to be faithful in fulfilling it.
For all of us may 2026 be a year of trusting God and doing good.
Here are some other recent messages.
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