About this sermon
The closing section of Psalm 37 promises that the righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever, for the law of God is in their hearts and their steps do not slip. The wicked will be cut off, and the salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord, who is their stronghold in time of trouble. In Christ believers are more than conquerors, so they do not fret over the wicked but wait for the Lord, who will bring them into their inheritance.
Sermon transcript
My sermon text this evening, as we return to our study of the book of Psalms and select Psalms, is from Psalm 37, verses 27 through 40, titled my sermon tonight, Do Not Fret, Part Three. This is our third sermon in this particular psalm, this lengthy psalm. So let us hear God’s holy word. Psalm 37, beginning at verse 27.
Depart from evil and do good, so you will abide forever. For the Lord loves justice and does not forsake his godly ones. They are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked will be cut off. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.
The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart. His steps do not slip. The wicked spies upon the righteous and seeks to kill him. The Lord will not leave him in his hand, or let him be condemned when he is judged. Wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land.
When the wicked are cut off, you will see it. I have seen a wicked, violent man spreading himself like a luxuriant tree in its native soil. Then he passed away, and lo, he was no more. I sought for him, but he could not be found. Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright, for the man of peace will have a posterity. but transgressors will be altogether destroyed. The posterity of the wicked will be cut off, but the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their strength in time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them. He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him.
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. Our gracious God and Father in heaven, once again we thank you for your holy word. It is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path. Indeed, it is a guide upon our way. We ask that, once again, by your spirit, you would open our hearts and our minds to understand these truths from your word.
We pray, O Heavenly Father, that this portion of scripture that we consider this evening would be a source of spiritual sustenance and nourishment for each and every one of us. May it be milk to those who need the milk of the word. May it be meat to those who need the meat of the word. and may it be manna from heaven for all of us. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, amen. You may be seated. The words you can be listening for in my sermon tonight include the words inheritance, righteous, wicked, destruction, salvation, and refuge.
Well, dear ones, on this Lord’s Day evening, we continue our consideration of this lengthy Psalm of David that is known as Psalm 37. And as we’ve seen on past Lord’s Days when we’ve been exploring various sections of this psalm, this psalm could be classified as a wisdom psalm because it displays some of the emphases and characteristics that we find in the wisdom literature of the Bible, such as, for example, what you would find in the book of Proverbs. As I’ve mentioned before, in the Hebrew language, this psalm has been arranged as an alphabetical acrostic, meaning that every two verses or so begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, although it’s not a perfect acrostic. And this kind of arrangement, this kind of acrostic arrangement, was a device that aided memorization for the Hebrew reader. Now in this psalm, King David, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, brings to the forefront of the reader’s attention the problem of evil.
The problem of how is it that God could be good and yet there’s evil and suffering and sin in the world. And in particular, the problem of evil that is being dealt with by David in this particular psalm is the presence and indeed the prevalence of evildoers among the professed people of God and within the boundaries of God’s promised land. If you read through this psalm carefully, you will notice that one of the major themes of this psalm is the theme of inheriting the land, and the land that is in view in particular in this Old Covenant context is the promised land. So that is something that is, this is an issue that is disturbing David as he reflects upon it, as he mulls over this in his mind. Why is it that there seem to be so many evildoers, so many wicked, even among the professed people of God and even within God’s promised land. In this psalm, David characterizes the wicked in the land as those who are aggressively hostile toward the faithful, so hostile that they plot the downfall and destruction of the faithful within the land. The temptation among the faithful in the land would be to fret because of these evildoers.
The temptation would be to worry that these wicked and godless ones will in fact be the ones who end up inheriting the promised land, and thus to fear that the godly ones among the covenant people will in fact be driven out of their God-given inheritance and destroyed from off the land. against the temptation among the faithful in the land to fret because of these evildoers in the land. The Holy Spirit, through David, counsels God’s faithful people to persevere in living wise and godly lives, even in the midst of the wicked in the land. trusting in Yahweh, their faithful covenant God, to deliver them from the wicked in due time, waiting upon the Lord to bring his divine retribution upon the unrepentant wicked, and hoping in the Lord’s sure and certain promise to secure their inheritance in the land as God’s faith-filled people.
Again, I pointed this out in the past, but we need to always keep in mind as we children, we need to read the Old Testament with our Jesus glasses on. We need to understand this in light of the fuller revelation that we have under the New Covenant and in the New Testament scriptures. And as I’ve pointed out in past sermons on this passage, we need to remember that the promised land, the land that God had covenanted to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, the land of Israel, was a picture, a type, pointing forward to the ultimate eschatological promised land, the new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness dwells. In other words, the inheritance of eternal salvation that we as believers in Christ will enjoy in the new heavens and the new earth. So as we read about inheriting the land here, we need to read that as meaning for us inheriting eternal salvation, which is, of course, a gift of God through grace alone.
Now let’s focus on the first section of our passage for this evening, verses 27 through 34. And my first main point this evening is to have us consider the inheritance of the righteous, the inheritance of the righteous. And verse 27, this portion of Psalm 37, begins with an exhortation. The exhortation, the imperative, is to depart from evil and do good so you will abide, implying you will abide in the land forever. You will not be cast out of the land if you live out your faith. Now, I need to make an important reminder here.
We’ve been reading in this psalm of the contrast between the righteous and the wicked, between the godly and the ungodly, between the blameless man and the wicked man. We see these contrasts, and it’s tempting for us to read later theological debates into this earlier section of God’s word, as if David is speaking, for example, of conditions of salvation.
When David speaks of the righteous, when he speaks of the godly ones, when he speaks of the blameless and so on and so forth, it’s important to understand that this is a typically scriptural, especially an old covenant way of describing true believers by the fruits and outward evidences of their faith.
In using these terms to describe true believers, David is not trying to promote a pharisaical type of works righteousness approach to God, nor is he teaching that salvation is by works of obedience rather than through faith in the Lord alone. Indeed, as David himself makes clear in this very psalm, Yahweh’s gift of salvation and deliverance is only for those who, as verse 40 tells us, take refuge in Him. What does it mean to take refuge in Yahweh the Lord, the covenant-making God, the God not only of creation but of redemption? to take refuge in Him is to trust in Yahweh for salvation and deliverance, speaking there of saving faith. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, my friends, the faith by which we are saved is a living faith, a living faith in the living Lord, a faith that connects us to the living Lord, and a faith that manifests itself, therefore, in a striving after a new obedience, to Yahweh’s covenant instructions as revealed in his Torah, his holy law. So please understand that as we read these terms and make our way through this passage, it’s very important to understand that David is not promoting salvation by works righteousness. David himself, as Psalm 32 makes clear, understood that he was made right with God and forgiven through God’s mercy alone, through faith alone. So David says, depart from evil and do good, so you will abide forever.
And in verse 28, he reminds us of the Lord’s perspective, the Lord’s attribute of justice. Indeed, he says, for the Lord, for Yahweh loves justice. which implies that the Lord hates what? The opposite of justice, which is injustice. The Lord hates that which the wicked are doing, the injustices that the wicked commit against the righteous and so forth. The Lord loves justice and does not forsake his godly ones. Oh, it may seem to the eyes of flesh that the Lord has abandoned you, that he has cast you aside, that the wicked indeed will prevail and inherit the land. But David says, no, the Lord will not forsake His godly ones.
They are preserved forever. The Lord preserves them. They don’t preserve themselves. Yes, you know, I think we can get a hint of the perseverance of the saints in here. Yes, we who are in Christ, we do persevere, but we persevere because God preserves us by sovereign grace alone.
And then he goes on to say, but the descendants of the wicked, here he contrasts the wicked with the righteous, the descendants of the wicked will be cut off, meaning that these wicked ones amongst the covenant people of God, the professed visible church of the time, within the promised land, the descendants of these wicked ones will be cut off. They will not inherit the land. The righteous will, as he goes on to say in verse 29, the righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever. Those who by grace are right with God will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.
What security, what comfort this communicates to us, brothers and sisters. The Lord has not forgotten us. The Lord does not forget His persecuted people even today. Throughout the world, we have brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer persecution under oppressive governments, for example. and at the hands of radical religionists who oppose the gospel, there is much persecution, there is much suffering among the people of God today. There is still a great deal of martyrdom among Christians throughout the world. Has the Lord forgotten his suffering people? This passage of God’s word assures us that, no, the Lord will not forsake his suffering people. He has not forgotten them.
They will, in the end, inherit the land, the ultimate promised land, the new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness dwells. And then he goes on to say in verse 30, The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom. Again, he’s contrasting the characteristics here of the righteous, of the true believers among the people of God, with the wicked. The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom.
And you’ve probably, I’m sure you’re familiar with the distinction between knowledge and wisdom. It is possible to have great knowledge, even great theological knowledge, but to be a fool. Wisdom is knowledge properly applied. Godly wisdom is what David is urging us to, what he is urging the suffering faithful people of God to do.
He’s reminding them, the mouth of the righteous utters wisdom. So listen to the utterances of the righteous. They utter wisdom. They are those who are saturated with the word, the law, the Torah, the covenant instruction of God. The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom and his tongue speaks justice in contrast to the wicked who speak injustice, who plot and scheme against the righteous seeking to slander them and so forth. And why is it that the mouth of the righteous utter wisdom and his tongue speaks justice? Verse 31, the law of his God is what?
In his heart. And again, remember that when the Bible talks about the heart, you know, we talk about the heart today. We usually mean our emotions. And our emotions are part of who we are, part of our heart, but the heart in the Bible is the control center of the entire personality. It encompasses not only emotions, but intellect and will. It is the very center of our being. If the spirit has given you the new birth, you love, he is implanted, instilled within your heart, a love for the word of God and a desire to hide God’s word in your heart. And so this is why the mouth of the righteous utters wisdom.
It’s possible, as an aside, forgive me for being a little bit autobiographical, but I remember as a college student, I got involved with a local church in the college town where I attended. And many of the members of this church were farmers, working class people. And here I was, this know-it-all college student, But one of the things that I realized as I got to know these folks is that I might have had more knowledge than some of them did in terms of technical subjects that I was studying, but they had a lot more wisdom than I did, because they loved the Lord, they loved His word, they hid God’s word in their hearts, and I realized I need to learn from these people. I need to get off my high horse and learn from these people, for they are wise, they speak wisdom, because the law of God was in their hearts.
And this is what David is getting at here. The law of his God is in his heart. His steps do not slip. Because we hide God’s word in our hearts, our steps will not slip, at least not finally slip. But then he contrasts this with the wicked, verse 32. The wicked does what? Spies upon the righteous and seeks to kill him. Here he’s speaking of the hostile wicked who are seeking to trip up and even destroy the righteous. What’s the Lord going to do about that? Is the Lord going to ultimately leave the righteous in the hands of the wicked who plot their downfall? Verse 33, the Lord will not leave him in his hand or let him be condemned when he is judged and then Not only did David begin this section with an exhortation and imperative to depart from evil and do good, but he then gives another exhortation.
Wait for the Lord and keep his way. In other words, Don’t give up. Keep persevering in wise, godly living. Keep trusting in the Lord and wait upon the Lord. And when the scriptures call us to wait upon the Lord, that is not a call to passivity. That is not a call to sit back and just, you know, okay, God, I’m waiting. When are you going to act? To wait for the Lord, to wait for Yahweh is to submit to His divine providence in your circumstances and trust that in His time He will work His will.
But in the meantime, you keep on keeping His way. You keep on living a life of godly wisdom by His grace. And what will be the result of that? Look at the end of verse 34. And He will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.
Whether in this life or in the life to come, you will be vindicated and you will see God’s holy retribution against the unrepentant wicked who have oppressed you. And so again, we see here the comfort that we can derive from what David teaches about the inheritance of the righteous. And if you are in a right relationship with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can be assured that God will indeed cause you to inherit the land and will deliver you from all of the wicked who seek to drag you down. But as he has spoken of the inheritance of the righteous, he also speaks to the matter of the destruction of the wicked.
And that is my second main point. As we go to the next section here, verses 35 through 38, consider the destruction of the wicked in verses 35 through 38. Verse 35, David gives a personal testimony of a man that he himself knew, who was a wicked, violent man, who was a prosperous man. Look at verses 35 and 36, I have seen, I have seen, he’s sharing personal testimony, I have seen a wicked, violent man, he doesn’t name this man, we don’t know who he’s talking about, but I’m sure David, as the king, knew many wicked, violent men, especially in his rise to the kingship in Israel. There was a lot of violence that David encountered, a lot of opposition.
He says, I have seen a wicked, violent man spreading himself like a luxuriant tree in its native soil. What a wonderful image, right? What a beautiful agricultural image there. A wicked man spreading himself like a luxuriant tree in its native soil. The picture of a tree that is deeply rooted and nourished and seems to be, you know, trees can live a long, long time. This particular wicked man seemed to be secure, settled.
Nothing could, it would appear, could overcome him. But then notice verse 36. David goes on to say, then he passed away. David doesn’t explain how this man passed away or how his life was cut off. But all of a sudden, this wicked, violent, prosperous man who seemed so stable, so secure in his wickedness, all of a sudden, His life is snuffed out, and he’s cut off from the land of the living. He passed away, and lo, he was no more. I sought for him, but he could not be found. David here gives personal testimony of Yahweh’s retribution against the wicked by recalling this particular wicked, violent, and prosperous man that he knew, who was suddenly cut off and passed away. And David is saying, this is a sign and assurance that as the Lord dealt with that particular violent man, so he will deal with all of the unrepentant wicked in the end.
And he goes on to say in verse 37, mark the blameless man. Again, a blameless man is not a sinless man. One of the qualifications for serving as an elder or deacon in the church is that a man be blameless. And I sure hope that doesn’t mean that such a man needs to be sinless. Because if that’s the case, I don’t have any business being behind this pulpit. We are not sinless, but a blameless man is one who is beyond scandalous reproach, one who is mature in his faith and experienced in the Lord and so forth. Not a perfect man, but a man whose life is characterized by a blamelessness.
And David says, mark such a man. Mark the blameless man and behold the upright for the man of peace will have posterity.” You know, David’s worried about, well, what if these wicked ones overturn the land, you know, take control of the promised land? And what happens if their children become established in the land, and the land of Israel is wicked, just like the Gentile nations surrounding it? Well, David says, for the man of peace will have posterity. The posterity of the wicked will be cut off.
Again, there’s always the hope and the possibility of the intervention of divine grace and repentance. The scriptures tell us that God is a merciful God. He’s slow to anger. He’s abounding in steadfast love and covenant faithfulness. And he would rather that the wicked repent and live But nevertheless, for the unrepentant wicked who continue on in their ways and whose children learn the ways of their wicked fathers and grow up in those ways and continue in them, they will be cut off, whether in this life or in the life to come. But in contrast, as it goes on to say in verse 39, The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.
So here in this section of Psalm 37 verses 35 to 38, we see a warning to us, an implied warning against godless, faithless living and an implicit call to repentance. Brothers, sisters, listeners, let us turn from our wicked ways Let us trust in the Lord, taking refuge in our faithful covenant-making, covenant-keeping God. Let us look unto Jesus in faith and repentance, and let us follow him out of gratitude for his gift of salvation. And speaking of salvation, this brings me to my last point as we consider verses 39 and 40. We learn here that salvation from the Lord is for those who take refuge in him. We see salvation from the Lord for those who take refuge in him, verse 39. But the salvation of the righteous is from what? From their worthiness, from their good works, from their obedience. No, that’s not what he says. The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord.
I know we at Grace OPC regard ourselves as five-point Calvinists and praise God for the doctrines of grace. But the one point of Calvinism, I’m sure you’ve heard this, the one point of Calvinism that undergirds the five points is salvation is of the Lord. That is not just Calvinism, that’s biblical truth. Salvation comes not from us, not from our works, not from our free will, not from our worthiness, not from our strivings. Salvation comes from the Lord and the Lord alone, by his sovereign grace alone, through God-given faith alone in Jesus Christ, the Messiah alone. And this is implied and taught here in passages like this. The salvation of the righteous is not from their righteousness, not from their worthiness, but is from the Lord.
He is their strength in time of trouble. When we face evildoers, when the people of God faced evildoers in the land, even among the professed covenant people of God, those were times of trouble. But the Lord gives his faithful ones strength even in the time of trouble.
We all go through times of trouble. We as a church today go through times of trouble. We face a time of increasing hostility against the gospel. I personally believe that we are witnessing today in our culture, not just our secular culture, but our church culture, we are witnessing a heightened level of spiritual warfare. We are facing times of trouble. Should we fret because of evildoers who seem to prevail? Should we be despondent? Should we despair?
No. Because Yahweh the Lord is the strength of His people in time of trouble. Verse 40, He The Lord helps them and delivers them. He delivers them from the wicked and saves them. Again, why? Because they deserve it? Because they merit it? No. Because they take refuge in Him. In other words, because they trust in Him.
Again, notice that salvation and deliverance come from the Lord and thus salvation is grounded in God’s grace, not in our merits or works or worthiness. So beloved, in closing, as we end our study in this lengthy and glorious portion of God’s word known as Psalm 37. in the face of so much evil in this world, and in the face of the presence, the prevalence, and the seemingly unconquerable power of the wicked, who always seem to have the reins of power. It is tempting for us believers, even today, to fret because of evildoers, to be anxious, to be worried, to bite our fingernails and wonder, what’s going to happen? But our faithful covenant Lord and Savior has promised that in his timing, he will indeed bring his retribution upon the unrepentant wicked. He will deliver and vindicate his people, and he will secure our eternal inheritance in the ultimate promised land. In fact, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, he’s already done so in principle.
In Christ, our inheritance is secure. So dear listener, take your refuge in him, look to him alone for your salvation, and then rest assured that your inheritance in the land is forever secure, all by his grace and his grace alone. Amen. Let us pray. Gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we do thank you and praise you that you are a faithful God that your promises are sure and certain. Lord, in this valley of tears, in our pilgrimage, in this fallen, sin-cursed world, we are tempted to fret, because oftentimes it seems to us, at least to the eyes of the flesh, that we are on the losing side. Help us to remember, O God, that in Christ, we are more than conquerors. that to be in Christ is to be on the winning side, because Christ is the victorious one. So Lord, may we not be discouraged, may we not be downcast, may we know that you walk with us through our struggles, even through the valley of the shadow of death, and that you are bringing us and will pull us through to inherit the land forever. In Jesus’ name we pray, and all of God’s people said, Amen.
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