So Lord may graciously help me.
I'll turn your prayerful attention to Psalm 37 that we read together
and reading verse 7 for a text this morning. And I do want to
look at this precious instructive psalm and the contrast that it
gives between those that fear God and those that fear Him not. A stark contrast with eternally
different destinations. Psalm 37 and verse 7. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently
for him. Fret not thyself because of him
who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked
devices to pass. So as we spoke, before we read
it, I mentioned the fact that this is a psalm that really brings
a contrast, a big contrast between two groups of people. really
those that fear God and those that fear Him not. In that hymn
that we've just sung, the Simple Hearted, it's a lovely description
of a child of God. What is a child of God? You see
in this chapter a number of times, this psalm, it talks about the
righteous. What is a definition of somebody
who is righteous? Somebody who is right with God. It's not somebody who is full
of themselves and their own self-righteousness. It is somebody who has come to
realize their need of a righteousness outside of themselves. And if
we just look at a few verses in this psalm just to give a
picture of what the definition of a righteous person is. In
verse 11 it says, but the meek shall inherit the earth. Meek
people. They're submissive to God. They're obedient to God. They're listening to what God
says, and obeying that, and not doing their own thing. Verse
30, it says, the mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom. We
read elsewhere in the Bible that the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom, and the fool hath said in his heart, there is no
God. And therefore, a righteous person is the mouth of the righteous
speaketh wisdom. It speaks that there is a God.
And there is an eternity. And there is a judgment day.
Verse 31 says, the law of his God is in his heart. This is
another. A pastor's been going through on our Tuesday night
prayer meetings, the Psalm 119. And so much of that is talking
about the law of God and the judgments, the statutes of God.
But it says here, verse 31, the law of his God is in his heart. You see, God has given them,
given God's people, the righteous ones, given them an appetite
for the things of God. That they're not just a set of
rules that they'd rather be without, but they realize He's put in
their heart hungering and thirsting after righteousness. And that
is something that God has put in the heart of a righteous person.
And in the end of verse 40 we have about because they trust
in him. A characteristic of a righteous
person is somebody who trusts in the Lord. So we have the righteous. We have to say at the beginning
they're not righteous in and of themselves. They realise that
they come short. Like the Apostle Paul says, O
wretched man that I am. They know their own unrighteousness
and yet they've come to love and to seek to be clothed with
a robe of righteousness which is the righteousness of our Lord
Jesus Christ. and interestingly therefore,
and perhaps they themselves would be careful or would shy away
from calling themselves this, but the Bible calls these people
the righteous. That's what the Bible, perhaps
we would be, not want to call ourselves that, but that's what
the Bible refers to as the righteous. the righteous shall hold on his
way. Those who have come to be clothed with the righteousness
outside of themselves, and though they know their own weakness,
and in here we said, though he fall, though he shall be not
utterly cast down, there is this, the righteous is that what those
who have fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before
them. But this psalm is written, you
see, to encourage us to keep close to God, to trust in the
Lord. Yes, the righteous do trust in
Him, but this psalm is written so that we may be encouraged
to trust in Him. You see, we need to keep on being
encouraged and keep on going, because we have many things that
come into our lives that go the opposite way. And if we look at just how, if
you think of somebody who's very pragmatic, they look at what
goes on and see what seems to work and then go that way, if
it seems to give the results you want. You call somebody like
that very pragmatic. Well, that's good to a point,
but there's a real danger with the things of God in being pragmatic. You see, we could say, well,
There's this group of the wicked and they go on in their evil
ways. They mock God and nothing seems to happen. No problems
seem to come in their lives. They seem to go on. As a psalmist
in Psalm 73 said, their eyes stand out with fatness. They
have more than half good wish. They've got everything that they
could want and they're mocking God and they're getting away
with it. And if you were pragmatic you'd say, well there we are.
That's the way to follow. That's the way that gets you
where you want. Now, there's a tremendous danger with that,
because you see, we only see things in the outward appearance. But you see, God judges things
in the light of eternity. And if we just judge things in
the light of time, we can come to a completely wrong view as
to who is the blessed man. You see, look in verse 16, it
says, a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches
of many wicked. You see, we would think naturally
that somebody with great riches and all these things, they're
the ones that are being prospered by God, but that's often the
opposite. Well, let us look then, with
our introduction, really, let's begin to look at this psalm,
Psalm 37. It starts off with this word
fret. It's not a word that's used very often in our English
language today. It really means to grieve, to
be angry. Fret not thyself because of evildoers. In other words, when we see evildoers
doing things wrong and getting away with it and being praised
by others for doing things wrong, What do we do? Well the natural
reaction perhaps is to get upset about it, to get frustrated,
to get grieved, to get angry. But we have a specific command
here at the beginning of Psalm 37 and that word fret appears
three times in this psalm. And it's always saying don't
do it. Fret not thyself because of evil
doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
Naturally we think well these people who don't have any respect
for God, they don't fear God, they just do their own thing,
they're only interested in their own ends and building their own
estate up, and they seem to be getting on
just well, fine. Don't be envious of them, against
the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down. You see, God is able to run things
on a bit. We just look at the here and
now, but God is able to say, they shall soon be cut down. Later on in this same chapter
it says, I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading
himself like a green bay tree, as if he would be here forever.
His greatness is enormous. Yet he passed away, and lo, he
was not. So we see here that God in the
light of eternity, and we've looked at that this morning,
you children, in the Sunday school of the throne of God and the
eternal nature of that, and how that God sits there forever on
this throne, and he doesn't come and go like kingdoms of this
earth. He is the eternal God, and he
judges eternally. And you see, how are we going
to act? For they shall soon be cut down
like the grass and wither as the green herb. So here we are
told the triumphant thing of the wicked is short. And yet they are, not all of
them, but some of them are triumphing today. Some of them are perhaps
triumphing. You work with people like this
perhaps. You go to school with people like this. You live near
people like this. They're triumphing in the things
of this world, in mocking God, in doing their own thing, in
building up their own empire. And you can become jealous of
them. You can think, They mock God
and they get on. They get the promotions at work.
They build up the ladder. They don't have to keep the Lord's
Day special. They don't have to worry about any of that. They
just go up and up and up. For they shall soon be cut down
like the grass and wither as the green herb. The triumphing
of the wicked is short. It's a fact. But the Word of
God says it is short. If it's 100 years, it's still
short. It will come to an end and there
will be that judgment day. And so this is the, so we have
in the first two verses really looking at the wicked, the ungodly,
those that fear not God. We spoke about the meek being
those that are submissive to God, the ungodly are not, they're
going their own way, they're in rebellion against God, we
will not have this man to reign over us, our life is our own,
we will do what we want with our time, we won't ask God to
help us with things, we'll go our own way, we'll do our own
thing, we'll enjoy our own pleasures. Well verse 3 you see then gives
us a positive command, trust. in the Lord. So instead of fretting,
instead of getting angry and upset and envious of all these
people around us, we're told to do something positive. You
see, if you just say, well don't fret, well that's alright, but
what do you do? You do something positive, you trust in the Lord. It's interesting that the children
at Sunday school this morning had set before them that precious
account of the Spice. and how really the thing was
that Joshua and Caleb trusted in the Lord. And the other 10,
they didn't. Interestingly, they were very
quickly consumed. Those men didn't live many days after that. They
were so worried about these enemies, but they were killed. Trust in
the Lord. I can put it like this, are you
gonna be Joshua and Caleb's in this life, or are you going to
be the other ten, that look at the benefits of being a child
of God, and you see the land flowing with milk and honey,
but it's too difficult, don't want to go that way. Trust in the Lord. This is the
great thing that we are to do. See Jeremiah 17 sets a great stark contrast between
two classes of people the same. That's Jeremiah 17 verse 5. It says, Thus saith the Lord,
Cursed be the man that trusteth in man. So if you trust in man,
you say, I've got this colleague who's very good, and he'll help
me out, he'll pay for this, and he'll set me up in this business,
he'll help me to do all these things. I trust in this person
to get me on. And my trust is based on that
person or that company or that that venture. Thus saith the
Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh
his arm, whose heart departeth from the Lord. You see, we're
told, and later on we come to that, commit thy way unto the
Lord. That's a case of asking God to guide us in our pathway,
not to say I'm going my own way. Cursed be the man that trusteth
in man, and maketh flesh his arms, is Jeremiah 17 verse 5,
whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the
heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but
shall be inhabited the parched places in the wilderness, in
a salt land, and not inhabited. In other words, there's nothing
good for these people who trust in themselves or in other human
beings. trusting in others rather than
trusting in the Lord. And then the contrast is given
in the next verses in Jeremiah. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in the Lord. And so, you dear young people,
where are you going to put your trust? You're coming up to big
decisions in life. Where are you going to live?
Asking the Lord to provide you with a godly partner in life.
Are you looking to Him? Or are you looking to an arm
of flesh? Are you looking to Him to guide
you? Where you should work? What you should do? Your occupation?
Your options? What are you doing? Blessed is
the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord
is. We trust in Him, for He shall
be, look at the contrast, He shall be like a tree, as a tree,
planted by the waters, remember the others were in a drought,
planted by the waters, that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and
shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green,
and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall
cease from yielding fruit. You see there's this contrast.
Those that fear God and those that fear Him not, Each one of
you is at that place, and as you grow up and go into manhood
and womanhood, which way are you going to be? Which way are
you going to order your life? Is it listening to what the world
says, and the world telling you to do this and that with your
time, and to give them all your attention, or are you going to
say, I fear God. Trust in the Lord. You've got
all these enemies bringing wicked devices to pass. What are you
going to do? Trust in the Lord. What does Israel have to do?
But there's giants in the land. There's children of Anak. There's
high walled cities. We can't do it. Trust in the
Lord. See those walled, great walled
cities? Jericho was one of those great walled cities. And what
happened to those great walled cities of Jericho? They didn't
have to do one thing. They didn't have to raise one
hammer against that wall. It fell down all on its own.
by the mighty power of God, some 38 years later. Trust in the
Lord. So we're to trust that God knows
best. God is in control. Trust in the
Lord. And do good. You see, there's
something to do as well. Yes, it's to trust, but we're
to do good. that we're to do the good we
can in the situation we're in. Trust in the Lord and do good.
You see, you might think you could say, do good and then trust
in that. And that would be quite wrong.
You see, if we do good and trust in our goodness, in what we do,
then we're not trusting in God. But here the Bible tells us,
trust in the Lord and do good. Good being the fruit, And the
evidence that we have trusted in God, the fruit that comes
from trusting in God, you see, not how we become into salvation,
but how it flows from salvation. And you see, so shalt thou dwell
in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. It was interesting
that we had that Sunday school on the spies, very much focusing
on the land. They had occupation of the land
of Canaan. And it was, this was the thing
that they, the blessing that would come from trusting in God
and the loss that 600,000 of them lost enjoying that land
because they would not and did not trust in the Lord. They died
in the wilderness because they didn't trust in the Lord. They
never got to that land flowing with milk and honey. Because
they didn't trust. Surely that's a warning for us
all today. Are we trusting in the Lord? Do we put our trust
in Him? In His Word? In His ways? In His truth? You say, but we've
shown, society's moved on, these are the new truths. No, the Word
of God is unchanging. Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my word shall not pass away. God's word shall stand when this
world is gone. Trust in the Lord and do good,
so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
Then another thing we're to do, you see in verse 4. delight thyself
also in the Lord. You see, we're told not to do
some things, and we're told to do other things. We're not to
fret, we're not just to get angry and really upset at all these
enemies, we're to actually spend our time trusting in God, doing
good, and delighting in God, delighting in Him. You see, this
is what it says, delight thyself also in the Lord. Delight thyself
in the Lord. Don't say, well, I'm just following
this way because I feel that it's a good insurance policy
and I understand that it has a better end associated with
it. I don't like the way, I don't like doing it, but that's the
way I go. No, that's not the message here
at all. The Sami says, delight thyself
in the Lord. delight thyself also in the Lord. The Apostle Paul says, that I
may know him and the power of his resurrection. Paul's focus
was delighting in God. You see, if you're delighting
only in the things of this world, then heaven's going to be a pretty
barren place for you. If all you can delight on is
the things of here below and the lust, the pomp, the pride
of life, glorying in self, in all that you've accomplished
here below. If that's your world, then you won't find much in glory.
Because the Lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land. And we here
below are being trained to be prepared for glory, to be prepared
for worship, to be prepared for delighting in Him, because we've
delighted in Him here below. delight thyself also in the Lord,
and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. I remember when
I was young here, and Ellis B. Hyde was preaching as our pastor
then, and he said, preaching from this verse, number four,
he said, perhaps you take the verse the other way round. He
shall give thee the desires of thine heart. If thy desire is
to delight in the Lord, then you see, the desires of our hearts
is to delight thyself in the Lord. Perhaps we can't delight
ourselves, we can't get to that high level, but is our desire,
is it our desire to delight in Him? One of our hymn writers
says, O Lord, I would delight in Thee, and on Thee cast my
care. To Thee in every trouble flee
my best, my only friend. When all created streams are
dry, Thy fullness is the same. May I with this be satisfied
in glory in thy name. Delight thyself also in the Lord.
You see, what we've got here is, we've got a contrast in this
Psalms 37. We've got enemies, we've got
difficulties, and we've got to, that's why the Lord's Day is
so important, to stop what you're doing and to consider the greatness
of God. Beautiful, we've had it set before
us in the Sunday school this morning. The greatness of God,
and that's where we've got to stop and think about the greatness
of God and then when we look at the enemies we
start to realise that yes there are walled cities, yes there
are children of Anak, but actually they're small compared to the
power and the kingdom of our God. And therefore, you see,
we look at things in a new light, in a new perspective, and that's
what we need as Christians, to be realigned again. You see, there's a saying that
says, oh, the real world's out there. Well, for the child of
God, the real world is when the sanctuary of God, when they weigh
things up in the balances of the sanctuary. In other words,
they put what God says is good and what God says is empty. They have that set of scales
in their minds. That's when they're actually
in the real world. You see, the world out there,
it's living a lie. It's living a lie. It's living
to the lust, the pomp, the pride of life. But this is happiness
and it isn't really. It doesn't really bring fulfillment
to break God's laws and to disobey His. It doesn't bring happiness,
not true happiness. Delight thyself also in the Lord
and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. You see, the
desires of the heart of the righteous. Then in verse 5 we have another
thing to do. This is something else we've
got to do. You see, we've got to trust in the Lord in verse 3. In verse
4 we've got to delight ourselves in the Lord. It's a command but
it's also a privilege to delight ourselves in the Lord. And in
verse 5, Commit. Commit thy way unto the Lord.
Commit it to Him. Pray. Do you pray about your
pathway? Pray about what you should do?
Where you should live? How you should conduct yourself?
Pray every day? How you should face these people
at work that are difficult perhaps? Are your school friends that
are laughing at you? Commit thy way also. and to commit
thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall
bring it to pass. Commit thy way unto the Lord.
And you might think, and this is why this psalm is so important,
you might think, well, we commit our way to the Lord, and therefore
everything goes nicely because we prayed about it. Well, it's
interesting, if you look in verse five, the cross-reference in
my Bible is to Psalm 22 in verse eight. Psalm 22 in verse 8. And Psalm 22, if you remember,
is the Psalm of the Cross. And this is the verse it links
it with. And it's a verse of mockery.
Psalm 22, verse 8, it says, he trusted on the Lord that he would
deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he
delighted in him. These words were spoken to Christ
on the cross, in ridicule, seeking to undermine his faith. And Psalm
37, you see, is trying to encourage us in our faith. Yes, it's saying,
commit your way unto the Lord. Jesus committed his way unto
the Lord, and his enemies stood there laughing at him and saying,
this man on this cross, who's dying as a criminal between two
other criminals, this man committed his way to the Lord. He trusted
in the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him now,
seeing he delighted in him. It's mockery, it's laughing at
him. Oh, what the Son of God went through, when He could have
had 12 legions of angels and delivered Himself in a moment
of time, but He didn't, because He was standing in the place
of His people. He was walking that, He was treading that winepress
alone of the wrath of God. You see, commit thy way unto
the Lord, trust also in Him. But that won't stop the enemies
laughing at you. It won't stop them ridiculing you. It won't
stop them doing everything they can to make you feel totally
stupid for trusting in the Lord. But you see, Jesus didn't. He
didn't stop. We have in 1 Peter and 1 Peter
2 tells us what he did. 1 Peter 2 verse 23, who when he
was reviled, he reviled not again. He didn't answer them back and
said no, no, he just, he left it. Who when he was reviled,
reviled not again. Where he suffered he threatened
not, but committed, same word you see, commit by way, but committed
himself to him that judgeth righteously. He left the course with his God. He didn't fight back. He left
it with his God. And what an example that is.
So much we would be so instructive. This is such an instructive psalm.
When we got difficulties, commit thy way unto the Lord. Doesn't
mean it will be easy. Doesn't mean that the enemies
won't laugh at you. But it's the right way. And you see, verse
6 tells us the evidence of it. And He, that's God, shall bring
forth thy righteousness as the light. and thy judgment as the
noon day. So in other words, when you're
committing your way to the Lord, the enemies are laughing and
mocking and ridiculing you and saying, aha, aha, laughing at
you and trying to bring you, trying to undermine your faith.
They did it to Job too. Joseph endured difficulties like
this. He was falsely accused. He committed
himself to him that judgeth righteously. But verse 6, and he shall bring
forth thy righteousness as the light. You see, how can we be
vindicated when people have said false allegations against us?
You think of Joseph, was basically accused of rape by Potiphar's
wife. How could he ever clear his name?
It was her word against his. How could he ever clear himself?
And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light. When
Joseph came to the second rule of the kingdom, we never hear
a word of the allegation against him again. Not a word. And he
shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light. And you think about
that of the Lord Jesus. When he was ridiculed, he saved
others himself he cannot save. Ridiculed in the Son of God for
what he was doing in the place of sinners and yet, He died. They were laughing, they were
ridiculing. They had slain the Son of Glory as they thought
and yet up from the grave He arose with a mighty triumph for
His foes. He arose the victor from the
dark domain and He lives eternally to save and He shall bring forth
Thy righteousness as the light. You see, on that Sabbath, on
that Lord's Day morning as He rose from the tomb, you see,
it was bringing forth His righteousness as the light. This was not a
This was not one that had been neglected and left. This one
who had trusted and committed his way to God, he was not going
to be brought to nothing. He was going to rise again, triumphant,
over sin, death, hell and the grave. Commit thy way unto the
Lord. Trust also in Him. And what are the enemies going
to say? You're wasting your time. They're going to laugh at you,
they're going to ridicule you. And it may not be external enemies,
it may be internal enemies. You see, the plague of our own
heart. Ridiculing the things of God. Ridiculing the power
of God and what enemies we have. But you see, verse 6 says, He
shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment
as the noonday. God is able to vindicate His
people. He vindicated his beloved son
and he's able to vindicate all his people from all their enemies. From all the ridicule, from all
those that would seek to push them in this track of the world.
The ungodly, those who scoff at God's word, scoff at God's
ways, scoff at serving God, ridicule trusting in God. They laugh and
they mock and they do all these things to try and get you to
turn away from God. But you see here we have, as
we had those two spies, Joshua and Caleb, they said, we'd be
well able, we'd be well able to conquer the land. This is
what the Lord has given us, we must enter into this promised
land. And it comes to us each, what are we going to be? Are
we going to be those that believe? and put our trust for time and
eternity into the Lord Jesus Christ? Or are we going to be
those that say, no, no, difficulty's too high, I'll believe the world.
I'll believe Satan. I'll believe that. I'll believe
all the ungodly. Yes, I'll go with them. There's
a bigger crowd there. Safety in numbers, they say.
Oh no, you see. Delight thyself also in the Lord,
and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way
unto the Lord. Trust also in him, and he shall bring it to
pass. God will bring to pass those
things that we commit to him in his own time and way. He will. I have not said to the seed of
Jacob, Seek ye me in vain. God is a faithful God. We sang
it this morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Knew every morning. I didn't know how. I wanted to
speak from Psalm 37. I didn't know as it were how
I could give a picture of it and really what happened in the
Sunday school with the spies coming. It was a beautiful picture
of Psalm 37. You had either you had Joshua and Caleb which were,
if you like, amongst the righteous, and then you had the other ten
that were all going the wrong way. Ten of them going the wrong
way, two of them going the right way. And sadly the whole of Israel,
600,000 men, went the wrong way. How are we to go this morning? Verse 7, our text, rest in the
Lord. A rest that remaineth to the
people of God. The evildoers, snapping at our
heels, ridiculing us for putting our trust in God, saying it will
never come to pass, saying it's all up with you, you're on a
cross, you're finished. Rest in the Lord, wait patiently
for Him. Wait patiently for him. Fret
not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way. You see,
pragmatism would say, well, this person's prospering, it must
be the right way. Well, the trouble with pragmatism,
it looks at the here and now. See, we have in Corinthians that,
well, we look not at the things that are seen, but the things
that are not seen. The things that are seen are
temporal, passing away. The triumphing of the wicked
is short. But you see, but look at the
things that are not seen, for the things that are not seen
are eternal. And so we are to have an eternal perspective.
And how can we have an eternal perspective when we're just living
in time? That's why we need the Word of God. We need the Word
of God to guide us. You young people, you say, but
I know somebody who's really getting on well in business and
doing this and that and the other that's totally against God's
Word, but they're being prospered. Well, they may be. But are they
going to be prospered throughout a never-ending eternity? That's
the question. Because of the man who bringeth
wicked, diviseth to pass. We naturally would fear that,
wouldn't we? We say, this person's dangerous. This person can do
all manner of difficulties. And we get upset. We do. But this psalm tells us what
to do. It doesn't just tell us to do nothing. It tells us to
trust in the Lord. to put our trust for time and
eternity in that one who is on that throne, that eternal throne,
that it will receive eternal praise throughout a never-ending
eternity, that one who has power to save, that one who is able
to deal with all his enemies. You see, Psalm 2 is such a precious
psalm. It starts off with Psalm 2, Why
do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? And then
we have a whole grouping of the whole world, as it were, coming
up and mocking God as a group together. And we see such a unity
in mocking God in so many ways today. The kings of the earth
set themselves, the rulers take counsel together, against the
Lord and against his anointed. They're against the Word of God,
against the things of God, and this very text is applied in
the New Testament to what happened at Calvary to the Lord Jesus.
Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from
us. And we might think, well if there's
such a unity against the people of God, against the things of
God, what's going to happen? Who's going to win? Verse 4 tells
us everything of Psalm 2. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. He sits on that throne with infinite
power. Are we going to try and fight
him? Which side are you going to join? To spend your life trying
to mock the one who's on that white throne? That one who has
been from eternity past to eternity future when this world will all
be passed away? He's the one ultimate that we
need to fear. Not just what your school friends say. Not what
the others say. The world says. This is what's
important. Commit thy way unto the Lord,
trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall
bring forth thy righteousness as the light. Beautiful. To those
who are walking in darkness, those who perhaps have false
allegations against them, what a wonderful thing this is to
have this word that he shall bring forth thy righteousness
as the light. In his own time, we read Joseph in that prison, Psalm 105, let me just quote
it correctly. Psalm 105 I think it is. While
the word of the Lord tarried it tried him. Yeah, Psalm 105 verse 18. Whose
feet they hurt with fetters, he was laid in iron. This is
Joseph in prison because he was falsely accused, because he'd
done what was right and wouldn't go along with Potiphar's wife
and with her advances. He did what was right and he
suffered. Until the time that his word came, the word of the
Lord tried him. Perhaps you're there this morning.
You've done what is right. You've done, you've been honourable
perhaps. You've stood up against something that was wrong and
you've stood for it. And now you're getting all the backflap.
Now you're getting all the trouble from it. Well, we read in God's
word that he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light.
and thy judgment as the noonday. Not everything gets sorted out
here below in our lifetime, but in eternity it will be seen who
feared God and who did not fear God. Ultimately, every right
I understand will be won. Rest in the Lord. Rest in here. You see there's a place of rest
here. There's no rest if you're fretting, is there? You're not
restful at all. You're upset. You don't know
what to do. You're in a mess. Rest in the Lord. There's a place
of rest. And how is it to be rest? Not
to do nothing, in a sense, but to trust, first of all, to delight
ourselves in Him, to commit our way to Him, and then to rest. You see, it's interesting, in
the book of Ruth, that there was a time when Ruth was told
to sit still. And it wasn't at the beginning
of the book. It wasn't at the beginning of her widowhood. She
had to first of all go and lay at Boaz's feet and ask that he
would be a kinsman redeemer for her. And then she was to rest.
She'd done. She'd committed her way to Boaz,
as it were. She trusted that he would go
before her. Now she was well. Now she should
rest. She should wait. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently
for Him. Ruth had to go and sit still,
my daughter, and see how the matter would fall. Wait patiently
for Him. Fret not thyself because of Him
who prospereth in His way. Yes, there may be those prospering,
and pragmatism would say, well, if they're prospering, I'll jump
on the same bandwagon. No. Because the triumphant and
the wicked is short. And so here we have this godly
counsel in this Psalm 37. Counsel that each of us need
to navigate a course through this world with so many influences
seeking to put us off the track in every different way. Particularly
focus on our particular personalities and likes and dislikes. Satan
knows how to tempt each one in a different way which will be
a temptation for me and not for you and vice versa. that we're
to commit our way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him and He shall
bring it to pass. Simple. There's such a profoundness
in this psalm, a simplicity in God is in control, as we had
set before us that throne of God, God in control. We come
to Him and He will bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth
thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday.
Rest in the Lord, wait patiently for him. Threaten not thyself
because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man
who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, forsake
wrath. Threaten not thyself in any wise
to do evil. You see, it's a natural reaction.
Somebody else has done this evil and we think then we're justified
in doing something else that's evil to counteract their evil.
So natural to us. But this psalm says don't do
that. Rest in the Lord. Take a glimpse
of that throne. There's a lovely hymn that says,
had I a glimpse of thee my God, kingdoms and men would vanish
soon, vanish as though I saw them not, as a dim candle dies
at noon. You'd hardly know if a candle
was a light in this room at the moment. Because it's so bright
and a candle would hardly give any extra light. And that's how
the lights and the kingdoms of this world, the walled cities
and the children of Anak, the giants, that's how they are compared
to the greatness of our God. Get a view of God. It's been
said here, there's only two fears in this world. You either fear
God, or you fear everything else. Two fears. Which do you fear? May the Lord have His blessing. Amen.