I normally read the whole psalm,
but because this is 40 verses, I'm going to read the last couple
of verses and then read it as we look through this psalm. Psalm
37. Verse 39. But, this is David's conclusion
to this psalm, but the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength in the time
of trouble and the Lord shall help them and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the
wicked and save them because they trust in him." Let's pray. Lord, we ask for thy spirit and
thy presence and a blessing that you will be pleased to speak
to our hearts for Christ's sake. Forgive us of our sins, and Lord,
unite our hearts to fear thy name together. In Christ's name
we pray, amen. Verse one, fret not thyself because
of evildoers. Neither be thou envious against
the workers of iniquity. Now here is wise counsel. We
don't think about it much. With regard to evildoers, everything
bad that people do, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. They're
in the Lord's hands. Fret not yourself because of
evildoers. Neither be thou envious against
the workers of iniquity. Don't be jealous of them, no
matter how they seem to prosper. Here's why, verse two. For they
shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green
herb. Now here is the end of the wicked.
Why would you be envious of this person? Why would you worry about
them? They're in the Lord's hand. They're
the Lord's pawns, doing his will, accomplishing his purpose. You
believe that? Well, fret not. Certainly don't
be envious. Trust, verse three, in the Lord. Now there's the emphasis. Trust in the Lord. In the Lord,
there's righteousness. In the Lord, there's strength.
In the Lord, there's peace. in the Lord and do good. What is it to do good? Well,
anything done out of love for Christ is the doing of good. Always. Remember the woman who
wrought a good work on the Lord. Anything done out of love to
Christ is good. So shalt thou dwell in the land
and verily thou shalt be fed. Thou shalt be shepherded. Do
good. You know, I could easily entitle
this the happy Psalm. The happy Psalm. I hope we'll
see why by the end of this Psalm. David says, delight thyself also
in the Lord. The delight. of faith in Christ. The delight of knowing that all
God requires of you, you have in Christ. That's delightful,
isn't it? Delight yourself in the Lord, not in yourself, not
in circumstances, in the Lord. And he shall give thee the desires
of thine heart. Now you know what the desire
of my heart is? To never sin again. to be without sin, to
be just like Christ. You know what? I'm getting that.
Every believer, that is their heritage, to be just like Christ. He will give thee the desires
of thy heart, commit thy way unto the Lord. Well, I've thought
of Paul, 2 Timothy 1.12, I know whom I believed. And I'm persuaded
he's able to keep that which I've committed to him. Now, in
committing my way to the Lord, all of my salvation hands off
for me. It's up to him. If he doesn't
save me, I won't be saved, and all of my eggs are in that basket. That's what it is to commit your
way to the Lord. All my eggs are in that basket.
If he doesn't do it all, I'm sunk, and I'm leaving it there. Trust also in him, and he shall
bring it to pass. What will he bring to pass? Your
salvation. It's his work. He'll bring it to pass. This
is not something you do, it's something he brings to pass.
And he shall bring, verse six, he shall bring forth thy righteousness,
which is the righteousness of Christ, is your personal righteousness. The Lord Jesus, when he died
on Calvary's tree, he felt shame. Because my sin actually was his,
and he was ashamed of it. You can't be ashamed of sin if
it's not yours, can you? If it belongs to somebody else,
you're not personally ashamed of it. But Christ felt the shame
of my sin when it became his. And just as truly as my sin became
his, his righteousness becomes mine. Now that's the righteousness
he's speaking of when he says, he shall bring forth thy righteousness
as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. The gospel is
so clear about how God is just and justifies the ungodly. You
see, my salvation is a just thing established on the righteousness
and justice of God's judgment on the cross of Calvary. Verse
seven, rest in the Lord. Now, you only rest in response
to the finished work. Isn't that right? Christ finished
the work. He said, it is finished. What am I to do? Rest. Rest. There remaineth a rest for the
people of God. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently
for him. fret not thyself because of him
who prospers in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked
devices to pass. Now there he says it even stronger
than in verse one. The man who brings wicked devices
to pass and prospers and everything seems to be going well for him.
And you think, how could this, don't fret about it. Don't forget
whatever's taking place is God's will being done for his glory. You might not be able to see
it, but what can you see? Me and you don't have very good
vision. He does. Don't fret. Don't fret over whatever
is taking place. Cease, verse eight. I wish I could learn this, That
word cease means drop. Let it go. Let it go. Whatever you're resenting, whatever
is troubling you, any ill will you have toward anybody, stop
it. Stop it. Cease. Drop it. All you're doing
is hurting yourself. That's the only person that hurts
in our holding something or holding a grudge or whatever it might
be. Cease. Stop it. You know when you can
stop it? When you look to Christ, not
by thinking, I'm not going to be that way anymore. I'm, I'm
not going to be that. I've said that a million times.
I'm just stopping it. And last by second, um, you look
to Christ, you look at the way he has forgiven you. And you
look at the fact that he rules and reigns in every event. When
you do that by his gracious ease. As long as you look to Christ,
if we look to Christ 100% of the time without any, we'd cease
from anger 100% of the time. But may the Lord enable us to
look to Christ and cease from anger. Forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise
to do evil. Now can you see why I would call
this the happy song? You reckon the man who does this is gonna
be a happy man? Without question. This is the blessed man. Now
here's why it's so ridiculous to stress over these people. Evil doers should be cut off.
Lord's gonna cut them off, but those that wait upon the Lord
shall inherit the earth. Now, we don't spend enough time
thinking about our heavenly inheritance. Talking about heirs, join heirs
with Christ, what an inheritance every believer has waiting. Verse 10, for yet a little while,
And the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider
his place and it shall not be. Where are they? You're not going
to be thinking about it. They're going to be in hell and
they're not going to be in your presence. But the meek, this
is the beatitude. that the Lord mentions in Matthew
5, but the meek, those that are meek before God and believe whatever
he does is right, shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves
in the abundance of peace, the peace that Christ worked out
on Calvary's tree, being justified by faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. The wicked plotteth. against
the just. He hates him because he hates
his God. And he gnashes upon him with his teeth. He can't
stand the gospel he believes. Look at this. The Lord shall
laugh at him. Well, that's scary, isn't it? To think of the Lord laughing
at someone in their distress. And it's right. This is who he
is. He sees these men who hate the just, who hate him. He's
going to laugh at them. For he seeth his day is coming,
talking about the day of judgment. The wicked have drawn out the
sword and have bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy. And that's the description of
every believer. Poor, right now, I don't have
anything. But Christ, which makes me have
everything. Needy, great needs. I need his grace. I need to be
preserved. Poor and needy, the wicked have
drawn out their sword and they've bent their bow to cast down the
poor needy and to slay such as be of upright conversation. But
here's what's going to happen. Their sword shall enter to their
own heart and their bows shall be broken. What they seek to
do to the righteous is going to turn around on them. I think
the best example we have of that is Haman building that gallows,
50 feet high or however high it was, and he was hanged on
the gallows that he built that he intended for Mordecai. Verse
seven, a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches
of many wicked. You see. You take the richest
man in the world, I guess Elon Musk or whoever it is, he has
nothing compared to what a believer has. He has nothing. We have
we're joint heirs with Christ. For the arms of the wicked. shall
be broken, but the Lord upholdeth the righteous." Now there we
have all men, the righteous and the wicked. The arms of the wicked
are going to be broken. The Lord upholds. He preserves. The righteous and every time
I think of the righteous and the wicked, like in a verse,
I always think of one of my favorite statements. I can't somebody
said this several hundred years ago. I read it. I use it. I love this. All the righteous
believe themselves to be wicked. And all the wicked, without exception,
believe themselves. If they're not righteous, they
can be righteous if they want to. I know I'm bad, but if I
wanted to turn things around, I could do it. They think there's
some power in themselves. Not true. The Lord, verse 18,
knoweth the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be
forever. Now, your days, how was your
day? I don't know. The Lord knows,
though. The Lord knows. He knows the days. He knows the
minutes. He knows the seconds of the upright. Those he has
given a new heart and their inheritance shall be forever. There's no
way it can be contested. They shall not be ashamed in
the evil time. That's talking about judgment day. You know
why they won't be ashamed? They won't be anything to be
ashamed of. I'm going to stand before God. There isn't anything
that I find more disgusting than people talking about believers
being judged according to their works and being given a higher
reward or a lower, like a mansion or a shack, whatever. That's
so foolish. There won't be anything for me
to be ashamed of. I will stand before God perfectly righteous
in the righteousness of Christ. Nothing to be ashamed of. In
the days of famine, they should be satisfied. They'll continue
to have the bread of the gospel when everybody else is starving
to death for a word from God. But the wicked shall perish,
and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs. They
shall consume into smoke. Shall they consume away, they'll
be gone. That's their end. The wicked borroweth and payeth
not again. Now if you've borrowed money
and not paid it back, shame on you. And everyone here has experienced
loaning somebody something that they never paid it back, never
gave it back. But that's really not what this
is talking about. Everything the wicked has is borrowed from
God. And they don't return in giving
thanks to him and giving glory to him and ascribing it all to
him. Everything they have is borrowed.
Their intelligence, their financial prosperity, their whatever it
might be, their health, Everything is borrowed. And yet the wicked
never return and give God that which is due to him. It doesn't
happen. They have no love for him. The wicked borroweth and payeth
not again, but the righteous. Two things are said about the
righteous. They show mercy. Blessed are the merciful. for they shall obtain mercy.
You see, if you've experienced anything about God's mercy, it
will make you merciful. That's one of the characteristics
of a believer. Blessed are the merciful. Every
one of God's people have experienced the mercy, the free mercy of
God. And giveth. They, unlike the
wicked, give God all the glory. They give thanks to God, they
give praise to God for all He has given. They know it all comes
from Him. And by the grace of God, every believer is a giver,
not a taker, a giver. Verse 22, for such as be blessed
of Him shall inherit the earth. Whoa, to be blessed by God. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. For such as be blessed of him
shall inherit the earth, and they that be cursed of him. I
think of the Lord saying, depart ye cursed. Those words are going to come
from the Lord's mouth. Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire
prepared for the devil and his angels. They should be cut off.
Verse 23, but the steps of a good man, a believer are ordered by the
Lord. Your steps. have been ordered
by the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? Ordered
by the Lord. And that's why David said, we
hear our steps have been ordered by the Lord, and so David says,
order my steps in thy word. And let not any iniquity have
dominion over me. That's the desire, the heart
desire of every believer. Order my steps in thy word. And he delighteth in his way,
That's because his way is the way of Christ. The Lord said,
I am the way, and God delights in that way, doesn't he? That's
our way into the presence of God, Christ. Though he fall,
verse 24. Though he fall. Let me read a
scripture to you from Proverbs 24, 16. A just man falleth seven
times. You know what that means? A just
man falls all the time. All the time. Is there a time
when you're not falling somehow? Not a second that goes by that
in some way I'm not falling. You know, when people talk about
it, you know, one phrase that I don't feel comfortable with,
they've fallen into sin. Oh, oh, what happened? A just man falleth seven times. That means all the time. Seven, the number of completion,
perfection. But I didn't read, I didn't read
the rest of it. A just man falleth seven times and rises up. But the wicked shall fall into
mischief. He's never raised up by the Lord. I was raised up when Christ was
raised up, and I'm raised up all the time and enabled to look
to Christ. That's all I have. And that is
the experience of every believer. He falls seven times, but he's
raised up. Though he fall, he should not
be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. Why is he not utterly cast down? Because the Lord upholds him.
Not because of anything he does, but because the Lord upholds
him. Verse 25, I've been young, and
now am old. Yet have I not seen the righteous
forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Now, the first thing that
I want to point out just real briefly is that gives us some
kind of indication of what was taking place on the cross. It
wasn't the righteous being forsaken. When Christ was made sin, he
was not forsaken in any other reason than for sin. The mystery
of the gospel, I've never seen the righteous forsaken. And I
also don't have any, you know, he said, I've never seen the
righteous forsaken or his seed ever begging bread. There are
many believers that have starved to death. That's talking about
begging for the bread of the gospel. They're always going
to be fed. The righteous will never be forsaken. The Lord's always going to feed
them because he is their shepherd. Now, we trust the Lord for our
daily needs. I'd rather have enough food to
not starve to death, and I ask the Lord to provide me for what
I need. If the Lord makes it to where we do starve to death,
that's the way he ordained our death. That's good. It's not
like no believer has ever starved to death. I guarantee you, many
have. They've been put in straits to where it just, but the righteous
are never forsaken, nor are they ever needing to beg for the bread
of the gospel. He is ever merciful and lendeth. And his seed is blessed. He,
the righteous one, is ever merciful and lendeth. And his seed is
blessed. Depart from evil and do good
and dwell forevermore. Now, as I said, the happy Psalm,
you know who's going to be happy? That person who departs from
evil. evil salvation by works, whatever evil it is, do good. Anything done out of love for
Christ is the doing of good. I just write that down. There's
sin mixed with everything we do, I realize that. You can never
look at any isolated acts and say, I did good. No, this is
the action of the new nature that loves Christ doing good. Remember, that nature doesn't
sin. And that's the nature he's talking about, that nature partakers
of the divine nature. It does do good. Now, can you
look at some isolated action point that was good? No, no. But you know, that nature is
there. And that's the nature that does
good. So don't say, well, we can't do good. Well, the new
nature does. Depart from evil and do good and dwell forevermore
for the Lord loveth judgment. He's so glorious. He loves absolute
perfect judgment. He loves a just weight and a
perfect balance. That's several times in the Proverbs.
The Lord loveth judgment. How he loved judgment on the
cross when he made the way to be just and justify the ungodly. For the Lord loveth judgment
and forsaketh not his saints. He's not going to forsake his
people. He said, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. They are
preserved eternally, forever. Aren't you thankful that the
Lord preserves you? You know why you've continued up to this
point? He has preserved you. You're a miracle. You're a walking
miracle of grace right now. He has preserved you. And this
preservation is forever. It's eternal. But the seed of the wicked shall
be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the
land. Now, remember what we have is
ours by inheritance. What you inherit is because of
your connection with someone else. How many times have you
heard of people inheriting a great sum that they were just worthless
people and they got it just because of who their relative was that
died? Well, we're the same way, aren't
we? That's our inheritance. The righteous shall inherit the
land and dwell therein forever. The mouth of the righteous speaketh
wisdom and his tongue talketh of judgment. Now this is talking
about what the believer talks about. Talks about wisdom, God's
wisdom, and making a way to be just and justify the ungodly.
That's always on our heart. That's our only hope. He talks
of judgment, the judgment of the gospel, the law of God. Verse 31, the law of God is in
his heart. And none of his steps shall slide. Now, when we talk
about the holy law of God being in the heart, you know, the only
reason you can have the law of God in your heart and not fear
it is because you've already kept it. You have nothing to
fear of that law. You've kept it. The only thing
that makes me fear the law is if it's going to condemn me.
But in Christ, I have kept it. I've perfectly fulfilled it.
And I delight in the law of God after the inward man, don't you?
Paul said he did. The law of God is in his heart.
None of his steps shall slide. The wicked watcheth the righteous
and seeketh to slay him. He's looking, the wicked is watching
the righteous, looking for some kind of inconsistency and contradiction
in him. He can find it. He can find it
if that's what he's looking for. And he seeks to slay him. The
Lord will not leave him in his hand though. The Lord's not gonna
leave that man, nor condemn him when he's judged. When I'm judged,
you know what, I'm not gonna be condemned. I'm gonna stand
without guilt, perfect in God's sight on judgment day. Wait on
the Lord and keep his way, the way of grace, the way of Christ.
He shall exalt thee to inherit the land. When the wicked are
cut off, thou shalt see it. I have seen the wicked in great
power and spreading himself like a green bay tree. He seemed to
be in total, everything was good, yet he passed away. And lo, he
who thought himself to be so great was not. Yeah, I sought
him, but he couldn't be found. Now you mark the perfect man,
which is every believer. Perfect in Christ Jesus, by one
offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And
behold the upright, that man with a new heart, for the end
of that man is peace. Oh, what peace. But the transgressors shall be
destroyed together. The end of the wicked shall be
cut off, but And here's the summary, here's the end of all this. The
salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. That's the summary of this song.
The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. Their righteousness
is of Him. Scripture says their righteousness is of me. They
were chosen by God in election. That's of the Lord. Christ redeemed
them and put away their sin and kept the law for them. That's
of the Lord. God, the Holy Spirit gives them
the new birth, gives them a new heart. That's of the Lord. Every aspect of the salvation
of the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength in the time
of trouble. The Lord shall help them and
deliver them. He shall deliver them from the
wicked and save him. And here is where every one of
them are because they trust in him. I'm not trusting myself. I'm trusting in him. And he takes
full responsibility for the salvation of all who trust in him. Amen.