Psalms chapter 37. Let me read just the first eight
verses for us. We read the entire chapter this
morning. We're looking at this. Some things that would keep us
from fretting, from being angry, especially when people persecute
us or afflict us in some way. Don't be overly anxious, irritated, And we look this morning
at the word trust. Trust in the Lord. Give your
ways to Him. Trust in the Lord. And let Him
guide you and lead you. But let's read the first eight
verses. Threaten not thyself because of evildoers. Neither
be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon
be cut down like the grass. Sometimes it's quick. Other times
they wither. like the green herb. Trust in
the Lord and do good, so shall thou dwell in the land, and verily
thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord,
and He shall give thee the desires of your heart. 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,
and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently
for Him. Fret not thyself because of Him
who prospers in the way, because of the man that bringeth wicked
devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake
wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise
to do evil." This verse here in verse 3, when
he says, trust in the Lord, and we looked at that this morning,
We begin, as Christians, trusting the Lord, trusting for our righteousness,
trusting for our salvation, our acceptance with God. We lean
heavy upon the Lord Jesus Christ. But he says you're trusting the
Lord and do good. Trusting the Lord and do good.
And somebody will say, Bruce, don't the Bible say that there's
none that doeth good? No, not one? It does say that,
doesn't it? But you know, that's for an unsaved
person. When the Lord gives us a new
heart, then we can do good. We can't do good until He makes
us good. Every kind of fruit, tree that
you have, if it's a bad, if it has bad roots, boy, the fruit's
gonna be bad. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth
good fruit. But listen, a good tree, a good
tree cannot bring forth corrupt fruit. So we can do good. We read in the Scriptures about
the work of faith, don't we? And the labor of love, and the
patience of hope. The wicked can't please God.
The Scripture says the plowing of the wicked is sin. A wicked
man gets up and goes out to support his family, and he hooks up the
old mule, he starts up the old tractor, and he plows his field. And that's sin. And you know
why it's sin? Because he got a wicked heart.
And whatsoever is not of faith is sin. But there's a work of
faith. And the least thing a child of
God does in faith, it's accepted of the Lord. The Lord said, if
you give a cup of cold water in My name, you'll not lose your
reward. He takes notice of that, doesn't
He? We think good works are these major things that we hear about.
If it's not something major, you know, that the world recognizes,
well, we think, well, it's not a good work. Charles Spurgeon
preached, and I've got 63 volumes of that man's sermons. Huge,
thick volumes, 63. I'll never, I'll never compile
63 volumes of sermons. If I preach till I'm 110, I may
have one little volume. That man has 63 volumes. John
Bunyan wrote a book that, as far as I know, to this day, it
sold more books other than the Bible than any other book in
the history of the world, Pilgrim's Prophet. I'll never write a book,
let alone a bestseller. But just because we don't have
all of these volumes and these famous books don't mean we can't
do good, does it? Little things that we do that
the world takes little notice of, that's good. The Lord Jesus
on the Day of Judgment, what did He say? Did He commend His people for building
any cathedral? Did He say to them, boy, you
got this worldwide outreach and you accomplished so much. You
know what He said? I was sick and you visited me. That ain't much, is it? But it's
much in His eyes. He counts that a good work. I
was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me
water to drink. I was naked and you clothed me.
Now that's a good work, isn't it? Trust in the Lord, He says
here, and do good. Do good. I remember that little show that
come on years ago, My Great Life or A Great Life or something.
What was the name of that, Jimmy Stewart? A Wonderful Life. Do
you remember that, A Wonderful Life? We watched that just about
every year for Christmas. We watched that little Wonderful
Life. But remember the guy in it, Jimmy Stewart? He got so
despondent because he thought he had missed out on everything.
Others were going to get their education, getting great jobs,
and he just stayed around town. The little simple things of helping
people's lives, and nobody recognized it. And one day he thought, I'll
just end it all. And he went out and was going to jump in
the river. And this angel, you know, how the story went. But
he saved his life. But he said, you know, my life's
been useless. My life's been useless. And Clarence,
the angel, told him, said, Well, let me show you what your community
would have been without your life. And it was a mess. Remember that? It was an absolute
mess. And he said, Why is this man
like he is? He said, Well, you weren't here
to do this little favor for him. And it messed up his whole life.
And you know, that's the way it is with us. Doing good sometimes
is so simple. Helping your neighbor at the
right time. Loving your wife. You take a husband and his wife
that love each other, and are kind to each other, and patient
with one another, and they have their children, and they raise
them, and they teach them about the Lord, and the ways of God. You know how important that is.
That's the most important thing in this world. You know the backbone
of Christianity, if we could say it like this, is these little
things that we often look over? What if every husband and every wife knew the
Lord and they loved each other and was patient and forgiving
with one another and raised their children. What if every family
was like that? What kind of world would it be?
What kind of country would we have? You know one of the problems
right now with our country is because of the desolation of
the family. Randy was talking about it this
morning. Look what a mess the families are in. And for a husband
and his wife to love one another and keep their family together,
and teach their children and love their children? Isn't that
good? Trust in the Lord, He said, and
do good. And He said, so shall you dwell
in the land, and verily you shall be fed. That was two things that
Israel was always concerned about. Being taken captive out of their
land, wasn't it? And famines. family is coming. And he said, trust in the Lord
and do good and you will dwell in your land. The Lord will bless
you to dwell in your land and fairly you shall be fed. That
is what happened to them when they trusted in the Lord. And
you know that is what will happen to us too if we trust in the
Lord. Just trust in the Lord and we will dwell in this land,
in this land. I love this heavenly land, don't
you? And to feed upon our Savior and fellowship one with another.
But we come now, secondly, to this word here, delight thyself
also in the Lord. And I was looking, I have an
old 1886 Webster's Dictionary, and sometimes he says such good
things in that dictionary. He was commenting on the definition
of delight, delight yourself. And he said, delight is a high
degree of pleasure. It's a high degree of pleasure.
Delight yourself in the Lord. He said it's satisfaction of
the mind, that which gives great pleasure, that which affords
delight. And he went on to say this, to
affect with great pleasure, to please highly, to give or afford
high satisfaction or joy as a beautiful landscape delights the eye, or
beautiful harmony delights the ears, or the good conduct of
children delight the heart of their parents. Those that delight
themselves in the Lord, they take pleasure in the Lord. And
he said delight is more It's a more permanent pleasure than
joy and not dependent on sudden excitement. It's more permanent. The Lord never changes. And boy,
when you see Him and know Him as He is, don't He delight you? Is there anything you found out
about Him that's not so appealing? Delight yourself in the Lord. John Gill had this to say about
this verse. He said, Do you delight yourself
in God the Father? Do you take high pleasure in
God the Son? Does it delight you to know and
understand God the Holy Spirit? Do you delight in the perfections
of God, His power, His goodness, His faithfulness, His wisdom,
His love and His grace and His mercy. Oh, to delight yourself
in Him and in His attributes. And He said when we do this,
what happens? He will give to us the desires
of our hearts. Delight yourself in Him. Take
great pleasure in Him and He'll give you the desires of your
heart. And I bet you've noticed something.
When you delight yourself in the Lord, your desires are always
good. You don't desire something that
you can just consume upon your lust, but you desire those things
that please Him. One thing I desire, David said,
and that will I seek after. He summed everything up in one
big nutshell, and he said, I'm seeking this one thing, that
I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
that I may behold the beauty of the Lord. And he said, the
desires of the righteous, they'll be granted. And something else
David desired, he desired this. He said, I shall be satisfied
when I awake in thy likeness. Boy, that's a good desire, isn't
it? Delight yourself in the Lord and He'll give you the desires
of your heart. And the third thing is this.
You're in verse 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Commit your way unto Him. Trust
also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. Commit. There's a
little bit of difference between the word commit and trust. This word commit means to give
in trust. To put into the hands and power
of another. To entrust someone else. Commit by way unto the Lord. So there's the difference between
trust. We trust the Lord. We begin to trust Him. And you
know, we trust Him every day, don't we? Every day we say, Lord,
for grace to trust You more. But you know the difference between
that? That's something we do every day. Committal. Commit. When we commit something to Him,
we put it in His trust. And we're not concerned about
it anymore. We're not concerned about it anymore. I used to work
at a filler station. I think I've told you this example
before. We collected quite a bit of money,
but we had a little slot in a safe down on the cement floor. Solid
cement in that floor. And the only way to get that
out of that safe, somebody had to know the combination. And
when we collected a little roll of money, we would fold it up
and put it down in that safe. We would deposit it in that safe. That's what this word commit
means. It means to deposit, to put it upon another. And that's
what the Apostle Paul was saying when he said, I'm not ashamed. I'm persecuted and afflicted,
he said, but I'm not ashamed for this reason. I know whom
I have trusted. I know whom I believe. And I
am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have deposited
unto Him, which I have committed to Him, which I have rolled upon
Him against that day." What had Paul committed to Him? Everything,
isn't it? His way. He committed his way
unto the Lord. Paul was saying, I have committed
all to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's safe there. And I don't
have to live and worry and fret about it anymore. The Lord will
keep that which I have committed to Him. Brothers and sisters,
why don't we commit our way to Him? Commit your way. We said this morning we can't
guide our own steps anyway. Commit our way to Him. Roll it
over on Him. He loves us, does He not? He
sent His Son to die for us, did He not? He sent Him to redeem
us at a great cost to Himself. He sent His blessed Holy Spirit
to regenerate us, and He's so good, He's so tender, and He's
so faithful. Can we not commit our way to
Him? I mean, just finally, like Paul
said, that's something I've done. That's something I've done. I've committed my way to Him. We're not to seek our own way,
are we? Randy said this morning, boy, just about everything goes
now in religion. But not among Christians. Not
among Christians. Lean not to your own understanding.
Don't try to direct your own way. Don't try to say, I'm going
to do what's right in my own eyes. I'm telling you, you talk
about problems. Commit your way unto the Lord. And that simply means my way. is going to be His way. I've
committed myself unto Him. And here's the promise in verse
5, "...and he shall bring it to pass." Commit your way to
the Lord and He shall bring it to pass. Bring what to pass?
Well, He goes right back to these desires, doesn't He? He'll give
you the desires of your heart. Whatever you desire here, if
it's in His will, He'll give it to you. if you commit your
way to Him. And listen, what do you desire
concerning the world to come? What desires do you have concerning
the world to come? Do you ever desire never to sin
again? Do you ever desire that? Todd Maverick made a statement
one time, and I sort of thought about that time. I thought, man,
that's not a good statement, Todd. But I started thinking
about it, and I thought, well, it may not be a good statement,
but it's the truth. It's the truth. Even I don't like to hear
it, but it's the truth. And here's what he said. You
cannot not sin. You cannot not sin. You'd have
to be careful who you told that to, because people think you're
blaspheming and stuff. But did you ever not sin? Don't you see sin mixed with
everything that you do? And doesn't it make you sick?
Isn't it a burden upon your heart? And don't you long never to sin
again? Isn't that the desire of your
heart? Oh, to be where I don't feel the sins and the molestation
of sin in my heart! Oh, wretched man that I am! Do
you ever feel that way? Well, he said, commit your way
unto the Lord and He'll give you the desires of your heart.
There's coming a day, if the Bible is true, that I'll never
sin again. I'll never sin again. Oh, what
a day. No wonder John said, Come, Lord
Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. Never have
to feel the burden of sin. Never have to repent of it. Oh,
my goodness. He'll give you the desires of
your heart. I desire to worship in the beauty of holiness without
the body of this death hindering me. Will He give me that desire? He said He would, didn't He?
He said He would. I desire to be with Christ. And
to hear his voice, I'm sure to my surprise, well done, thou
good and faithful servant. I was so stupid when I was a
little kid, I didn't care about pleasing my earthly dad. And
I must respect and I'm ashamed, I've been ashamed of that ever
since. And I've repented and asked God to forgive me, asked
my dad to forgive me. I didn't seek his approval. went
on their own wretched, young way, rebellious. But there's
one approval that I want. I want it more than anything
in this world. It's not for the world to tell me. It's not even
for you, dear folks, to tell me. But I want to hear Him say,
Bruce, well done. And then I'll take off the crown
and throw it at His feet and say, only by Your grace, Lord.
Only by Your grace. Will He give us that desire?
He said He would, didn't He? I desire this poor creation to
be delivered from its groanings under man's sin and God's judgment,
and to be made new. Oh, when this earth is made new,
I don't know how He's going to do that. I don't know. But there's
going to be a new heaven and a new earth. I want to be there,
don't you? I want to see it. I want it for
this earth's sake. Will He give us that desire? As we trust in the Lord, as we
delight in Him, and after we have committed our way into Him,
there is one thing left. And it is found here in verse
7. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Rest. John Gill had this to say
about this verse. The word means to be silent to
the Lord. Be silent to the Lord. Rest in
the Lord. Be silent to the Lord. And Mr. Gill said to be still and know
that He is God, quietly submitting to His will, acquisition and
all the dispensation of His providence. It does not design a stupid indolence
or a stoic apathy that we should be like sticks and stones without
any concern at the hand of God upon us, nor in an impure silence
under our afflictions we should own that they are of God and
that we deserve them We should pray to Him to sanctify them,
to support us under them, and to even deliver us from our affliction. We should bless His name that
there are no worse, and that they are in any way, and pray
that they would in some way in His own goodness and wisdom would
be for our good, and that we should speak to others of the
divine goodness experienced under these afflictions. But he said
to be silent before the Lord, to be still and rest, means to
rest in the Lord as opposed to a fretting or murmuring attitude
at the providence of God and it intends a patient bearing
the hand of God and recognizing, recognition, resignation of our
will to His will. Be not silent. In some ways,
we're not silent to God. We pray and we ask Him for deliverance. But in other ways, we're silent,
aren't we? We're silent before Him in the
sense that we don't complain to Him about it. We don't murmur
against Him about it. The wills of God's purpose, as
one man said, roll slowly. And we have need of patience.
Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. The Apostle said you
have need of patience after you have done the will of God that
you might receive the promise. Why does God make us wait? He
makes us wait some time to see His promises fulfilled. Why does
He do that? Well, His promises are gracious
and they are free, but they are not cheap. And if He just blessed
us immediately with His promises, we begin to think that we're
cheap with it. He delays them sometimes and makes us feel the
value of those promises. One of the little grandbabies
had her phone confiscated. Her grandma's got her phone or
her dad or somebody's got her phone and she's wanting it back.
She's learning the value of that phone. Mama said you can have
it back Monday. That's a promise. Boy, she's
learning the value of that phone. The Lord has promised us many
things, but sometimes we have to rest in Him, don't we, and
patiently wait for the fulfillment of those promises. God has promised
His church that she shall inherit the earth and delight herself
in the abundance of peace Verse 11 says, The meek shall inherit
the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of
peace. And that's not just the Old Testament
doctrine, that's the New Testament. The Lord Jesus said, The meek
shall inherit the earth, didn't He? They're going to inherit
the earth. And God has purposed to punish
the wicked, to break out their teeth, to break their arms. to
stab them in the chest and heart with a sword, and to cut them
off, and to laugh at them when he does. Verse 13 says, The LORD
shall laugh at them, for he seeth that their day is coming. Boy, it seems like everything
is upside down right now, don't it? It seems like everything
is upside down. The little children of God are
poor and needy. and they are afflicted. And the
wicked are spreading themselves like a green bay tree. The poor
children of God just hanging on, living by hope in this wicked
world while the wicked are plotting with their sins and their corruption
and their evil imagination. But He says here in verse 10,
but in a little while, in a little while, everything is going to
change. In a little while, everything's
going to change. God's going to turn everything
up right. He's going to make it right.
Just a little while. Won't that keep us from credit?
This world's just 6,000 years old. You've got to be awful smart
to figure that out. You're a pastor's smart man.
I got that from reading. That's all I got there. If you
talk to some of these worldly wise men, they'll tell you they
don't know how old it is. I'm smarter than them. I can tell
you exactly how old it is. It's young. It's young. It's just been here a little
while. And it's doubtful it's going to stand but just a while
longer. And our life is what, 90 years? We may live to be 90. But that's just a little while,
isn't it? Don't fret. Don't fret. Don't get so overly
irritated and vexed and angry that you stoop to the tactics
of this wicked world. Just a little while, and the
wicked's going to be cut off. In just a little while, and the
righteous are going to be exalted. And the Father's going to take
them up to His house and say, this is all yours. And it's my
good pleasure to give it to you. And we're going to look back
upon this world and say, my, what a short time it was. And
I'm glad I didn't live my life murmuring and complaining and
vexing my heart with over the light afflictions that I had. And that's what they are, isn't
it? And I'll tell you lastly, in closing, I'll tell you this.
Sometimes when it seems so dark, and the enemy has vexed you sore,
and you think you can't take it any longer? Do you know the
Lord is just getting ready to bless you? He's just getting
ready to bless you. So many times it's that way.
Poor Hannah. Poor Hannah. Her husband had two wives. Hannah
was one of them. And the other wife had many children.
Hannah had no child. And it was said her enemy, her
husband's wife, disvexed her all the time. And said, the Lord
don't love you. The Lord's not for you. He shut
up your womb. And day after day, she said her
soul was vexed and she fretted and fretted and fretted. She
shouldn't have done that, should she? But that's why we're telling
you this. You can do it, but you're told
not to do it. There's good reasons not to fret.
But she went up to Jerusalem to the temple of the Lord. And
she was there in burden before the Lord and asked in the Lord
for a son. Bless me, Lord, for the son.
And you know something? He gave her Samuel, the great
prophet. And gave her children after that.
And she was so happy. Try not to fret, brothers and
sisters, when your enemy is loading you down and you feel so weak
and you can't hardly go. Trust in the Lord. Delight yourself
in Him. Rest in Him. Commit your way
to Him. He's faithful to bring it to
pass. Let's pray.