“I was young and now I am old, yet I have
never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging (for) bread.” Psalm 37:25
Psalm 37 is a powerful and practical
manual for life. Just within it’s first 8 verses there are rich insights for
finding joy and ridding yourself of negative thinking. Things like “don’t
fret,” and “trust in the Lord and do good,” just to name two. Be grateful for
each day given you is another.
The Psalm gives us “do-not” commands as
well. Do not worry or be envious (verse 1). Do not be angry or vindictive in
life (verse 8). Forgive as you have been forgiven, practice gentleness and
self- control.
Psalm 37 also gives us positive actions
we need to bring us in to line with God’s plan for living joyfully. You
1. Trust
in the Lord (verse 3). Whatever bothers you, trust God to be able to handle it
better than you.
2. Delight
yourself in the Lord (verse 4). Fall in love (again) with Jesus. Take time
every day to sit quietly in his presence. Learn to delight in Him.
3. Do
Good. (verse 3). Life is about choices.
Know that God will honor you when you do the right thing.
4. Commit
your way to the Lord (verse 5). Trust all you do, every day, all your life, to
God; for he is able to handle it best.
5. Be
still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. (verse 7). This does not mean
to do nothing. Rather, it means after you have done all you can, you should
relax in the knowledge that God will take care of the rest.
One thing to keep in mind is that this is
a Psalm of David. David was an old man at the time of this writing, and like
many of us had more years behind him than ahead of him. He had sinned and
repented and served the Lord. See the righteous upheld and the wicked struck
down. Also like us he had seen the opposite. He had seen bad thing happen to
good people and wicked people prosper. He had perspective.
We see that in our day. It seems that
evil people are prospering and those that do right are suffering. Are the wicked
winning? In Psalm 37 David reminds us that time will test all out. The wicked
will be punished for what they have done. In verses 16 and 17 he writes that
“better the little the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked; for the
power of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. “
Psalm 37 is a great place to go in times
of conflict, pain, and when it seems the world has gone mad. Remember, we live in a world where advice
blares from the television, radio and phone, streams from a blogging site;
where friends and sometimes even strangers are eager to offer opinions about
your life. So, it’s good to know that the Bible is still relevant, reliable,
and true!
Remember those on our prayer list.
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