Trusting in
God, 1 Thessalonians 1:8
ŅFather, we are so
grateful that we can come before Your throne of grace.
That we can ask Your guidance and direction as we
study the Word today. As we walk by the Spirit and weÕre filled by the Spirit
with Your Word, we pray that we might come to understand Scripture more
clearly, more accurately, that we may hide it in our hearts; that we might walk
consistently with You. Father. We
pray that YouÕd guide and protect our thinking now in
this Bible class, in ChristÕs name. Amen.Ó
Today we are going
to look at another promise that is a much memorized, frequently utilized
promise from the Old Testament. WeÕre going to go to Psalm 37. This is part of
our Thessalonians study. In 1 Thessalonians 1, Paul praised the Thessalonians
because of their faith. Their active trust in God had garnered them such a
reputation that it spread throughout Macedonia and Achaia. Paul said something
very similar to the Romans when he introduced his epistle to the Romans, saying
that their faith had gone throughout all the world.
They had developed a reputation because of their walk with God; and this
reputation was going around the world. It was being twittered, and it was on a Facebook page in the ancient world, whatever their versions
of that were.
From that I started
this sub-series on the faith-rest drill and how we are to grow by means of
faith. That is trusting in the Lord. We trust in something. It is not just
faith in faith. That is the worldÕs system; that is pagan thought. You just believe.
You just have confidence that somehow the universe is going to pull everything
together for you. That is faith in something that is impersonal. Sometimes it
is expressed as just faith in faith. You just need to have a positive mental
attitude.
There are even a
number of churches in this country, if you really listen to what the pastors
say, are not really teaching the Bible. TheyÕre really just giving a positive
message. TheyÕre just giving a motivational talk. TheyÕre not really giving
anybody the Bible. When you look at even how they might reference the Bible,
itÕs just a cosmetic. ItÕs just something that is superficial. ItÕs just a
veneer to deceive the masses that they are somehow learning something
Christian. But theyÕre not any different from many salesmanship meetings, many motivational
speeches by atheists, by people who are advocates of the New Age movement; and
as Christians we have a different concept of faith. Faith is related to knowledge.
ItÕs related to content. ItÕs related to what we believe specifically about the
Triune God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and what He has revealed to us. When we
talk about the faith-rest drill, there are three steps:
Step One: Claim a promise. That promise might be the whole
verse; for example the one we are going to look at today in Psalm 37:4-5 is a
great couple of verses to memorize: ŅDelight yourself also in the Lord, and He
shall give you the desires of Your heart.Ó A lot of people just memorize that,
take it out of context, and say 'well GodÕs going to give me whatever I want.
It will make me happy, so therefore, God will be happy'. The wife of a
well-known pastor in Houston was quoted and her little statement from the
pulpit at that church went viral a couple of months ago: that God wants every
Christian to be happy, and so if youÕre happy, then GodÕs happy. So God just wants you to be happy. Once
again, this is just the mindless dribble that encourages the masses because
they donÕt know anything about the Bible. They donÕt understand the context of
this particular verse.
This isnÕt saying
that GodÕs going to give you whatever you want. This isnÕt saying that God is a
Santa Claus up in the sky, and if you just say it the right way and make a
positive confession, then GodÕs going to give you whatever you want. ItÕs much
more than that; and that is not part of the meaning of this particular passage.
It goes on to say in Psalm 37:4-5, ŅCommit your way to the Lord, trust also in
Him, and He shall bring it to pass.Ó These are a great couple of verses to look
at. We can look at that; we can claim a passage; we could just focus on part of
it; ŅTrust in Him, and He will bring it to
past.Ó Or you might even look at another phrase thatÕs included at least three
times in this psalm; and that is the phrase thatÕs translated in Psalm 37:1 ŅDo
not fret because of evildoers.Ó
Something happens,
and you get set off and youÕre upset, angry about something; you might just
remember, ŅDonÕt fret because of evildoers.Ó There are evildoers all around us,
not just the evildoers over in ISIS, or the evildoers in Hamas, or the evildoers in Washington
D.C. who are a part of one political party
or another, but it is people around us. We are constantly
surrounded by people we are not even aware of many times, who seek to take
advantage of us and do us harm. We can just grab hold of part of a
promise, claim that, and it focuses our attention upon biblical truth.
Step Two: Think
through the doctrinal rationales. ThatÕs a great thing to do as you are
claiming promises. You ought to have these promises memorized so that theyÕre
embedded in your soul. David said, ŅThy Word have I hid in my heart.Ó So weÕve taken
GodÕs Word and memorized it; and as you memorize it you think it through and
learn to analyze the thought. Take out a pen and paper, write it out, and write
out the structure. If youÕre adept at using grammatical diagramming, diagram
it. If you just want to create some sort of a phrase structure to help you
understand the relationship between the clauses and the phrases within the
verse, that helps too.
There are many
different ways that you can do that that helps you remember it. One way that is
helpful in memorizing Scripture is to not only say it over and over and over
again, but to write it over and over and over again. You can develop little
games. If a family is memorizing verses, they can develop games around the
dinner table, and you can offer rewards like: those who memorize verses get
desserts; if you donÕt, too bad. Always look for
motivation, rewards; itÕs a biblical concept.
We think through
those doctrinal rationales by writing out those verses. You can think about
what is being said here and why is it being said. That may lead you to take it
to another step, which is to look at the words that are used. Even if you donÕt
know Greek or Hebrew you can use a concordance, an English concordance, to look
up those words and get at least a rudimentary or elementary understanding of
what the Hebrew or Greek words are. You can look up parallel passages that way,
and you can begin to develop a fuller understanding of what the promise says.
ThatÕs thinking through the rationales.
Step 3: And then we
come to a conclusion. And in that conclusion, our mind is set that this is
something we need to do, so that we might even restructure the verse in a way
that might be stated this way: 'I need to delight in the Lord so He will give
me the desires of my heart. I need to commit my way to the Lord and to trust in
Him so that He will bring it to pass.' We structure it that way. It makes it
more personal, and it brings us a certain level of conviction within the text.
Those are the three
stages:
So as we look at our
promise—the one that we often quote, people often hear Psalm 37:4-5,
ŅDelight yourself in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to
passÓ—we need to ask some questions. As you think through a verse, to
help you understand how to think through a passage, you need to ask some
questions. What does it mean to delight in the Lord? Does that have a special
significance or a special meaning? What does the English word ŅdelightÓ mean?
Look that up in a good dictionary. If you have a concordance, like a StrongÕs
Concordance or YoungÕs Concordance, you can look up the Hebrew word and figure
out what that means.
What does it mean to
delight ourselves in the Lord? Even in the English you
can tell that that is a command that is addressed to us, that we are to do
this. This command means that this is part of our responsibility as a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The second question
we should ask is what does it mean that God will give us the desires of our
heart? Does that mean that God is going to give us whatever we want? Or does it
mean that God is going to replace our self-centered desires, our self-absorbed
desires, our wrong desires based on the lust patterns of our sin nature, with a
new set of desires, a set of desires that are focused upon His will, His plan,
His Word? And then as we want what He wants, then He will supply those desires
to us. I think it is more the latter than the former.
Another question we
should ask: is this some kind of bargain with God that if we just delight in
Him that He will just give us whatever we want? Is that a condition that if we
delight in Him, thatÕs the condition for the result? We could also ask the question: does this mean that if we
just somehow learn how to commit something to Him He will bring to pass
whatever we desire?
This is how a lot of
people will read the Scripture because they donÕt come with a lot of background
in terms of understanding the Word and the context of the Word; and itÕs always
important when we think through a rationale to look at context. Any passage of
Scripture has a context. It has the immediate context of the paragraphs
surrounding it. It has the broader context of the chapter, the section of the
book that it is in. ItÕs got the context of the book. ItÕs got the context of
whether it is the Old Testament or New Testament; and then it has the context
of the whole Bible. You have a series of concentric circles. Ultimately,
whenever we are understanding a verse, part of the
process of understanding what it means is to compare Scripture with Scripture.
Otherwise we can just yank the Scripture out of context, and then itÕs easy to
make it mean something that it doesnÕt mean. It may even be just the opposite
of what itÕs trying to communicate.
We need to think
about this and think about this in the understanding of this particular Psalm.
LetÕs get a little background on this particular Psalm. As we look at the text
IÕm going to switch over here to Logos
so we have the whole Psalm up here on the board. You see that there is a title.
There is a superscript there at the very beginning that is included in your
English text, but actually in the Hebrew text that is part of the first verse.
That is part of the inspired Word of God. It is not something that is inserted
by the translators of the King James Bible, or New American Standard, or
English Standard Version, or anything like that. That is part of the text.
Sometimes it gives us a little more information about the circumstances or the
situation around which the Psalm was written but in this case it doesnÕt do
that. It
just says that this is a psalm of David. We know that David is the author of
this psalm, but we donÕt know anything specific about the context of this
psalm.
After we finish our Dispensations class, IÕm going to start
a series on 1 & 2 Samuel. 1 & 2 Samuel is like 1 & 2 Kings. In the
original Hebrew it is one book. ItÕs just divided because it was too large to
put on one scroll. In the Hebrew text it was divided into two parts, but
actually it should be studied as one whole book just as we studied 1 & 2 Kings as one whole book. In the context of studying through
Samuel, and this wonÕt happen until we get to the latter half of the book,
weÕre going to start studying the psalms that David wrote within the context.
As we study the historical context in Samuel, when we hit a place where David
wrote a psalm in relation to those events, we are going to look at the psalm.
So that is going to be part of that study.
I am even toying with the idea that perhaps once we get
into the life of David in the latter half of 1 Samuel, which wonÕt be for
another year
or two probably, doing a companion study on the psalms of David on the other
midweek class so that weÕre dealing with both of those at the same time. I
think that would be helpful for people because the psalms are all written
within a context, and thereÕs a lot to study there. IÕve taught through
different Psalms and different promises before, and IÕve taught through Samuel
before in the same way, where
I taught through the Psalms,
but thatÕs been a long time ago. That will be a good way to do that. I think
people will get a lot out of this.
Psalm 37, is written by David. One of the things that we
donÕt see in the English text, which is true in the Hebrew text, is that it is
what is called an acrostic. An acrostic is a particular arrangement where itÕs
written where each verse begins with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet. It
follows the Hebrew alphabet so that the first word of the first verse starts
with aleph. The second begins with a
word that begins with bet; the second
word in the Hebrew alphabet. The third verse begins with the third letter in
the Hebrew alphabet, ŌgÕ (gimel) and so on; it is an acrostic. The purpose of an
acrostic was that it had a pedagogical structure. It was designed to help
people memorize the Scripture in the ancient world because people often didnÕt
have their own Bibles. They didnÕt have their own copy of the Bible. A lot of
emphasis was placed on memorizing the Word of God.
It shames us, as much as I try to emphasize Bible memory, I
donÕt know how much of an impact that actually has and if people actually
memorize Scripture. I always remember a story that Arnold Fruchtenbaum
told that he received. He comes from a long line of people who were in the
scribal tradition in Poland and back in the 1600-1700s. If you were going to
copy the Scriptures, then the way that they were copied was the Jews had a very
rigorous procedure in order to try to prevent copyistsÕ errors. In the training
to be a copyist, you would be trained from the time you were an infant in
memorizing the Scripture. By the time you were 5-6 years old, you would have
the entire Torah memorized.
You think you have trouble memorizing 10 verses. Well they
would have the entire Torah memorized by the time they were six or seven years
of age. Then by the time they were Bar mitzvahed at thirteen, they would have the entire Old
Testament memorized in Hebrew. Then in order to handle the scribal functions,
they would have to pass an exam. Arnold tells this story that they would take a
Bible, and they would drive a nail through it, and they would turn to page 231
and say 'okay, what word does that nail intersect on page 231?' And you would
have to be able to identify that because they memorized in terms of the pages.
They counted every letter that was on every page. They knew the first letter
that should appear on the page; and the last letter that should appear on the
page; and the middle letter that should appear on the page. They had it
memorized in terms of what it looked like per page. That would help them
guarantee that their transcriptions would be free from error.
This idea of writing a psalm in a way that it would be easy
to memorize meant that some of them were written a certain way, and some of
them were written as acrostics. The most well known acrostic is Psalm 119. If
you look at this particular Psalm, and you just make some initial observations:
Just some
observations (Psalm 37). IÕm just focusing
primarily on the first part because we can develop the whole thing, but the
first six verses (Psalm 37:1-6), and weÕre really looking primarily at those
first six verses, although seven and eight (Psalm 37:7-8) are good promises.
You can memorize the first eight verses in this psalm and it would stand you in
good stead. But if you look at how this is structured, look at Psalm 37:1, ŅDo
not fret because of evildoers.Ó Now look at Psalm 37:7. It begins with the
command, ŅRest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret.Ó The idea
between Psalm 37:1 and Psalm 37:7 are bracketed by this command, ŅDo not fret
because of him who prospers in his way.Ó This is repeated again in Psalm 37:8,
ŅCease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret.Ó So three times within those
first eight verses we have this command; this admonition to Ņfret not;Ó and
that marks something in relation to the structure; and it certainly brings out
an emphasis in the text that we are not to be overly concerned with the fact
that the unrighteous seem to be prospering.
A second thing we observe as we look at this particular
Psalm is that the focus is on persevering in obedience as believers: that weÕre
not going to let external circumstances, opposition from people, the fact that
people who obey the Word may not seem to be doing well, where people who are
hostile to the Word seem to be doing well. WeÕre not going to let that derail
us. We are not going to be distracted by what happens around
us and the fact that weÕre living in the devilÕs world. A focus in this
whole Psalm is on persevering, enduring in the midst of opposition and
hostility. It not only focuses on the idea of doing well, trust in the Lord and
do well, but it emphasizes many parallel concepts to trust in the Lord, to
commit to Him, trust in Him, and used again in Psalm 37:5; resting in the Lord
in Psalm 37:7; waiting patiently for Him. All of these are words that reinforce
our hope, our endurance, and our trust in the Lord.
The third observation is that the first six verses (Psalm
37:1-6) seem to be a unit, by looking at it in the Hebrew, that
calls the believer to endure in difficult circumstances. Psalms 37:7ff, the Ņdo
not fretÓ that we observed earlier in Psalms 37:7-8 begins that next section.
So that idea of not getting distracted by the situations around us and not
letting it cause us to be upset is repeated again at the beginning of each section.
That seems to be a significant point that the psalmist is making. To put it in
the vernacular, donÕt get your pants in a wad over the fact that the
unbelievers seem to be successful and believers are not. ThatÕs a very
idiomatic translation.
Another thing that we should note as we come to the end of
the Psalm, as often we find in a conclusion, is that there is a repetition of
the key ideas; and again it is a call on the part of the psalmist for the
believer to endure in faith, in light of future deliverance. Let me just read
through those verses because weÕre not going to do an in depth study. We read
in Psalm 37:34 ŅWait on the Lord, and keep His way,Ó and this is the same word
that we see for ŅwaitÓ in Isaiah 40:31, ŅBut those who wait upon the Lord.Ó It
is the idea of patiently and hopefully waiting. It is not just waiting and
twiddling your thumbs, but waiting with that sense of hope of confident
expectation. ŅWait on the Lord and keep His way,Ó and so we should note that
phrase ŅHis wayÓ is a path that is set before us. That repeats the idea thatÕs
in Psalm 37:5 ŅCommit your way to the Lord.Ó
It relates to Psalm 37:23.
It even says, ŅThe steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord:Ó your steps or
your moment-by-moment decisions as you go down the path, as you go down the
way. We wait on the Lord in confident expectation. We keep His way. 'We guard
His way' also would be a part of the meaning there. ŅAnd He shall exalt you to
inherit the land.Ó That brings in a timing issue. ItÕs
not something thatÕs going to happen immediately. ItÕs not going to be
something that may happen even in this life, for the promise was made to
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that they would inherit the land, and they never did.
The only ownership they had of any property in the land that God promised them
were gravesites where they buried Sarah and Rachel and Rebekah.
They did not own the land in terms of the way that God promised it. It is deferred
gratification; it is deferred reward. We may not see the justice enacted by God
in this present life, but we will see it in the future. ThatÕs our confident
expectation. ThatÕs where hope comes into play.
It goes on to say, ŅHe shall exalt you to inherit the land;
when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.Ó Well when does that take place?
That takes place in the end times at the final judgment, at the great white
throne judgment. Then the psalmist David says, ŅI have seen the wicked in great
power, and spreading himself like a native green tree.Ó In other words heÕs prospering.
HeÕs flourishing. He is productive. The tree is producing fruit, and here he
sees how prosperous the unrighteous was during this life, but then he concludes
in Psalm 37:36, ŅYet he passed away, and behold, he was no more.Ó It was
ephemeral; all of his success and prosperity disappeared. There was nothing
left that would endure or last into eternity.
Psalm 37:37, David says, ŅMark the blameless man, and
observe the upright; for the future of that man is peace.Ó In context, thatÕs
not just talking about the future in this life but future on into eternity.
Psalm 37:38-40, ŅBut the transgressors shall be destroyed together; the future
of the wicked shall be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous is from the
Lord.Ó See? ThatÕs our hope: future deliverance. ŅThe salvation of the
righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in the time of trouble. And
the Lord shall help them and deliver them.Ó This isnÕt talking about future
salvation here. I think this is talking about deliverance in time; that God
will protect them. God Ņshall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them
from the wicked, and save them because they trust in Him.Ó It is possible that
this may have an eternity in heaven connotation, but normally the word group, palet, doesnÕt
have eternity as its focus. It is usually related to a temporal deliverance.
WeÕre seeing, in terms of looking at the conclusion, that
weÕre focused on present problems; but the solution is often a long-term
solution. That is why we are encouraged and challenged to endure in our faith
in actively trusting in God on the basis of His promises, hoping in Him in
terms of confident expectation, trusting and committing in Him. There are
certain parallel ideas, as I pointed out just a minute ago: the contrast
between the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked is a parallel to
what we find in Psalm 1. LetÕs turn in our Bibles to Psalm 1 and look at how
the Psalms are introduced.
ThereÕs a view out there that I am looking at; it definitely has some attractive ideas to it. I
havenÕt studied it in enough depth to commit to whether it is absolute or not,
but I think that there is a level of truth to it. That is that not only in the
writing of the Psalms was the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit active, but
also in the organization of the Psalms. Often weÕve been taught, and IÕve been
taught, that the Psalms are just basically atomized or focused on individually,
that each Psalm is unrelated to the other. But as IÕve been reading lately
among a number of more conservative writers, there is a belief that in the
whole canonization process and the organization process of the Old Testament,
because some of the Psalms were not written until after the Jews came back from
Babylon, so it doesnÕt reach its final form until some time around 400 BC or so, that that
final form is significant and that these chapters were not just put in here
randomly. There an overall pattern to the Psalms.
Psalm 1 is significant. It sets a tone of introduction for
the entire Psalter. What we see in Psalm 1 is that there is a contrast between
the way of the righteous and the path of the unrighteous or the ungodly. We see
a description there of the two different paths. So it begins with a focus upon
the spiritually growing, the spiritually maturing believer, the one who is
described as righteous; this is who he is. This is
explained in Psalm 1:1-3, ŅBlessedÓ or happy. It is not a happiness that is
necessarily emotional, that is based on circumstances, but has more of a stability than that. But it is definitely a positive
attitude that is found within the believer who is walking with God despite
whatever opposition that he might face, no matter what difficulties he might
face, no matter what tragedies in life might come his way; he is described as
ŅblessedÓ which has that idea of happy, stable, tranquil, content with his life
because his focus is on the Lord.
This is followed by
the statement: [he] Ņwalks not in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the
scornful.Ó What we see here is three things he doesnÕt do. HeÕs described as
ŅblessedÓ because of things that are excluded from this life. You might also
note that thereÕs a progression in activity here. HeÕs not walking. HeÕs not
standing. HeÕs not sitting. You walk as movement; standing is youÕve taken up a
position; and then sitting implies that you are committing yourself to a
particular position. HeÕs not following in the counsel of the ungodly. HeÕs rejecting
human viewpoint. HeÕs not going to stand in the path, in the way of sinners,
that is those who are opposed to God; and he is not going to take up residence
of the scornful, those who are actively voicing their opposition to the Word.
In contrast to those three negatives: Ņhis delightÓ. There is
our word again that we find over in Psalm 37, ŅDelight in the Lord.Ó It has
that idea of exuberance, something positive, something that heÕs enthusiastic
about; he has a passion to know the Word of God. This isnÕt just something that
he enjoys on occasion, but something that characterizes his life as a
passionate focus on the Word. This is what should characterize every growing
believer. When you are passionate about the Word of God then you talk about it.
You share it with people. ItÕs part of your life. ItÕs something that gives you
enthusiasm, and you look forward to learning it; and you look forward to
reading it. Many of us were that way when we were first saved. We just couldnÕt
wait to learn it. Later on we have a more mature enthusiasm for the Word, but
sometimes as people grow and mature spiritually, they lose that enthusiasm for
the Word, and the next thing you know theyÕre just coasting along.
I found it interesting that as an observation that IÕve made
over the years, I especially see this in a distinctive way among pastors, among
people who have the gift of pastor-teacher. That doesnÕt mean that if you are
exuberant about the Word and you have a great love to study the word, that you
have the gift of pastor-teacher. I think it works the other way. I think people
who have the gift of pastor-teacher exhibit this with one exception. IÕve never
sat down with a pastor or somebody who thought they had the gift of
pastor-teacher who didnÕt want to talk about the Word. Well what do you think
about this? Well what about that passage? How do you put this together? Within
five minutes you are talking about it. I do know one man who is a pastor that
IÕve known for a number of years, and IÕve never heard him talk personally
about the Bible. It never seemed to enter his conversation; football, this,
that, current events— never seemed to do that, so I always wondered
whether or not he actually had the gift of pastor-teacher.
Every believer who is growing should be enthusiastic about
the Word. We talk with other people about our enthusiasms. The
things that we are interested in display in our lives. ThatÕs this idea,
Ņhis delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and
night.Ó I think the second strophe there is a development from the first.
Because you Ņdelight in the law of the Lord,Ó you think about it all the time.
ThatÕs the idea of meditating day and night. It doesnÕt mean that you donÕt
think about your work. It doesnÕt mean you donÕt plan activities for your
family or your kids. It doesnÕt mean you donÕt think about your other hobbies,
but throughout the day you take time to think about the Word. It is something
that is continual. You want to know God better and so the only way that you can
do that is by focusing upon the Word.
There is a result that is given in Psalm 1:3, ŅHe shall be
like a tree planted by the rivers of water.Ó In Texas there are certain trees
that if you see them, then you know that water is nearby. If you see a sycamore
tree, if you see a willow tree, you know that water is nearby. These are trees
that demand a tremendous amount of water, and often if you go out into central
Texas in the Hill Country or out into west Texas, if youÕre where there may not
be a lot of trees and off in the distance you spot a sycamore tree or a willow
tree, then you can be pretty sure that you are going to find a spring nearby
that is providing the water that is necessary for those trees. ThatÕs often how
the pioneers would find water back during the 1800s as they were exploring
Texas and exploring the west. They would look for trees like that that were
near water.
The Psalmist says here that this is what you are like because
you are being nourished; you are being fed by the Word.
ŅIt brings forth its fruit in its season and its leaf shall not wither.
Whatever it does it shall prosper.Ó This isnÕt the so-called prosperity gospel.
It is as we live our life before the Lord, our soul will prosper. ThatÕs the
idea when the Word talks about this. Our spiritual life will be healthy and
robust, and we will grow and be fruitful in our spiritual life. In contrast,
the path of the unbeliever, the ungodly are not so. TheyÕre like chaff that the
wind drives away. Chaff is part of what happens after you cut the wheat and you
separate that which is not wheat, the chaff, the brittle stuff, whatever, away
from the wheat itself.
This would be done in the ancient world. They would have
threshing floors, and they would use wooden rakes to throw the wheat up in the
air and then the wind would catch the lighter material that was the chaff and
blow it away. YouÕd be left then with the fruit of the wheat that is the grain.
That which was useless, that which had no value was blow away. ThatÕs the
chaff. The ungodly is someone who has no value. HeÕs not going to last. HeÕll
eventually be driven away. ThatÕs the contrast. The righteous is someone who
focuses on the Lord, and he is going to be productive; and the ungodly are
going to be worthless. TheyÕre not going to be productive.
ŅTherefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,Ó
Psalm 1:5. There is an end time focus there, just as there is in Psalm 37 that
ultimately vindication comes in the final judgment of God. ŅThe ungodly shall
not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of
the righteous. Final statement in Psalm remove
s 1:6: ŅFor the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly
shall perish.Ó DonÕt read New Testament theology back into this. This is
throughout wisdom literature. We studied this in Proverbs. Throughout wisdom
literature there is this depiction of the life of the believer. He has a choice
to go through the lifestyle of righteousness and obedience to Torah or disobedience to Torah. The focus here isnÕt upon
ultimate destiny in heaven, but upon walking with the Lord, or not walking with
the Lord in this life.
So donÕt read into this the idea that the Lord knows the
way of the believer, but the way of the unbeliever shall perish. ThatÕs not
what it is talking about. You can be a believer and live an ungodly lifestyle,
and when you appear before the judgment seat of Christ, there will be a loss of
rewards. Everything you did in life is burned up. It is like the chaff thatÕs
blown away, and thereÕs nothing that survives the judgment. But the way of the
righteous will be rewarded. It will be made evident at the judgment seat of
Christ. The point I want to make here in terms of what weÕre looking at in
Psalm 37 is that there is this contrast in the background between two different
ways of life.
That helps us when we start looking at the context of our
promise. When we look at the context of that promise the focus is between the person whose path is committed to the Lord. The person whose
path is committed to the Lord within wisdom literature—and this is
considered a wisdom Psalm, like Psalm 1—is the way of the righteous, the
path of the righteous. This isnÕt a person who committed to his own way. ItÕs
not the person who is walking in the path or in the counsel of the ungodly or
standing in the path of sinners or sitting in the seat of the scornful. This is
the person who is committed to the path of the Lord. This is the way of the
righteous. So when we look at the context here, in terms of who is being
addressed, the believer is being addressed; and heÕs being given instruction.
Psalm 37 is a wisdom Psalm, which means it has
a pedagogical, didactic or instructional
significance. It is designed to teach us how we should live as believers. The
focus here is not upon eternal destiny. When we look at a passage like Psalm
37:3, ŅTrust in the LORD,
and do good,Ó it isnÕt talking about the fact that if you want to be saved, you
not only have to believe in the Lord, but also live a good life. That misses
the whole focal point here in these verses. But unfortunately there are people
who take it that way, and that really has an impact on destroying the purity of
their gospel. They have an anathematized gospel according to Galatians 1:6-7 and
are not teaching the true gospel. It has been perverted by
adding works to it.
The focus here isnÕt on how to have eternal justification
and eternal life, but how to experience the benefits and the blessings, the
happiness of God of the righteous in Psalm 1 in the midst of this life. We have
to understand the language here in light of the context of the Psalms and the
light of the context of wisdom literature within Scripture. That helps us to
understand its significance. If we look at the immediate context, it begins with
a command, a prohibition. It is stated in the strongest form of prohibition
that you can use in the Hebrew language. There are different ways in which we
express things. We say 'well you shouldnÕt ought to do that' or 'that might not
be a good idea.' Then we say, 'you should absolutely never do that.' So this is
the strongest form of admonition directed to believers.
It starts with this command, ŅDo not fret.Ó I want you to
look at the verse. ŅDo not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the
workers of iniquity.Ó What do we have thatÕs parallel here? We have the words
ŅevildoersÓ and Ņworkers of iniquity.Ó Psalms are poetry, and they donÕt rhyme
words like we do in English. Hebrew poetry rhymes ideas in places, and that is
called parallelism. In this case itÕs a synonymous parallelism where the two
ideas are roughly parallel; one helps us understand what is
being said by the other. The commands are also somewhat parallel. ŅDo
not fretÓ and Ņdo not be envious.Ó TheyÕre not exactly the same, but they are
very closely related. The second line helps to develop our understanding of the
first line by stating it in a slightly different way.
The first command is not to Ņfret,Ó which is a fun word in
the English. You donÕt hear a lot of people talking about fretting. We need to
understand its basic sense in the Hebrew. The Hebrew word is charah. ItÕs in
the hitpael stem, which is a causative stem. And all
these stems basically mean that they have different senses or meanings, and
that one stem may be quite different from the meaning in the qal stem. Here the
word charah
just means to burn, to be angry, idiomatically I would say, Ņgetting all worked
up.Ó The core semantic value of the term is that something is becoming heated
or burned or kindled; thus it was applied to the concept of anger.
In the Old Testament,
Hebrew doesnÕt have a lot of abstract concepts when it relates to emotions. So
you donÕt really have a literal word for Ņanger.Ó You usually have a word
related to ŅdonÕt burnÓ because when you get upset or angry your temperature
goes up, your face becomes flushed, and a typical idiom that you have in the Old
Testament is usually just literally translated as ŅdonÕt get angry.Ó
If you read it in the Hebrew, itÕs what is called anthropomorphism. It uses a
human beingÕs form or physical feature to express an abstract concept.
Literally it says in the Hebrew, ŅDonÕt let your nose burn.Ó ThatÕs anthropomorphism,
but what it means idiomatically is ŅDonÕt get angry.Ó You
have that same idea here: donÕt get angry;
donÕt get all worked up; donÕt burn; donÕt become excited or agitated; donÕt
become incensed. ItÕs not merely the idea of fretting.
To me fretting is somebody who is just a little bit
worried, and they are not sure what is going to happen this afternoon. They are
wringing their hands. This is a much more intense idea. ItÕs somebody whoÕs
worried, who goes beyond just simply brooding about something; but is deeply
distressed, and thereÕs a passionate intensity here, and his indignation at
some injustice is overwhelming so that he looks at a situation and just gets
angry; and that anger just takes over. We could translate charah: ŅdonÕt get all worked up;
donÕt get bent out of shape; donÕt
get your knickers in a knot.Ó All of these would communicate this. Just relax
and trust in God.
In fact what weÕre seeing in these two parallel concepts
here of fretting and being envious is when you do this, you are not trusting
God. When you get all bent out of shape, or you watch something on some news
item and it just absolutely drives you nuts. Whether itÕs the verdict of some
court case: there have been a number of court cases where it appears that a
husband has beaten or killed, murdered his wife, and the guy gets off. There
are people who think, 'well if you live in those states where thatÕs happened,
then you get a get out of jail free card, because they are really not concerned
about prosecuting wife killers.' Some women have gotten very upset over that
particular situation. There are a lot of things going on around us that are
unjust, that are wrong, and if we as believers focus on them, we can get quite
bent out of shape.
I read something last night that got me bent out of shape.
This is something that we should be very much concerned about; itÕs happened in
just the last week. Apparently this court case had been going on for a couple
of years. This was reported in the area of Lexington, Kentucky. The Lexington
Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission has reached a decision in a case
where there was a guy who had a tee shirt shop and he prints up tee shirts for
all kinds of people. He hires all kinds of people. He has hired and done work for
people who are homosexual, lesbian, all kinds of different groups; and itÕs
never been an issue. But a gay-lesbian group came to him and wanted him to
print tee shirts for their Lexington Pride Festival in 2012. The message on the
tee shirt was one that he did not want to endorse, and so he declined to take
the order and was not going to print it.
The gay-lesbian group took him to court. He was defended by
the Alliance of Defending Freedom, which is a group that takes on cases like
this, that are First Amendment Rights cases, arguing that nobody should be
forced by the government, which is the Human Rights Commission, or by any other
citizen to endorse or promote ideas with which they donÕt agree. The Commission
found against him, so that now, not only is he found as a violator of the law,
and heÕs going to suffer whatever penalties they have assessed, but also they
have mandated that he and every one of his employees go through diversity
training. This is the worst form of tyranny. This is telling someone that if
you are deeply committed to a religious system, then you have to leave it at
home. It canÕt impact you at the workplace. It can have nothing to do with you
in terms of your values at work, in terms of the decisions you make, and if it
does, then we are going to mandate as a government that you become re-educated.
We (the government) have to send you to a re-education
training system so that you will learn to appreciate diversity. This is nothing
more than tyranny, and I believe this is a case where this man needs to
continue to appeal this all the way up to the Supreme Court. If this is allowed
to stand then this would be one of those cases where Christian employers or
owners of a business have every right to stand up in terms of civil
disobedience because youÕre being told by the government to do something that
violates your belief in God. It is not just a First Amendment issue. This is
where if the government is mandating you as an individual to go through
diversity training, then they are telling you that they want to re-educate your
value system, and this violates the Word of God.
So that would be a legitimate case for disobedience. By
civil disobedience, I donÕt necessarily mean going out and marching in the
streets or things like that. It is just saying no IÕm not going to do it. You
can throw me in jail or whatever, but IÕm going to stick with my belief. This
is where weÕre headed as a country. When we look at that, there are many of us
whose blood pressure is going to go right off the charts! ThatÕs what mine was,
and fortunately at the time I was thinking through this very passage, ŅdonÕt
fretÓ; donÕt let these things bother you. We have to learn that again and
again. ThatÕs our context. WeÕre just starting on context. IÕll come back next
time and weÕll drill down a little more in the context and then look at the
significance of this particular promise.
ŅFather, we thank You for this opportunity to study Your
Word, to be reminded of itÕs application and itÕs implications; and that as
believers we see so many things in our country and in the culture around us
that distress us profoundly. And yet what Your Word is saying is donÕt be
distressed. DonÕt let it get to you. DonÕt react in that way. That is a sign of
a lack of trust in You; that we need to have our focus on the long term plan
that You have and on the endgame and put all of these issues of injustice in
the world today in Your hands and focus upon our responsibilities to grow and
mature as believers, to learn Your Word, and to work the best we can within the
structures that we have in obedience to you. Father, we pray that You would challenge us and encourage us with what weÕve
learned in this study and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.Ó