Bible Talks - Traditional Church (Sunday 8am)
Alphabetical answers
Sunday, 21 January 2007
Psalm 37 is an Acrostic or, Alphabetical Psalm. In Hebrew each double verse is introduced by a fresh letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
It’s like that 1948 song “A You’re Adorable” by Buddy Kaye, Fred Wise and Sidney Lippman
"A," you're adorable, "B," you're so beautiful,
"C," you're a cutie full of charms.
"D," you're a darling and "E," you're exciting
And "F," you're a feather in my arms.
"G," you look good to me, "H," you're so heavenly,
"I," you're the one I idolize.
"J," we're like Jack and Jill, "K," you're so kissable,
"L," is the lovelight in your eyes.
I think the affliction comes from eating alphabet soup while you’re playing Scrabble.
We know this psalm was written by David and there are clues that indicate he wrote it in his old age. For example verse 25 starts:
I was young and now I am old
The psalm seems to reflect David’s life-long experience of the goodness of God, even though, as we all know, appearances often seem to be to the contrary.
One of the often encountered objections to the existence of our good God is the claim that the wicked seem to flourish while the good guys get a hard time.
The main point of this psalm is that the righteous are preserved in Christ with a special preservation, and in a peculiar safety. Psalm 37 shows this both by direct proof, and by answers to all the usual objections against the safety of the righteous.
David affirms in a number of verses that the righteous will be preserved:
Verse 3 Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Verse 17 the power of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.
Verse 23 If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm
There are a whole string of answers or solutions to the objections that are raised against the idea that God looks after his own:
Objection 1.—Wicked men flourish.
Solution.—A righteous man should never grieve at that, for we see in verse 2 " like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.”
Objection 2.—Righteous men are in distress.
Solution— Verse 6.— He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Objection 3. — There are great plots laid against the righteous, and they are pursued with great malice and their ruin is almost upon them.
Solution— Verses 12 to 15.tell us that he Lord sees all the plots of wicked men, and laughs at their spiteful and foolish malice and their own machinations will be turned against them.
Objection 4 The just have but small means. We don’t have the resources to fight against the bad guys.
Solution— Verses 16, 17.—" Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked; for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous."
Objection 5.—But the righteous do fall. The wicked do seem to triumph.
Solution.— Verses 23-24.— “If the LORD delights in a man’s way,he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.”
Objection 6.—We see some wicked men that do not seem fall into adversity, but rather seem to prosper to their dying days.
Solution— Verse 28,29.— “the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off.”
Throughout this psalm there are another half dozen objections and their solutions. David is writing from the viewpoint of a lifetime’s experience. He is confident that if you love the Lord he will look after you. He has found it to be so in his own life and is encouraging his readers to also trust the Lord.
He makes some helpful observations:
1. That we must not unthankfully fret at God's providence.
There’s a sort of refrain that runs through the Psalm “Do not fret” We must not let worry take over and control us, wearing away at our mind. In fact in verse 8 he tells us that fretting leads only to evil. And fretting is often accompanied by anger and wrath.
Secondly, We must "trust in the Lord and do good'' It is so easy, when we see other people ignoring God or deliberately opposing him and appearing to do OK to be tempted to join them. David encourages us to keep on trusting God and keep on doing what we know to be right. Adam’s excuse, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” just doesn’t wash. We are individually responsible for our own actions and obligated to do what is right regardless.
Thirdly David encourages us to "delight yourselves in the Lord," and not place our contentment on earthly things. This is no mere passive thing. I’ve always said that “happiness is finding something you love doing and someone mug enough to pay you to do it.” Well I love going to church and I get paid to do it. Actively seeking the company of other Christians, feeling good about work done for the Lord, enjoying reading the scriptures, loving to sing God's praises are all part of delighting in the Lord. There will never be a conflict between our more human desires and God's will for our lives if we truly learn to delight in the Lord.
Fourthly David instructs us that we must "Commit our ways to the Lord” There is a firm decision of the will here to decide not to be not just a godly person but also a person of God. In Psalm 119 vs 57-60 we read:
57 You are my portion, O LORD;
I have promised to obey your words.
58 I have sought your face with all my heart;
be gracious to me according to your promise.
59 I have considered my ways
and have turned my steps to your statutes.
60 I will hasten and not delay
to obey your commands.
David’s final exhortation is given in verses 37-40
Consider the blameless, observe the upright;
there is a future for the man of peace.
But all sinners will be destroyed;
the future of the wicked will be cut off.
The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD;
he is their stronghold in time of trouble.
The LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.
David urges the faithful diligently to consider people they know who fit the profile of the righteous man he has been describing. There is a future for the man of peace. Things will work out. God is the God of grace as well as the god of judgement. When we don’t wait patiently and quietly for God to work things out in his time and at his good pleasure, our faith can be sorely tried and even extinguished, and trust in the promises of God,can perishes with it.
This is why David exhorts us to observe and consider, for when our minds are preoccupied by the temptation toin the immediate present our hasty judgment is can be the cause of our being deceived. But if we extend our view, take the longer perspective, we will find that David has been saying is true: the outcomes for the ungodly and the righteous are at length very different.
We must learn to suspend our judgment and not jump to hasty conclusions, if God should not immediately accomplish what he has spoken. Too often we are caught up in the instant attitude of our present times. We want answers now. David is saying if we’re becoming impatient in our desires, let us moderate our minds by the reflection, that the end is not yet come, and that we should give God time to restore to order the confused state of things. So often God, after he has severely tried his servants, and exercised their patience, in the end converts their adversity into a blessing, while he turns the mirth of the ungodly into mourning.
The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord. The righteous will be saved, because they are in the hand of God, and can never be forgotten by him. No matter how great the affliction, the salvation which comes from God is infallibly certain, because God is eternal, and governs the world by his power; as Jesus Christ said, “My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all,” John 10:29.
David exhorts us to depend upon God, not only when things prosper according to our desires, but even when they we sorely afflicted. It is enough, if God only imparts sufficient strength so thatwe barely get through the difficulty. But David reminds us twice in the last verse, that God will deliver. God is the one who is faithful,
We can try to be the people we should be. To trust God, to delight in the Lord, to commit ourselves to His ways, to wait on the Lord, all those things that David encourages us to do, but in the end it is the Lord’s doing. We are weak and fallible but the Lord is trustworthy, faithful, true.
This psalm is full of promises from the Lord to the faithful
4 Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
11 But the meek will inherit the land
and enjoy great peace.
18 The days of the blameless are known to the LORD,
and their inheritance will endure forever.
23 If the LORD delights in a man’s way,
he makes his steps firm;
28 For the LORD loves the just
and will not forsake his faithful ones.
They will be protected forever,
40 The LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.
Let us pray.