Confident Trust...part 6 (evildoers)

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Confident Trust...part 6 (evildoers)

Post by Eye » Tue Oct 03, 2017 1:31 am

By Shalom_dodi

Prayer: Father God thank you for this time. Thank you for each person here. We thank your for your Word, the Bible, and ask your Word to be heard and that we become doers of it. Help us to each take one thing away with us. Father we ask healing for those who are ill or in any sort of dis-ease of mind, body, or heart. Lord you know who they are.
We thank you for your love and for provision. We also want to lift up those in Las Vegas, PR, USA storm damage and Mexico and really all who are suffering in any way. God please help us to set aside our differences and come into unity under Jesus. amen

We have been discussing Confident Trust by looking at Scripture that helps build confident trust in Who God is. We are continuing that tonight.
We will read verses 1:13 then go back and ponder them together.
Psalm 37English Standard Version (ESV)
He Will Not Forsake His Saints
Of David.
37
1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
be not envious of wrongdoers!
2 For they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb.
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!
8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
10 In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;
though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
11 But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant peace.
12 The wicked plots against the righteous
and gnashes his teeth at him,
13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked,
for he sees that his day is coming.

Psalm 37 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
be not envious of wrongdoers!
This is a command or at least an instruction. We are told do NOT fret because of what “they” get away with or have. And probably we can all instantly bring to mind someone we know or know of who does wrong and seems to prosper. Can’t we? I can. But then I remember I want to live a Philippians 4:8 sort of life.

Do you remember what Philippians 4:8 says? It tells us what things to spend our time thinking about. Want a refresher? And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Fretting over what “they” have or get away with is the opposite of how I want to live and what we are instructed to spend time thinking about.

Besides, it gets me all agitated and stirred up and even (gasp) causes me to want to use a few bad words at times. Yes, I am human. It stirs up anguish in my heart and physically even makes me feel bad. God is pretty smart when he instructs us NOT to FRET or be ENVIOUS of “them, that, etc”

From Treasury of David commentary :Much needed is the command, "Fret not thyself because of evildoers." To fret is to worry, to have the heart-burn, to fume, to become vexed. Nature is very apt to kindle a fire of jealousy when it sees law-breakers (getting away with murder). We can agree with that, can’t we? And yet, we have clear instruction NOT to fret over that. Really not even to think about what “they” get away with.

The God graciously goes on to tell us why:
2 For they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb.
Once at church I was leading a group discussion and there was a member who was at the time watching an “ex” get away with murder. They asked a great question….when… when will God deal with “them”.

In our context we may wonder what is “soon” really. I don’t know the answer to either question but I do choose to trust God and in a very real sense, it is none of my business when God will deal with “them” or how God will do it. My job is to trust God. Forgive “them” pray for them and let it go.

In the next verse we are given a further instruction:
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

This is what we are to do. We are NOT to fret but instead go on with our life. How? By trusting God and doing good. By living the life God has given us to live (dwell in the land) and be faithful with what we have as well, I think, in Who we choose to believe in.

Barnes commentary makes a good point about this verse. He says, “The best way to keep the mind from complaining, chafing, and fretting, is to be always engaged in doing good; to have the mind always occupied in something valuable and useful. Each one should have so much of his own to do that he will have no time to murmur and complain,”

That is interesting, isn’t it? Be busy about God’s work and we will not have idle time to worry/fret whatever others are doing, not doing or getting away with.

Amp versions says: Trust [rely on and have confidence] in the Lord and do good;
Dwell in the land and feed [securely] on His faithfulness.

Trust…. rely on and have confidence in the LORD.
Sometimes that is hard when life is hard, but we can work towards it.
For myself, just the other day, A website my husband had designed for some of my writings disappeared. I found out it was because he did not pay the renewal fee. DUH…he is not alive. I did not even know about it or I would have transferred it. That particular evening I was already feeling sad, but instead of crashing I reminded myself out loud … Wait, this is a surprise to me, a bad surprise, but God is NOT surprised. I will be OK.

I LOVE the next verse:4 Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
What do you think it means “delight”?
Gill’s Expository tells us… Delight thyself also in the Lord,.... In the persons in God, Father, Son, and Spirit; in the perfections of God, his power, goodness, faithfulness, wisdom, love, grace, and mercy; in his works of creation, providence, and redemption; in his word, his Gospel, the truths and ordinances of it; in his house, and the worship of it; and in his people, the excellent in the earth, in whom was all the delight of the psalmist; and each of these afford a field of delight and pleasure, to attend unto, contemplate, and meditate upon;….
Then Gill goes on to explain the “desires of our heart” portion.
Gill writes, “and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart; such as are according to the will of God, and for the good of his people; such as relate to communion with him, and to the communication of more grace from him, and to the enjoyment of eternal glory.”

Some people take this verse very out of context and think it means God will give us whatever we want. That leads to false expectation and false hope.
What happens is God himself GIVES us the desires. Our “wanter” begins to want whatever God’s good and perfect will for us is. And we begin to want much more than material things, we crave the things of God and to be able to share Truth with others. Also to share from our own material blessings with others.
Neat?
I think so.

Next verse:
5 Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
Have you ever really committed your entire life to the Lord? To following Him even when it is so hard? When you are sick? When people make fun of you? When you are in deep need, physically, emotionally, every sort? I think a lot of people in here have and are.
We are instructed to TRUST God and he will act. Often we really don’t see the path ahead of us. But God is already in our future. When we can’t see, can we commit to trust?

Shall we pause and do that?
Lord God, sometimes we/I can’t see how or when or where or why in life. We don’t understand, we don’t know how to fix stuff and sometimes we can’t even see the next step you have for us. Tonight we choose or affirm our choice to TRUST you especially when we feel hopeless. And Lord we know that as we do that you will be acting on our behalf. So we thank you Father in Jesus name amen.
(anyone can add their own prayer)

Next verse explains what that action (in part) will look like for us:
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.

Then we receive some additional instruction on the What to do and how do do it. In a sense it is a repeat of an earlier verse.
7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!
Be STILL…. WAIT PATIENTLY….. Don’t FRET about what others do or don’t do or have.
We can do it… right? We can choose to “stop, look for God , and listen” when we are upset. Right?
Pulpit Commentary says, “Rest in the Lord; literally, be silent; i.e. do not murmur; make no complaint; be silently acquiescent and resigned. And wait patiently for him. Be content to await his time, which is sure to be the right time. Meanwhile possess your soul in patience.”

And again in the next verse some clear instruction:
8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
Uh-oh. Refrain from anger and forsake wrath and again do NOT fret. Else where we are told, in Eph 3:26 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
I think that anger will arise…it is an emotion… but the choice remains to entertain it… focus on it…. dwell on it or to get rid of it immediately. One way that helps me is prayer in the moment I feel angry (if/when I remember, ha ha). But an honest prayer that does not devalue my feelings. Example. God you see what they did? I am so mad, please help me release them/it to you. Thank you God .

The next verses, give us a promise.
9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
10 In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;
though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
11 But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant peace.

Those who do evil, are God’s problem. Not ours. He will deal with them. Now if you are being abused, stolen from etc there are legal recourses and this is not saying we can’t utilize those. But this is speaking of that fretting issue and/or seeking revenge ourselves.
And look what we get in return?
The meek…inherit the land and DELIGHT ourselves in ABUNDANT PEACE. Who doesn’t want peace? I know i do. But here is a thought…. if we are all upset, angry etc are we having peace? Naw. So if we want peace in our hearts, that shalom that passes all understanding is not dependent on the circumstances of life… we must be meek and not fret but TRUST instead.

We will probably continue this Psalm next time. This concludes our pondering for tonight. Remember we are working on developing “Confident Trust” in God. See you next time.

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