David’s Psalms were written when he was a young man. David became king due to his personal relationship with Yahweh Elohim. He was a fearless giant slayer as directed by Yahweh. He also fought the people within his own kingdom who did not like him. The tribe of Benjamin thought the kingship should stay among their people so they were hostile towards David. Other smaller groups were also opposed to David due to many years of their own genetic mixing, which was causing family divisions. The Israelites had been mixing with the Philistines since the time of the Judges. Now David is hunting Philistines. In later years his own son rose up against him. While David was a worshipper who wrote songs, played instruments, and also danced, he was a fierce fighter. David writes psalms, some of which are known as imprecatory psalms, for an encouragement to all people who will go through trying times. David knew that battles are not just physical, but mental, spiritual, and emotional, as well. He wrote songs of encouragement while also suggesting imprecations to show us how to pray. David sees far into the future.
We are not always fighting evil men. While many men are evil and self serving, their power base is spiritual. They influence our society so that people who want to indulge their vile passions can. Then those people fight the battle to keep their vile passions permissible. There are some states that believe pedophilia is just another sexual orientation and should not be punished. The victim of the pedophile is no longer allowed protection or victim status. There is no justice for those victims. How were societies judged in the old covenant times when victims were being victimized freely? Think Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim. Today, Yahweh Elohim allows Satanas to enact the punishment against the ungodly and unsaved. However the righteous are not harmed or judged. While a society may fall the righteous always have a way out. And even when the righteous are murdered and suffer material loss, their inheritance from Yahweh is above and beyond what was lost on the earth in this age. Let’s explore.
Psa 37:1 (Brenton) A Psalm of David. Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be envious of them that do iniquity.
Psa 37:2 For they shall soon be withered as the grass, and shall soon fall away as the green herbs.
The evildoers always look prosperous, they always look as if they do not have any trouble, but in reality they have to produce influence for their spiritual overlords. They are slaves even if they don’t look like it. Evildoers must influence the world in evil and once they make that deal to work for evil, there is no way out. They will yell against the righteous, and the things that are life-giving and good because they have to hide their sins from the world view, and they have an obligation to fulfill to Drakōn and Satanas.
The wicked will fade away. David is looking ahead four ages into the future. The age that David lived in was the war age, where Israel was establishing itself as a nation after king Saul. The age of the captivity and return to Judah with the temple of Nehemiah is another age. The age of Christ-in started on Pentecost. We are living in this age. Then another age is the age of wrath, when Drakōn and Satanas run the world unhindered by Christians and the Holy Spirit. Then we will have the millennial kingdom when evil people will be in hades until the one thousand years are over.
Psa 37:3 Hope in the Lord, and do good; and dwell on the land, and thou shalt be fed with the wealth of it.
Psa 37:4 Delight thyself in the Lord; and he shall grant thee the requests of thine heart.
Hope is expectation. We are to expect that Yahweh will take care of us if we do what is good. We celebrate Yahweh and he will grant us the requests of our heart. What precedes this is fellowshipping or communing with Yahweh. Yahweh doesn’t just throw out our requests like a genie in a bottle because we demand things, we have to have a relationship with Yahweh Elohim. We have to spend time in His presence.
Psa 37:5 Disclose thy way to the Lord, and hope in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
Psa 37:6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noon-day.
In order to disclose our way to Yahweh we have to talk to Him. This is a discussion not an oration. When Yahweh judges us righteous there is no place for curses to alight against us. There is no accusation that can be held against us. Our righteousness makes us eligible to bring a case against the enemy in the courts of Yahweh.
Psa 37:7 Submit thyself to the Lord, and supplicate him: fret not thyself because of him that prospers in his way, at the man that does unlawful deeds.
Psa 37:8 ease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself so as to do evil.
This is a key point, submit to Yahweh. Submit to Yahweh means we may have to change our plans if Yahweh thinks it will be better to go a different direction. We then supplicate or ask him. This is a personal relationship and we are to discuss what we do and where we go. Take this literally and talk to him about everything. He is not overburdened by our conversation with Him.
We are not to be concerned by people that seem to prosper, they only prosper by unlawful things. We should not be angry because Drakōn and Satanas will prosper the evil people who serve them. We do not need to conspire to harm them, just let them destroy themselves by being slaves to their evil spiritual overlords. Everyone serves either Yahweh or Drakōn, even those who profess non-affiliation to either still serve Drakōn by default.
Psa 37:9 For evil-doers shall be destroyed: but they that wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the land.
When will those waiting on Yahweh inherit the land? In the millennial reign. When will evil doers be destroyed? They will spend one thousand years awaiting their ultimate judgment at the end of the millennial reign. Then they will be judged and destroyed, or released into the new earth, based on their behavior.
Psa 37:10 And yet a little while, and the sinner shall not be, and thou shalt seek for his place, and shalt not find it.
Psa 37:11 But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
We will not find evil in the millennial kingdom. Where the evil people used to live, those countries, those coastlines, those islands, will be left to the people who inherit the earth. This is when there will be an abundance of peace. Imagine going to your old hometown expecting to find your former neighbors and friends but they have moved away. We might seek but we will not find them. Jesus quoted David here.
Mat 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
The inheritance is a big deal. Jesus will have one thousand years with his people. The people who are saints now, who are righteous and serve Jesus, who enter the kingdom of heaven, will become kings and priests on the earth. Those regular people who lived righteously until Jesus came will inherit the earth. Those who believe on Jesus after he came but did not serve Jesus, will also inherit the earth. Those who served Him will be kings and priests and those who believed but did not serve will be ruled by the kings and priests. The meek are good people who live righteously.
Psa 37:12 The sinner will watch for the righteous, and gnash his teeth upon him.
Psa 37:13 But the Lord shall laugh at him: for he foresees that his day will come.
Why do the sinners hunt the righteous? Why do they gnash their teeth on them? The sinners are ruled by demons and other spiritual beings who hate the righteous. They conspire to harm the righteous. Yahweh laughs because Yahweh knows their day of extermination will come.
We have to adjust our thinking that death is bad. It is not bad for the believer in Jesus as Messiah. Death is good. The sadness to live without people we love should be redirected to joy as we recognize that they are now in the presence of their Lord and Savior. Death of the unrighteous is also good. While we may wish they came to Jesus as Lord and believed he rose up on the third day, we recognize that the evil they do will not be done by them any longer. They sold their own soul to Drakōn and they will not be harming the innocent righteous people on the earth any longer.
Psa 37:14 Sinners have drawn their swords, they have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy one, and to slay the upright in heart.
Psa 37:15 Let their sword enter into their own heart, and their bows be broken.
David says that the evil people have the righteous in their sights. Therefore David declares that their own swords should enter their own heart. David declares their bows be broken. This is an imprecation. We take this to the highest court, the court of Yahweh, and declare before the judge, Yahweh, that we are righteous and are not guilty of any punishment. Yes we take this fight to Yahweh. Satanas will do whatever he can get away with to persecute the righteous, even if they are innocent. We are to go before Yahweh Elohim, the judge, and declare our case. Satanas has a mission, to get people to reject Yahweh Jesus Messiah, and to live as an evangelist for Drakōn. He is looking for any infraction to accuse us. He is accusing us before the Elohim day and night, Revelation 12. Whatever Satanas can do he will do. But we can go before the judge and declare our case. If we have sinned we plead the blood of Jesus which cleanses us from our sins and we repent. If we are not guilty we ask for their punishment towards us be turned back on them.
Psa 37:16 A little is better to the righteous than abundant wealth of sinners.
Psa 37:17 For the arms of sinners shall be broken; but the Lord supports the righteous.
It is better to have a little, to not be wealthy, or to not be overly materialistic than it is to have wealth and be a sinner. Again another imprecation, the arms of sinners shall be broken. The existence of a sinner may look like it’s all fun and games, but the reality is they are salves to harsh overlords, principalities, powers, and the world ruler of shadiness. They look like they are living high now but their death will be torture and imprisonment, while the righteous are in paradise, and eventually heaven, with angels celebrating and other sons of God partying.
Psa 37:18 The Lord knows the ways of the perfect; and their inheritance shall be for ever.
Psa 37:19 They shall not be ashamed in an evil time; and in days of famine they shall be satisfied.
Yahweh will take care of the righteous in times of famine. The righteous will have their inheritance forever while the unrighteous suffer in prison and then the lake of fire.
Psa 37:20 For the sinners shall perish; and the enemies of the Lord at the moment of their being honoured and exalted have utterly vanished like smoke.
There is a principal here. Honoring someone who is evil puts the spotlight on them for the world to see. So push the evil people out front and let the wolves devour their own. Haman was honored and dishonored in a very short amount of time. Let the evildoers bluster about themselves, there will always be someone of their own affiliation that will tear them down. Why? In Satanas’ kingdom it is a dog eat dog world. Everyone wants to be on top. There is no polite social structure. Evil people will murder to get ahead regardless of both the murderer and the victim being on the same “team”. Their kingdom is truly “I will do what I want, I will take what I want, and I will be what I want”.
Psa 37:21 The sinner borrows, and will not pay again: but the righteous has compassion, and gives.
Psa 37:22 For they that bless him shall inherit the earth; and they that curse him shall be utterly destroyed.
The contrast here about borrowing and giving is like the contrast between cursing and blessing. Moses told everyone what would happen if they choose the curse. Luckily, as Ezekiel told us, the generational curse was abolished and everyone is responsible for their own sins. Nations are a balance. When the scales tip with more sin the curses on those people weigh everyone down. Even though the righteous are taken care of, the sinners destroy the earth. The world is groaning and travailing until the sons of God are revealed from heaven, Romans 8. The weight of sin overwhelms all the elements, not just humans. However when a nation tips the other way towards blessings and righteousness, everything and everyone prospers, even the sinner.
Yahweh is not judging nations as a collective any longer. The only nations Yahweh judged in the past were Israel, and those nations surrounding Israel. But today Yahweh doesn’t judge nations, Satanas does. This is why even though the righteous live among the sinful, the righteous are spared and protected. There is no one nation dedicated to Yahweh Elohim any longer. Even though citizens of nations may overwhelmingly be Christian, the land mass with its government are not under any Mosaic laws. Judaism was a law and a religion but it does not operate that way any longer. There is no temple. Everyone will die in their sins unless they accept Jesus Messiah. Today the righteous have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. Jesus himself is in us, the hope of glory. Yahweh doesn’t hammer the people he resides in. We can live anywhere and still be under Yahweh’s protection.
Psa 37:23 The steps of a man are rightly ordered by the Lord: and he will take pleasure in his way.
Psa 37:24 When he falls, he shall not be ruined: for the Lord supports his hand.
Psa 37:25 I was once young, indeed I am now old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread.
Psa 37:26 He is merciful, and lends continually; and his seed shall be blessed.
Take Davids words to heart. We are the temple of the Elohim. The Holy Spirit dwells in the righteous redeemed saints who have made Jesus Yahweh and Messiah in their lives. His seed shall be blessed.
Psa 37:27 Turn aside from evil, and do good; and dwell for ever.
Psa 37:28 For the Lord loves judgment, and will not forsake his saints; they shall be preserved for ever: the blameless shall be avenged, but the seed of the ungodly shall be utterly destroyed.
We have eternal life if we are his children. Yahweh Elohim will always take care of us. Our perspective is usually incorrect. When Ezekiel saw the Holy Spirit leave the temple, and the angels mark the people who mourned for the temple, the marked people were spared from death and taken to Babylon. Their children re-entered Judah and rebuilt it after seventy years. The unmarked people were exterminated and their lineage died there in Judah.
Psa 37:29 But the righteous shall inherit the earth, and dwell upon it for ever.
Psa 37:30 The mouth of the righteous will meditate wisdom, and his tongue will speak of judgment.
Psa 37:31 The law of his God is in his heart; and his steps shall not slide.
Again the millennial kingdom will be a wonderful place. Demons will be bound to the desert and people will clean up and rebuild the earth. Everyone will know Jesus is Yahweh. There will be no question about it.
Psa 37:32 The sinner watches the righteous, and seeks to slay him.
Psa 37:33 But the Lord will not leave him in his hands, nor by any means condemn him when he is judged.
Psa 37:34 Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are destroyed, thou shalt see it.
Again, dying is not the end it is the beginning. Even though the sinners want to kill us, Yahweh will not leave the righteous in the sinners hands, and Yahweh will not condemn the righteous when he is judged. The righteous children of the Most High will inherit the land. We will all see the wicked destroyed at the white throne judgment.
Psa 37:35 I saw the ungodly very highly exalting himself, and lifting himself up like the cedars of Libanus.
Psa 37:36 Yet I passed by, and lo! he was not: and I sought him, but his place was not found.
David is speaking about a vision he saw where the ungodly exalted themselves but when he looked in the future age, the ungodly were not found. It would be like the movie the Time Machine where George at the present time is in London and his friends are at his house, but going forward in time the cities are not there and the people are gone.
Psa 37:37 Maintain innocence, and behold uprightness: for there is a remnant to the peaceable man.
Psa 37:38 But the transgressors shall be utterly destroyed together: the remnants of the ungodly shall be utterly destroyed.
No matter what comes our way and how hard life in a sinful nation becomes, we are to always maintain our innocence and uprightness. The ungodly and all the remnants of the ungodly will be burned in the lake of fire.
Psa 37:39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord; and he is their defender in the time of affliction.
Psa 37:40 And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them: and he shall rescue them from sinners, and save them, because they have hoped in him.
Yahweh Jesus Messiah is our defender. Jesus was standing at the stoning of Stephen, ready to defend him, but Stephen asked for the people who were about to stone him to be forgiven. Out of that incident came one of the greatest gospel writers, the apostle Paul. Steven is not really dead, he is alive in Christ. He is living among the other saints awaiting the call from the Lord to meet Jesus in the clouds.
We have another imprecatory Psalm that pairs nicely. In Psalm 37 David makes the distinction between the evil doers and the righteous. In Psalm 12 he shows how the godly have failed in spreading truth and righteousness among the people.
Psa 12:0 For the end, A Psalm of David, upon the eighth.
This is a song into the fulfillment, the end of the age.
Psa 12:1 Save me, O Lord; for the godly man has failed; for truth is diminished from among the children of men.
David says the hosios, the “morally observant”, the “undefiled by sin”, the “godly” have failed or quit. There is always a falling away when some people are tested but David seems to indicate this is a large failure. We know David sees far into the future, so we might question is David seeing our time, during the church age of Laodicea? Are we the fat and lazy church? Have we failed? Have we forgotten to uphold truth? Truth, alētheia, is every Christian’s calling. We are to uphold the truth of Jesus Messiah, the Elohim, the Holy Spirit, salvation, redemption, and eternal life. Have we gotten so distracted with jots and tittles that we have failed or quit speaking the truth?
Because of our failing and quitting the truth has diminished among manfaced. This is what we face today. Are we allowing Satanas entrance into our houses of worship? Has he been blinding us? Has he lulled us to sleep? Or has he promoted an agenda to steer the body of believers in a different direction than the truth? Are we convinced that there is no truth or that no one can know the truth? Do we believe that the truth does not matter today?
As we mentioned last week the time period between Pentecost (the 68th day of the year) or Shavot (the 75th day of the year) and the Feast of Trumpets (the 183rd day of the year) is a time of dividing for manfaced. The idea is that the calling from the clouds, which took place in the wilderness and happened around Shavot, will happen again some time at or after Trumpets. The period of time between when Yahweh spoke to the Israelites from the clouds in the wilderness and the time he wanted the event celebrated is four months. The third month starts on the 61st day of the year and Yom Teruah starts the seventh month on the 183rd day of the year. This is 122 days, with four 30 day months and one intercalary day. The seventh month is called the “month of immortalities”. Yom Kippur is 192nd day of the year and Sukkoth is the 197th day of the year, both in the month of immortalities. If we were to understand this in our churches today we would make a special note of the events around us that divide us, call out Satanas’ plans for division, and support more righteousness in the church. It should be a yearly sermon series to point to the schemes that are intended for division so we do not fail as David is pointing out. Divisions that bring people towards truth and righteousness should be our goal.
Psa 12:2 Every one has spoken vanity to his neighbour: their lips are deceitful, they have spoken with a double heart.
Psa 12:3 Let the Lord destroy all the deceitful lips, and the tongue that speaks great words:
Psa 12:4 who have said, We will magnify our tongue; our lips are our own: who is Lord of us?
David says everyone, the saint and the sinner, have spoken idle or foolish words. Everyone has a double heart. For the Christian it would mean that one’s foolish ideas are preeminent over Yahweh Elohim. They love the Elohim and money, or they love the Elohim and power. For the sinner it means they are god themselves.
David calls for an imprecation here. He declares Yahweh to utterly destroy deceitful lips and grand words. We are waging a spiritual battle, but the flesh of men speak out deceit and grandeur. Call for Yahweh to annihilate it all.
Psa 12:5 Because of the misery of the poor, and because of the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord, I will set them in safety; I will speak to them thereof openly.
Psa 12:6 The oracles of the Lord are pure oracles; as silver tried in the fire, proved in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
Psa 12:7 Thou, O Lord, shalt keep us, and shalt preserve us, from this generation, and for ever.
Psa 12:8 The ungodly walk around: according to thy greatness thou has greatly exalted the sons of men.
We would say that the ungodly walk around in circles. They circle us, the righteous. Yet Yahweh from his elevation downward to us cares greatly for the sons of manfaced. If we can bear this in mind daily, we will have the courage to wage the spiritual war we are in. We are part of the army of Yahweh by our birth as an heir of the adam. We are righteous by our birth into the sonship of the Elohim when we confess with our mouth Yahweh Jesus Messiah and believe in our heart he rose up from the dead on the third day. So even when the ungodly encircle us, Yahweh cares for us.
It is amazing that David’s words are so timely for us today, it is as if he saw our age and wrote about it. We have the authority to use imprecations and to declare that Yahweh annihilate the evildoers and their destructive words. We should be using these imprecations every time we hear about or read about an evil event. With widespread media available in our age we know more about what schemes and plans the enemy has going on in the world. We can affect our times by stopping the enemy from illegally attacking people in our age so that people can hear the truth. We do not have to continue to fail or quit speaking the truth to people. While it looks like evil people are prospering around us, they truly are heading for their own destruction. Put the enemies of Yahweh on display, front and center, and then declare they vanish like smoke.
