Take refuge in God

Psalm 37

Wisdom for Gods people

Classic Hollywood movies always seem to have an obvious good character and bad character dynamic. It doesn’t matter which movie, but as the movie progresses we always expect the bad character to end up in jail, prison or a casket. And the good character usually ends up living happily ever after.

And we may often feel like we could be that good character, the hero of the story, Because most of us want to live happily ever after, the future for the hero always looks awesome. In contrast with the bad character, no one really wants to embrace their future.

Which is a wisdom matter, because like Hollywood movies, this Psalm paints a contrasting future for the two characters it describes.

And so, the first thing we need to know is that this is a Psalm of David. King David, who is often better known as the guy who took down Goliath the giant. King David wrote this Psalm as an older man, reflective of his experience, contemplating the nature of wicked people and righteous people.

which is how we too are going to understand this text today, we will look at what God’s word has to say about wicked and righteous people, because I’m confident that as this text was read, you felt its reality, you understood it’s truth. Because it’s not objectively complicated. Rather it makes a lot of sense, because it’s clearly got a good side and a bad side.

But this Psalm isn’t just about wicked and Righteous people, because this passage speaks of a third character, one whom we might not see initially as the focus of the text but one that gives us the full understanding of who we are in this text.

Our third character to look at is the Lord himself. For the Lord is a key part of David’s thoughts on wicked and righteous people, therefore this morning we will look first at wicked people, then righteous, then the Lord.

Wicked

Turn your eyes to verses 35 - 36 Psalm 37:35–36

I have seen a wicked and ruthless man

flourishing like a luxuriant native tree,

36 but he soon passed away and was no more;

though I looked for him, he could not be found.

This is the summation of David’s thoughts of the wicked. It’s a very delicate way of speaking the truth in love, for he gently describes the wicked and ruthless man as simply no longer relevant, no longer around while acknowledging his apparent successes as flourishing like a luxuriant native tree.

And I ask myself, why is David speaking so softly, so gently about the wicked man? who no doubt has earned his wicked title for whatever atrocity he committed.

And the answer is given to us in the wisdom and knowledge of what is to come of wicked people.

See I start with David’s reflection of the wicked because, the reality of living a wicked life is truly heartbreaking. Well horrifying if we take these words with their true weight.

Let us consider what David describes is the future for the wicked

Verse 2: for like the grass they will soon wither,

like green plants they will soon die away.

Grass is not a forever plant, it has a life and when its time is done, it withers away and new grass will take its place.

Verse 9: For those who are evil will be destroyed,

Verse 10: A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.

Verse 13: but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.

Verse 15: But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.

And the Psalm goes on to describe that the wicked will: - Perish

Be consumed

Be destroyed

Have no future

This future destiny of the wicked is an important feature of the passage, because we feel the effects of wickedness all around us. We see it on our screen and read of it in our newspapers.

But it’s not only that wickedness is around, it’s the fact that wickedness seems to be thriving. Wicked people can be quite successful, making lots of money or fame from the wicked things they do.

This is clearly an issue for Israel, because David was compelled to write to God’s people, reminding them not to worry about the success of the wicked.

Because clearly wicked people are continuously successful throughout history, even when they carry out their wicked schemes

So at this point I ask you to wonder for yourself, do you get upset with wrongdoers? Particularly when they are successful?

And hold that thought as we dive into the lives of the righteous,

Righteous

So while this passage had much to say about the future of the wicked, look at how much wisdom is has to orient God’s people toward righteousness.

Starting again with David’s reflection from his older age in verse 25 - 26 he says of the righteous:

I was young and now I am old,

yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken

or their children begging bread.

They are always generous and lend freely;

their children will be a blessing.

Such is the life of a righteous person. A wonderful eulogy for a life lived according to God’s word.

and so it is with no surprise then that David starts the Psalm with the Old Testament version of Keep Calm and carry on!

Do not Fret!

We see that each verse speaks strongly of how the righteous are to live,

Trust in the Lord

Do good,

Dwell in the land,

delight in the Lord

Commit to the Lord

Be Still and wait

Refrain from anger,

Turn from wrath

Turn from evil

Hope in the Lord,

Keep his ways

We see this Psalm has such a wealth of good encouragements for living a godly life, but more than promoting good morals, it provides a beautiful picture of the righteous persons future destiny

See unlike the wicked, who get cut off, and perish. The future of the Righteous is far more exciting

- desires of their hearts,

- Vindication

Inherit the Land

Enjoy peace and prosperity

Upheld

Receive and inheritance that will endure forever

Not wither

Though stumble, will not fall

Upheld hands

Not left in the power of the wicked

Exalted

Such is the wisdom of living a righteous life.

And David in this Psalm is making a very clear distinction between the future of the wicked and the future of the righteous, and so by the end of the Psalm we may be faced with a question of well, which side am I on? Which group do I belong in?

And of course give me the option I’m going to choose righteous, surely.

Except that not the question we are being asked in this passage.

The author of the book of Romans in chapter 3, explains that all people live under the law, and that no one is righteous in God’s sight

Romans 3:10 “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;”

And so with this judgement cast upon us from the New Testament, as we read the Psalm having only looked at the two characters of the wicked and the righteous. We must surely understand that on our own, according to our own lives, we surely cannot just pick to be on the side of the righteous.

But hold on you say, I don’t want to identify as the wicked that future sounds terrible… Well, you cant be righteous for no human is justified in their own works. So that really leaves us with only the wicked...

For if I standing on my own, declare before you that I belong to the description of the righteous and give you a long winded account of all the good things I do for the world, all the ways I help others, and tell you what a great guy I am, and how many people like me. That is only self righteousness. For while I may do lots of good things, in my heart is sin. in my mind is the thoughts of the flesh and devil. That is why no one, not I, and not someone else can tell you they are righteous in their own standing,

Because our sin is what rots our righteousness. Our sin is what keeps us from being a good and righteous person. It keeps us from a right relationship with God.

We need to deal with our sin before we can talk about righteousness. For because our sin, we have a desolate future, cut off from the lands, destroyed, perishing, future. because on our own we cannot deal with our sin.

Therefore we must ask ourselves, how do I become the righteous, without being labeled self righteous. What hope does this passage give me, that I may receive all the rewards on offer for the righteous?

What hope do I have to not fret about wicked people?

How can I commit to the Lord?

How do I delight in him?

For these are the kind of questions we must ask.

And to answer it we turn to the third character described in this Psalm,

The Lord God Almighty.

In the final verses of this Psalm David, describes the good news that we need to hear today,

Verse 39-40: 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.

You see, no one, not even David could live up to the righteousness of this Psalm. David, falls short of God’s glory over and over again, in many ways David is not an example of someone’s life we should imitate. He stole another mans wife, he then murdered the man, and lied about it. So we know that David is not talking of his own righteousness in this passage, so who’s righteousness is he talking about?

Well... the one who will live according to this Psalm perfectly.

That is to say this Psalm is describing the righteousness of Jesus. For Jesus is the one who perfectly doesn’t fret, who is still and waits, who commits his ways and trusts the Lord, Jesus delights in the Father, and he does not get envious of wrong doers.

See Jesus is the man of peace that inherits the land, because Jesus lived the perfect life. Jesus knew no sin in his heart and perfectly obeyed God. The only person to stand on his own and declare himself as righteous. Because Jesus is God. The Righteous man who has received all the rewards described.

But not only is the Psalm describing the life of Jesus it points to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and what that means for all people through all time.

For God knows that we need to deal with our sin, he knows that we are not righteous and could never be righteous on our own. He knew that David would fail him, yet he provided the way for David to join him. He provided for us that like David, we would delight in the rewards of the righteous one who lived perfectly.

It is through Jesus that we are delivered from our sin into a right relationship with God. And he does this when we take refuge in Jesus.

And so for David, taking refuge is not a passive command. Rather it has an active duty bound to it. But be careful then to understand the application of this text, for it would be easy to fall into moral application,

That would look like telling you to delight more, commit more, be more patient.

However David is not saying that, for throughout the Psalm has given us the appropriate application as we take refuge in the Lord. You see way back at the start of the passage in verse 1, we are told not to fret, not to be envious, but rather trust in the Lord.

Trust him and do good.

Trusting God is the fundamental application of God’s word this morning. Trusting that God will bring the deliverance of the righteous from the wicked.

You see Trust is at the heart of verse 4, taking delight. Because taking delight is to drop your guard and enjoy the person you are with. It takes trust to drop your guard and wholesomely delight in the Lord.

Trust is also at the heart of verse 5 committing your way, because we only truly follow those we trust to lead us to where we want to go. If you don’t trust your boss, its unlikely that you will commit your efforts toward them. So Trust the Lord and commit to God, for he is leading us to safe pasture, vindication and peace.

And you will see that as you re read the Psalm later on that Trust is heart of each of the moral principles described by David.

And why can we trust God? Well the wisdom of this psalm is giving us the clearly future destiny's of both the wicked and the righteous. Trusting God leads to the righteous ends. Not trusting God, not taking refuge in the Lord, leads to the wicked ends

But that’s not all, you see there’s an element of retribution in this text, and if we are honest, part of us delights in the consequence that the wicked will face. Particularly when we’ve faced the abuses of wicked people or wicked organisations.

See, I’m a little bit sure that for you reading this, someone or something popped up in your head as an example of a wicked person and you might have thought… Well they will get what they deserve. And I’d argue that that’s a pretty normal response to the type of justice we desire to see in the world.

However, These really are terrifying words. Words that when we think about the individual person who will be subjected to this, ought to cause a shiver down our spine.

For when we understand the reality that without Jesus, we are the wicked people described in this text. That it is only because of the death that Jesus died on our behalf. That we truly see the cost of our righteousness.

This is to say that Jesus died for the wicked.

And so we must not delight in the judgement upon the wicked. Because that was our judgement too, until the day we were convicted by God to repent of our sins and put our Trust in God.

And so let us not delight in the retribution that is coming to the wicked who taunt us or provoke us. But rather let us pray that those who are wicked, pray that they would receive salvation from sin and receive the blessing of Jesus’ righteousness. And that they too would seek refuge in the Lord

And so the climax of this Psalm, the only hope we have for declaring ourselves righteous is to take refuge in the Lord. Take refuge in Jesus and put our trust in him.

And that is the good news for us today. God says to us, when we cry out for refuge, welcome my children. Find your rest with me, join me in the land.

And so David, guided by the Spirit wrote this Psalm to encourage Israel, to encourage God’s people towards the righteousness of God. That all would know who are God’s people, not by the list of righteous things they do, but by the state of a person’s refuge, by the witness of where a persons trust lies.

And so the big take away this morning from this passage is that our righteousness doesn’t come from our own lives. Jesus is our righteousness. So take refuge in Jesus and trust him.

And there’s element of reflective encouragement that I want to share with you as I’ve dwelt in this passage for the past few weeks.

Let me encourage us to give thanks as a personal response to the passage. Because it struck me that, there is nothing I can offer the Lord in my life that is deserving of the rewards listed in this Psalm. Yet we as Christians look forward to the rewards that are described in this passage and have confidence that we belong to the side of the righteous. Not because of our works, but because of Jesus’ and that for me brought out a strong sense of gratitude that I want to add simply as an encouragement for us this morning.

Please Join me in prayer,

God we give you thanks for all that you have done for us in Christ. God, how great you are to provide our salvation, because without you we would be forever doomed, forever broken by our sin. Help us to trust in you. Help us to live in your refuge.

In Jesus name,

Amen