Fret Not

Good morning Church!!!

Bibles out Psalm 37, we will be spending our time in verses 1-8

This morning we will continue, as we did last week, to study this psalm out of the KJV

Again as I was reading through the text, I believe the words used in the KJV are actually easier to understand in this psalm

Last week RECAP:

We discussed how the centralized message of the Psalms is this…

NO MATTER WHAT IS GOING ON AROUND YOU…GOD IS STILL GOD…

And we found that statement to be true last week in Psalm 36.

In fact we found 4 truths in Psalm 36 that really backed this statement up…

We saw that AS CHRIST FOLLOWERS WE MUST:

-See the world for what it truly is (the world is sinful, wicked, full of iniquity, full of deceit)

But no matter how wicked the world is…no matter what is going on around us…

-We must also see God for who He truly is (He is full of mercy, greatly faithful, loving, and righteous)

And when we do that leads us to respond in …

-Worship to God for who He is.

And…

-Pray to Him for protection (from being influenced by the world)

We are to see these truths and respond in worship and prayer to the Lord

And we can apply this text so easily today cant we?

Look around you…out in the world

We see war, addiction, murder, abuse, adultery, greed, idolatry, immorality,

We got Mass shootings, human trafficking, drug wars, the media selling lies and deceit to us and to our children…

WICKEDNESS…

As American Christ followers…I think most of us would say that one place we can see wickedness is in our own government…right?

Now listen…

We try to avoid getting political here…But lets call a dog a dog and a cat a cat…

Most of the time where there is a ton of money and a ton of power and mankind is in the middle of it…we gonna find wickedness… right?

Its not about politics…its about people…

All mankind is capable of wickedness…

Giving into our flesh…

So especially in our government we find this wickedness…

And here is a question that i think plagues the hearts of most Christians…

Why do the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer?

Why is it that the people who do these wicked acts often get away with it…

And more than that…they continue to be successful…

They get more and more power, money, fame, opportunity…and so on

I was reading in a commentary this week by Danny Aiken, the president of Southeastern theological Seminary…

And in his writings he gives a ton of great examples of this…

Danny says “We see it when a teenage girl tries to live a pure, modest, and holy life but watches other girls who walk in immorality and immodesty get all the attention; when a businessman chooses to balance his work and family and walk in ethical integrity but then watches as a coworker sacrifices his family, cheats the company, and gets the promotion; when a college student doesn't cheat on an exam while those who do get a better grade and don’t get caught. There are thousands of ways in which this manifests itself in our hearts.”

We all have had this in our hearts before right???

I know I have church…

This is what David is going to address today in Psalm 37…

Davids going to show us how damaging this can be to our walk with the Lord…

And how to avoid it completely…

This Psalm in fact is almost written like a proverb…

As we walk through this, you will see so much wisdom coming out of it…

If we look down to verse 25 we see that David was along in age when he wrote this…

He calls himself an “Old man”

So we are getting the wisdom of an old King this morning…

SO LETS GET INTO THE WORD THIS MORNING YALL!!!

READ V1-8

Lets break this down verse by verse church…

And hear this…we are going to just barley dip our toes into this deep, bottomless text…

There is too much in these first 8 verses to get to the bottom of in just 40 minutes…

But we are going to get a solid idea of what the Lord wants us to know coming out of Psalm 37…

WHAT SHOULD OUR POSTURE BE WHEN WE SEE THE WICKED PROSPERING???

Fret not (v. 1-2)

(Read verse 1 again)

The first stance David calls for us to take…DON’T FRET

Old Noah Webster defined this word “fret” in 1828 as meaning “to irritate, to make angry”

So David opens up…dont be angry…dont be envious…

WHY NOT THOUGH!!!!

They are evil and wicked and they keep winning!!!!

Im over here struggling to avoid my fleshly desires to be wicked…

Im over here dying to myself...

Fleeing from sin…sin that my flesh desires…

Why should I not be angry?!?!?!

Why should I not be envious!?!?!?

Well David tells us why in verse 2 (READ)…

David says… What is there to be angry about??? what is there to be envious of???

Everything they have…Everything they are gaining…its FLEETING

Everything they have is unsustainable…

Money comes and goes…

Cars and houses rust and rot away…

Careers, fame, beauty…all of it is fleeting

IT ALL ROTS

1 Peter 1:24–25 “for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

What David is speaking of is the exact same thing Jesus spoke about in Luke 16…

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus…

Rich man walked everyday out his gate, poor man (Lazarus covered in sores, begging for the crumbs from the rich mans table…They both died Lazarus went to Abrahams bosom, the rich man went to Hades…)

Luke 16:24–25 “And he (the rich man) called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.”

Church here is the point David is making…

DO NOT FRET…DO NOT BE ENVIOUS …

Because for us that have placed our faith in Jesus Christ…who are striving to walk and act like Him…

This life we live now is as bad is it will ever get for us…

We have to keep our eyes on what comes to us in the next life…

Our next heart posture David tells us we must have is…

Trust in the Lord (v.3)

READ V3

Trust in the Lord…

Place your faith in Him…

We spoke last week about how faithful the Lord is…

David said in Psalm 36:5 “Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.”

We serve a faithful God…

And He, in due time, has promised us as Christ followers…

1 Peter 1:4 “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,”

David just took our eyes from seeing what the wicked are prospering in…

To what the one true ever faithful Lord of all has promised us…

The wicked are prospering in fleeting things…that rot and fade over time…

but OUR INHERITANCE is IMPERISHABLE and UNFADING!!!

Get your eyes and heart off what the world is supplying the wicked and get them on how faithful God is to His word…

YOU WILL DWELL IN HIS LAND, YOU WILL BE FED

He will take care of you!!!

He has been faithful to every word He has given…

TRUST IN THE LORD!!!

And when we place our full trust in Him, no matter what is going on around us…

David shows us next that we will have…

Delight in the Lord (v.4)

READ V.. 4

Delight means to take great pleasure and satisfaction in…

The word is calling us to Delight in the Lord…

As David was writing this Psalm, he may not have known how huge this sentence is to us now…

David wrote this way before the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus…

But the bible transcends time yall…

How do we delight in the Lord…

Get your eyes on Jesus…Fix your eyes on the gospel church!!!

See God’s movement in your life…

That Jesus not only gave you eternal life…

But is also active in your life, answering your prayers, holding you up

You share the desires of your heart with the Lord and…

The God of all creation responds to you!!!

And that will bring you a delight like no other material thing on this earth church!!!

When you delight in the Lord it will lead you to…

Commit thy way unto the Lord (v.5-6)

READ v. 5-6

This word “commit” means to “roll”

David is saying here to roll your way unto the Lord…

This is a call to rely on Him fully…

Roll all your direction and actions on the Lord…

As your walking through this life…Let Him lead you

When you are seeking righteousness and Justice…It is the Lord who provides it…

It is not your actions…

We so often feel the need, when we see the wicked prospering, to take matters of righteousness and justice in our own hands…

But the Lord says here…I WILL BRING FORTH YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JUDGMENT…

He is not calling us to act against it…But instead…V7 he says…

Rest in the Lord (v.7)

READ v. 7

When you trust in the Lord, Delight in His ways, Commit your ways unto Him…

You will realize that you can be at REST…

David is saying here…Rest in the Lord..

Don’t focus on the evil doers…Focus on the faithfulness of the Lord…

WAIT patiently for Him…Because He has promised to eliminate ALL wickedness from the world in His final day…The Day of The Lord

WAIT AND TAKE REST IN THE FACT THE THE LORD IS FAITHFUL, FULL OF GRACE, FULL OF MERCY, AND FULL OF RIGHTEOUSNESS…

HE WILL BRING THE WICKED TO THEIR END…

The final heart posture we are going to look at is a call to…

Cease from anger and wrath (v.8)

READ v. 8

David says DO NOT let your heart fall to anger…and forsake wrath…

Do not do evil…

We just discussed that it is The Lord who brings judgment and justice to the wicked…

As human beings we can look out into the world and see all the wickedness…

And it can bring anger into our hearts…

When we see wrongdoing…it can cause us to be angry and want to bring wrath to those evil doers…

Church thats not our roll…

Thats not what God has called us to do…

Thats His roll…

We are called to be disciple makers…Ambassadors of the Gospel…

WE ARE CALLED TO SERVE…TO BEAR BURDENS…TO GIVE

Matthew 22:36–40 ““Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.””

Love and worship Jesus as Lord…

Love and serve your brothers and sisters as you would love and serve yourself…

Thats our action…

SO I want to leave you with this today church…

As we have walked through this text today…I want you to see this…

When you see the wickedness of the world…and when you see the wicked prospering…

When you hear about murders, theft, greed, idolatry, immorality…

NO MATTER WHAT IS GOING ON AROUND YOU… Remember this…GOD IS STILL GOD…

He is still the Lord of all…And you still belong to Him…And He is still faithful to His promise to you…

NO MATTER WHAT!!!

LETS PRAY!!!