The Righteous Shall Dwell in the Land

Call to Worship

Tonight we continue with another Wisdom Psalm, and another Psalm from King David, titled in the New American Standard as “Security of Those Who Trust in the Lord, and Insecurity of the Wicked.” This Psalm is longer than the last two, around 40 verses, so I intent to split the Psalm over a few weeks. And again, the Psalms hold a unique and special place in Scripture, historically a set of songs, and are used to expressly communicate proper belief and virtuous living. In other words, it summarizes biblical teaching via methods of living.

God, the Creator of human bodies, knew that the weakness of the human body was such that it would be susceptible to various illnesses and subject to injuries and other debilities. For this reason, making provision for the maladies to come, he produced remedies from the earth and imparted the science of medicine so that, should sickness afflict the body, there should be no want of a cure.

Scripture Reading

Let us begin this evening with an exploration of Scripture...

Old Testament

A reading from the Old Testament, the Book of Psalms, the First Psalm. May God bless the reading of His word,

Psalm 37:1–11 “Do not fret because of evildoers, Be not envious toward wrongdoers. For they will wither quickly like the grass And fade like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing. For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. But the humble will inherit the land And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.”

This is the word of God.

New Testament

A reading from the New Testament, from the words of the Apostle James,

1 Peter 5:6–7 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”

A reading from the Gospel According to Matthew,

Matthew 5:5 “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.”

Lord’s Prayer / Prayer of Divine Invocation

Let this be a reminder that the Lord be with you. And with your Spirit. Let us pray.

Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

Almighty God, to You all hearts are open, all desires known, and from You no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love You, and worthily magnify Your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. We say this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon

Do not the Psalms sound like a public prayer given to the whole church? And on prayer, I believe this: lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi (the law of prayer, is the law of belief, is the law of living)—or, better put, the manner in which you pray dictates what you believe. That worship and belief cannot be separated. In this way, I include elements of a liturgical structure each week for you all.

And the Psalms, sung as an integral part of Jewish worship, shaped their belief, so do they shape ours today. And not only do many of the Psalms share a distinctly Christ-like figure that can seem hard to miss to the Messianic Christian mind, but they offer succinct doctrines of wisdom in which we’ve been studying week by week. And what we find in the Wisdom Literature (including these Psalms) is a big focus on fairness. Let it be no coincidence that the greatest early work of Philosophy (love of wisdom) was bent of defining justice (proper fairness). But rather than addressing fairness like the Torah did (the law), it addresses the reality of “fairness” in a seemingly “unfair world.”

Look at how this Psalm begins, “Do not fret because of evildoers, / Be not envious toward wrongdoers. / For they will wither quickly like the grass / And fade like the green herb” The Psalm begins with one of the most common general messages conclusions in Scripture’s Wisdom Literature. When we are held back by this idea of fairness without view for a certain secure future in Christ (remember from last week, the Lord is our refuge, our fortress, our defense), it leads to negative thinking. David tells us then, not to worry about those who do evil, no matter how much power or riches they have. Think of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes, who we are told has it all, yet rejects it all for God. That the only rule of life, the rule of wisdom, is to revere God and keep His commandments.

So do not worry, think about all the horrific stories that come out of the celebrity or wealthy sphere: Diddy, Epstein, Weinstein. There time will come, if not on earth in eternity. Do not fret for their time will come. They will wither away, but the Christian, in Christ, is promised the resurrection of the body, that those who trust in Lord will not cease. Hence we turn to the next verse, which reads, “Trust in the Lord and do good; / Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.” So much in the Zeitgeist (spirit of the times), seems to be about rejecting authority and being countercultural, but what seems more countercultural than Scripture today. I don’t mean this in any light way, by being told to reject those worldly pleasures which only distract us from our destiny, and to focus on doing good, we are rewarded with a life in which we cultivate faithfulness.

Turn to our gospel reading, which I will reference a few more times, blessed are the gentle, for they should inherit the earth. So should we not focus on the earth, cultivating it and dwelling in it before we do? Is it not often the lowest workers that are the most important at a company or farm. Who makes the product? Who runs the systems? Not usually those with outright power. And when their demise comes, it will be those left that are dependent on the whole machine to function or else it shall wither away like the evildoers.

Fast forward to the New Testament, the gospel is about the Kingdom coming to earth. That’s the good news. Christ came to the earth that His Kingdom could follow. We are not told to reject the earth, only its unnecessary pleasures. To bring others to a life fully earthly, and fully divine. To bridge that Creator-Creature distinction. In the Christian Kingdom, then, there is both a message of our heavenly Kingdom and community in which we will and do partake, and the earthly in which we are commissioned to spread the gospel so that all could experience union with Christ. That is the heavenly Kingdom, union with the divine. Would we not want all to partake in Christ as we do in His Supper? Let us not be the evildoers and wrongdoers who envy others, and wish to keep their (earthly) pleasures to themselves. But let us be like Christ, and invite those in, the weak, the poor, the suffering.

Let our Christianity be mocked like it was at its inception, a religion of slaves. At that time because many of those without worldly pleasures found Christianity intriguing, but also because many would give up their worldly possession in order to follow Christ. And why did they do such a countercultural action? Because they trusted in the Lord.

Many today, many who profess themselves followers of Christ delight themselves in belongings, in power, in opportunity, rather than in the Lord, as the fourth verse tells us those that do, will be given “the desires of your heart.” That is, all you truly need will be given to the followers of Christ. The desires of your heart then are distinguished from the desires of your appetite. Our human natures, broken and torn apart since Adam’s first sin, seek things to fill that gap between God and man, but none suffice. Whether it be through drugs or alcohol, entertainment or pornography, illegitimate humor or hubris, there will always be something that will be used to make man forget their destiny. But this is what the adversary wants, that we can be focused on anything but that which saves us.

So what is that response, repeated again, to “Commit your way to the Lord, / [to] Trust also in Him, and He will do it. / He will bring forth righteousness as light / And your judgment as the noonday.” It is easy to lose sight of this word—commit. It is not “consider,” not “weigh,” not “flirt with.” Commit. It’s a term of allegiance—a term of covenant promise. If we commit ourselves to Him, He will commit Himself to us. And we do not commit lightly; it implies turning your whole path over to the Lord. Not just your Sunday mornings, not just your time of prayer or giving, but your way—your direction, your purpose, your work, your thought-life, your sleep, your labor, your desire. The path you take is not yours anymore. The “way” you walk becomes His, and in walking in that path, what seemed uncertain becomes illuminated—not because you’ve changed the circumstances, but because the light of God renders visible what was once dark.

Notice how the Psalm puts this: your righteousness will shine like light, and your judgment like noonday. In other words, your character and your discernment will not need to shout—they will be self-evident. God makes them visible. When people walk in the light of Christ, their lives become transparent in the best way. There is no cunning needed, no craftiness, no elaborate schemes to justify oneself. The Lord justifies. And so the world’s temptation to gain recognition or authority by manipulation, by self-promotion, becomes absurd to the Christian who knows that true honor is given by God, not taken by force.

And yet this idea, of handing over control—of not being the master of our own outcomes—is deeply counterintuitive. In a world where we are told to create our own destiny, to shape our own future, to be self-made, self-fulfilled, self-actualized—the Psalm offers a rebuke. It’s not about your own power to create, but your humility to commit your way to the Lord. And He will do it. For He is our refuge and strength.

So the next verses continue: “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; / Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, / Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.” First, notice a repetition of this idea of “fretting,” “do not fret.” This means being quick to anger, as we are warned in the letter of James (James 1:19 “…everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger”). And here, then, the Psalmist, David, begins to name a deeper anxiety within us: that while we wait, others move. That while we rest, others climb. And not just anyone—those who scheme, those who cheat, those who take shortcuts, who promote themselves, who trample others on the way up. And what’s worse, they succeed.

For we live in a world of drive, of ambition, but do these ambitions always lead us to a proper end. They are always focused on what is to/might come soon, not what is to come definitely. It is one thing to see evil exposed—it is another thing entirely to see evil rewarded. Often, the man who carries out wicked schemes doesn’t simply exist, he thrives. And the Christian is told to rest. To wait. Is this not that countercultural aspect? But is it to do nothing in the face of this apparent injustice? No, not nothing. But rather something deeper. To rest in the Lord is not passivity—it is obedience. And in obedience is action. To pray for one another, to remain vested in truth that your character may share the character of Christ. It is refusing to be formed by the world’s success metrics. It is rejecting the desperate need to compare.

And this word “rest” here in the Hebrew (damam) also has connotations of being silent, still, even struck dumb. The same word used when Scripture says to follow Christ, for He will give you rest. There are moments in which our deepest worship is not in our words but in our refusal to speak when our instincts cry out for vengeance or explanation. To turn the other cheek—a command by Christ. Our silence before God becomes our protest to the world’s distorted values.

We continue to verse 8: “Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.” The Psalmist now begins to speak not just about external circumstances but internal temptations. Anger. Wrath. Fretfulness. Now this may confuse some since I just defined “fretting” as being quick to anger. And the English translation here is not perfect, until we understand each word used for anger and fret, which carry similar but not equal meanings. Anger here refers to wrath, to enact revengeful punishment on someone. And this can seem natural when someone does something wrong. But is this not why we have courts? And the word for fret should be understood, as it can be when used earlier, to imply an anger from jealousy, an anger in one’s own heart. And as we are told by David in this Psalm, “do not fret… and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Notice the shift: from observing injustice to responding with inner turmoil. The human heart, if left unguarded, moves from disappointment to frustration, from frustration to rage, and from rage to action. And here the text warns us—fretfulness, even if it seems passive, is a seed. And it bears fruit in evil. Hence, as believers, we are told both to treat others as we would treat ourselves (“cease from anger”) and to not covet one another’s belongings (“do not fret”). In Christ, we do not need to remain in a spirit of anger or jealousy, we are free in a Christ who gives us what our hearts desire.

So when we obsess over the injustices of the world, we may convince ourselves we are simply being discerning or righteous, but often we are stewing. We are feeding our ego. We are asking, “Why not me?” more than “Why him?” The Psalm teaches a deep truth: if we do not put our fretfulness to rest, it will lead us into the very evildoing we originally despised. You start by resenting the wicked man’s schemes, and you end by copying them.

This is how sin operates—it promises to avenge, but instead it seduces. It says, “Don’t you deserve better? Shouldn’t you be in charge?” It whispers in the language of fairness, but the goal is not justice—it’s to ensnare. And so we must “cease from anger,” not because anger is never appropriate (Christ Himself was righteously angry), but because most of our anger is not righteous. It is selfish, it is tired, it is short-tempered, it is fueled by pride, it is kindled by comparison.

We see, then, another quick summation of divine justice, when David writes, “For evildoers will be cut off, / But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.” Now comes the reversal. The very ones who appeared to own the land—the men of wealth, the builders of Babel, the kings of the earth, the Silicon Valley princes—are “cut off.” The land is taken from them. Their power is short-lived. The Hebrew here is karath, a cutting away, as with a knife. Sudden, decisive. While the ones who simply “wait” for the Lord—quietly, faithfully—are given the land. Given, not seized.

And this phrase “inherit the land” is no throwaway. It hearkens to the covenant with Abraham, to the promises of God, to the idea that God’s people will not only be preserved—they will receive a tangible dwelling place. In a New Testament light, this expands into the beatitudes: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Meekness is not weakness. It is strength under discipline. It is confidence without arrogance. It is the posture of one who can be trusted with an inheritance because they do not claim it by violence.

The Psalm again insists on a time horizon: “Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; / And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there.” How long is a little while? Elsewhere, Scripture uses the analogy that, for God, a day is as a thousand years. And yet for us, the suffering, the confusion, the apparent prosperity of the wicked—it can feel endless, even if only a day. But the Psalm tells us: don’t believe the mirage. It is all temporary. You will look for the man who dominated the headlines, who owned the buildings, who sat on thrones—and he will be gone. Not even a trace.

This is not only eschatological (about the end of time); it is experiential. You may live long enough to see the mighty fall, the proud humbled, the secret things exposed. What seemed invincible turns out to be tissue-thin. There is a certain poetic justice written into the world—not perfectly seen, not always timely—but glimpses enough that we should trust in the Judge of all the earth.

And yet, the Psalmist offers this not to stir up glee in the downfall of others but to give peace to the believer. The message is: you do not need to grasp for what will not last. You do not need to envy a house that is already collapsing. Wait a little longer. What matters will remain. What doesn’t will vanish.

So David continues, “But the humble will inherit the land / And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.” We have come full circle. The humble, the meek, the quiet-hearted—these will be the ones who remain. Not only will they survive—they will delight. There is a promised abundance here, but not abundance in the worldly sense. The prosperity in this Psalm is not excess but fullness. Not luxury but satisfaction. It is the abundance of the heart aligned with God’s purposes, a joy that does not rot with the decay of the world. And I think we see this in our reading of Peter’s First Epistle, that we, the righteous, shall become humbled before God’s mighty hand. That He will exalt us and He will give us an inheritance of abundant prosperity. Thus, cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. This last line, to be honest, is even hard for me to put into action. Yet in my heart I still know that when my anxiety is put upon Him, when He takes my burden, all will be well. I think it is possible to know these truths and still not always realize them in the moment. God is for the broken-hearted and downtrodden, not the pompous and ignorant.

And so we must ask ourselves: where do we seek our prosperity? Where is our delight found? Do we imagine God’s blessing only in terms of security and status, or do we recognize that the greatest abundance is to be at peace with the Lord and with our neighbor? The humble man does not need to proclaim his righteousness. He walks in it. And the land he receives is not the plot of dirt that can be bought or sold but the Kingdom which cannot be shaken.

This is the Gospel echo in Psalm 37: that those who commit their way to the Lord, who rest in Him, who forsake wrath and trust in His judgment, will not be forgotten. The Psalm gives us not only comfort but instruction. It shapes the imagination of faith. And in a world that constantly demands our reaction, our response, our outrage—the Psalm teaches us to wait. To walk. To cultivate. To inherit.

Let your mind dwell here: that the Psalm does not merely describe what will happen, but begins to reshape what we desire in the first place. It trains the heart to yearn for the right things, not just to get what we want, but to want what is true. To want righteousness more than recognition. To want faithfulness more than followers. To want peace more than position.

This is the life we are called to: not a life of retreat, but a life of rootedness. “Dwell in the land,” it said earlier, not escape it. We are not escapists, nor pessimists, nor quietists. We are cultivators. The soil is good—though it may not look like it. The weeds grow fast. The wicked sprout quickly. But the true vine remains.

So let the world boast in its power. Let the wicked rage and the evildoers posture. Their reward is near, but it is short. Ours is hidden, but it is everlasting. We repeat this mantra of Wisdom literature with more knowledge than ever as we pray. And as we pray a prayer oriented in biblical thought, we believe accordingly in the all-powerful God who sent His Wisdom on earth to meet us halfway and show us what it means to be man. Amen.

Apostles’ Creed

So, as we finish, let us open our ears to the historic universal creed of the church united in Christ,

We believe in God, the Father almighty,       creator of heaven and earth.

We believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,       who was conceived by the Holy Spirit       and born of the virgin Mary.       He suffered under Pontius Pilate,       was crucified, died, and was buried;       he descended to hell.       The third day he rose again from the dead.       He ascended to heaven       and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.       From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,       the holy catholic church,       the communion of saints,       the forgiveness of sins,       the resurrection of the body,       and the life everlasting. Amen.

Prayer of Absolution

Now let us end in community by receiving absolution and leaving blessed,

Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and apart from your grace, there is no health in us. O Lord, have mercy upon us. Spare all those who confess their faults. Restore all those who are penitent, according to your promises declared to all people in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may now live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of your holy Name.

In the name of the Father, who creates, and of the Son, who redeems, and of the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies and purifies us before You, Amen.

Benediction

Now as you walk out tonight, wherever that may be, count yourself blessed before the Lord,

The Lord bless you, and keep you;

The Lord make His face shine on you,

And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance on you,

And give you peace.’ Num. 6:24-26