The ABC's of the Meek - Part 1

Introduction:

This psalm is an acrostic psalm in which David communicates to us the far surpassing value of a meek spirit.

According to verse 25 he is writing this on the back end of his life and so he is sharing the wisdom of a life lived through great adversity. He knew the joy of all of these positive commands, and he knew the anguish of walking in the fretting and striving that he warns us against here.

The righteous man’s response to the wicked is the relational context of the psalm. David knew plenty of situations where he was in the right, but was being attacked by ruthless men who were seeming to prosper in their wicked ways.

The main idea is communicated right away in verse 1 - Fret not yourself because of evildoers. The rest of the psalm is an explanation of how this is possible and how this is to be pursued.

As we progress in our study through the psalm we will find many repeated themes, but they will find more development and shades of nuance as we go. Tonight, we will focus on the first 11 verses.

Notice how this section (1-11) begins with the thought about not fretting and then gives an immediate reason, and then it ends in the same way (vs. 8-11). In the middle (vv. 2-7) we find out how to actually make that a reality in our hearts.

This is a description then of the meek heart, which is how it is summarized in verse 11. This is the verse that Jesus quotes in and it is a central characteristic which must be developed in each Christian’s heart. If you are going to follow Christ faithfully then you will find yourself in conflict with the wicked - whether in your own home, your workplace, society, or your extended family - you will have to know how to respond to the wicked around you.

And our first response is to fret, to get angry, to react, and to work to overcome the obstacles they present. But David says to us, “Listen, I tried all of those things and it only tends toward evil. You need to trust in the Lord.”

I. The Put-Off of Meekness - vv. 1, 7b, 8

The reality for our hearts is that affliction by the wicked causes us to fret and worry and grow angry.

The Hebrew word is always used in reference to anger and it emphasizes the kindling of anger and the heat of that anger once it is started. It is the response of the flesh when someone sins against us. We grow angry and we start a fire in our hearts of bitter rage against them for mistreating us in such awful ways.

The verb is a reflexive verb - meaning “do not kindle yourself.” Do not let yourself get all hot and bothered by the choices of evildoers.

This is combined with not being envious of those who do wrong. This envy is what you and I both know. It is the jealousy of heart which longs for something that someone else has or is angered by what someone else enjoys. This is the heart of the righteous when they are being mistreated and yet the wicked continue to prosper in the moment. At first glance it looks like the wicked are winning and will win in the long run too. But if anyone can teach us the truth here, it is David. He knew the vicious attacks of the wicked against him as God’s anointed more than anyone, save our Lord. And yet, he learned in all of those situations to not kindle the fires of anger in his heart.

In a moment we will examine the “why” of this putting off that is necessary for meekness, but for now, we must realize that we will never have a meek heart if we are stirring and stoking the fires of anger in our heart toward the wicked. But not just anger toward the wicked, but also anger toward the Lord. That is why the contrast in verses 3-7 is not instructions on how to treat the wicked, though there is some of that. The commands rather are how we are to relate to God in the midst of our dealings with the wicked. That is because one of the easiest struggles in affliction is to blame God for allowing the wicked to do to me what they are doing to me. Instead of stoking those fires of unbelieving anger toward the Lord, we are to put on a deep trust in the Lord.

II. The Put-On of Meekness - vv. 3-7

The put on of meekness is described in verses 3-7. And they can be broken down into four commands for how we are to relate to God in the midst of our affliction. This is how we should walk by faith and not by sight. We should trust in the Lord, delight in the Lord, commit our way to the Lord, and be still before the Lord.

A. Trust in the Lord - v. 3

The first ordering of the heart addressed in verse 3 is that of trust in the Lord. This is a placing of myself in the sovereign care of my almighty God. This is not the trust of belief or faith - where we take God at his Word and believe Him - though that is not absent here. Rather, the nuance is that of complete reliance upon God because I am persuaded that He is working this all out according to His plan and for His glory, and therefore, for my good.

It is significant that the LXX never translates this word with πιστευω “believe in” but with ελπιζω “to hope,” in the positive sense “to rely on God” or πειφομαι “to be persuaded,” for the negative notion for relying on what turns out to be deceptive. This would seem to indicate that bāṭaḥ does not connote that full-orbed intellectual and volitional response to revelation which is involved in “faith,” rather stressing the feeling of being safe or secure.

This trust in the Lord is a confident trust in His good and sovereign care in the midst of suffering. But it is not an idle trust in which we are now paralyzed while we wait. Rather, we are to be “shepherding faithfulness” while going about normal life and doing the good that God has called us to no matter the bad that others are doing to us. This is the evidence of a deep heart’s trust in the Lord. Can I confidently step forward to my next responsibility while casting all my dependence upon the Lord with this overwhelming difficulty? The meek say “yes” and they shepherd faithfulness as an evidence that they are trusting in the Lord.

Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament 1652 עָנָה

This adjective stresses the moral and spiritual condition of the godly as the goal of affliction implying that this state is joined with a suffering life rather than with one of worldly happiness and abundance.

B. Delight in the Lord - v. 4

The next heart transformation that needs to take place is that of delighting in the Lord. So, we do not just begrudgingly trust in the Lord because we have no better options, or because He happens to be our best option. Rather, we take great delight in the Lord. This is the full-orbed reality of God’s goodness which is especially made known to us in the most difficult of moments.

This Hebrew word is used in to describe the delight of an infant in the supply of nourishment received from a mother’s breast - speaking in the context of taking delight in Jerusalem as those who are returning to the Lord. This is the picture here of taking delight in the Lord. The total helplessness of the infant is a fitting metaphor for the helplessness of the afflicted. And like the infant he must cry out and cling to the only possible source of supply.

It is used again in verse 11 to describe the delight that will come to the meek when they have abundant peace in the land.

It is used again in verse 11 to describe the delight that will come to the meek when they have abundant peace in the land.

So, instead of being hot and bothered by the ways of the wicked, see in those moments and opportunity to find a new and unique way to be all the more aware of another glorious aspect of God’s care for you. Be like Paul & Silas, who in the midst of their dark dungeon, could sing out praise to the Lord as they delighted in all God was to them in that moment.

The result of this delighting in the Lord is that he will give you the desires of your heart. Has there been a more misunderstood or misapplied verse in all of the Psalms?

It is used in as a petition on behalf of the king - may the Lord fulfill all your desires. The thrust of the idea here is that the one who is fully dependent upon the Lord can lean upon the Lord to give them what is needed for each moment as he refines them to further delight in him. It is not a carte blanche promise of absolute giving by the Lord to those who ask. Rather it is the promise that delighting in the Lord will put them in a place of seeking the Lord while he may be found and finding all our desires met in Him.

C. Commit your way to the Lord - vv. 5-6

The next heart transformation away from worry and fretting is to commit your way to the Lord. The idea here is to roll this burden off of your back and bring it before the Lord to carry. It is the release of my ability and the admittance of my great neediness to have this problem handled for me by God.

It is coupled with the word for “trust” in the second part of the verse, which is the same word as in verse 3. And the promise, if we will roll our burden to the Lord is that he will act - simply - “He will do.” He will do what is needed and helpful. He will not hear our plight and neglect our difficulty. He will not see our great burden and leave it for someone else to address. How absolutely comforting this is!

It struck me afresh today while praying with a dear friend that there is no burden which even gives God pause. There is no problem which puts a pit in his stomach as he processes how to handle it. There is no challenge to his authority or obstacle to his plan which cause him the slightest bit of worry in any way. He is the perfect One to bring these insurmountable problems to. He alone is able!

The promise attached to his acting is that after the darkness of affliction he will bring forth your vindication for all to see, like the sun rising in the East, and as obvious as the full sun beating down in the middle of the day. This was David’s experience wasn’t it? He saw God act to vindicate his name and to take care of his enemies - in God’s way and in God’s time.

Ultimately, this is what is true for our Lord. His resurrection was the great dawning of the day of his vindication. At his resurrection it was made known to all mankind for all time that this Jesus of Nazareth did not suffer and die under the weight of his own sin! And what did Jesus do in the midst of the suffering? He cast his burden upon the Lord and he entrusted himself to Him who judges Justly (1 Peter 2:23).

D. Be Still before the Lord - v. 7

The next step we must take to have a meek heart is to be still before the Lord. This is the culmination of the other three in that when we trust, delight, and commit, then we can be still before the Lord. The idea here is literally of being silent before the Lord. It is found often in the context of catastrophe and mourning. In it is used Aaron had to do in the face of the great loss of his sons Nadab & Abihu in the Temple. He had to keep silent, and not protest the just judgment of God.

This is combined with the verb to “wait patiently” for God. So, we must not protest and tell God how we think this should go, but a meek heart must be still and wait patiently. The verb has the idea of confident expectation that is hard to contain. So it is not merely a passive acceptance of the situation, but it is an eager and hard to contain hope that God will do this work to make all things right. It is best expressed in when he says, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” Job didn’t know how to make sense of his situation, but he knew that he could trust his God. And so he was still before the Lord in confident hope that God would act when it was time.

III. The Promised Outcome of Meekness - vv. 2, 9-11

The heart of the meek have the promised outcome of God’s intervention in God’s sovereign time. The way of the wicked has within it the ticking time bomb of decay. Its seeds grow flowers which have in their DNA a self-destruct mode. In the moment of their successes of wickedness it is hard to imagine that this will turn out any differently. But we have no shortage of examples of how the way of the wicked never flourishes for long.

So, this promised outcome of the decay and ultimate destruction of the wicked is meant to encourage the saint to keep trusting and to keep maintaining a meek heart before the Lord. If they do, they will inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. This is the ultimate and promised outcome of all those who are true followers of Christ. That is the nature of Christ’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Those many categories in the Beatitudes are descriptions of the heart of the truly regenerate. And the blessings spelled out are the promised outcomes of their faith if they will hold fast to Christ.

Derek Kidner says of meekness: “The context gives the best possible definition of the meek: they are those who choose the way of patient faith instead of self-assertion; a way fully expounded in the foregoing verses.”

The context gives the best possible definition of the meek: they are those who choose the way of patient faith instead of self-assertion; a way fully expounded in the foregoing verses.1

Conclusion: If you are in Christ then you will face this struggle of fretting over the way of the wicked as it so greatly affects your life. We must put off our fretting and put on these four actions of the meek heart!