Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
Psalm 37:3-6 (ESV)
In last week's blog we looked at verses 1-2 of this psalm and found that the command not to fret would be cheap advice if it were not for the resurrection of Christ.
The resurrection shapes how we can act in the face of hard times, though. This psalm gives us help to know how. I like how Derek Kidner puts it. He summarizes these verses with three statements:
1) Look ahead!
2) Look up!
3) Be constructive!
The first statement - Look ahead! - is what the last post was about. Look ahead to time beyond now, the time when the evildoer will fade like grass, the time when everything wrong in this world will come undone, the time when every knee will bow and tongue confess Christ as Lord because we will see him on his throne.
The second statement - Look up! - reminds us to deliberately redirect our own emotions by taking Godward action. Four phrases here contain God’s name and tell us to trust in the Lord (v. 3), delight in the Lord (v. 4), commit our way to the Lord (v. 5), and finally be still before the Lord (v. 7). Trust, delight, commit, and be still.
Let’s focus on this second statement and take the third one in the next blog post.
When we’re tempted to fret we are more likely to take different actions. Most of the time I just want to escape my enemies, or escape the thoughts in my own head. Rather than trust, delight, commit, and be still I find that I watch TV, grouse to myself, complain to a friend, and pace frenetically. Rather than stop my fretting those actions increase it. Yet those are my most natural actions.
How do we trust, delight, commit, and be still?
Trust - The simplest act of trust that we do every day is to sit down in a chair. We trust a chair to hold our weight. We trust it so much that we don’t even think about this action. We just sit. Maybe step one to trust the Lord rather than fretting is to sit down, and sit down alone without distractions and decide to deliberately be in God’s presence.
Delight - After you sit down, start with delight. What do you know about Jesus? What do you know about God? What do you see about God’s character and power in the pages of the Bible? Take a moment to breathe in the truth, beauty, and goodness of your Creator and Redeemer no matter what the circumstances are in which you find yourself.
Commit - A great definition of faith is to give everything you know about yourself to everything you know about Jesus. That’s what it is to commit your way to the Lord. Now while you sit without distractions, take a moment to do some more inventory: what do you know about yourself right now? The Bible is a great tool to help reveal the answer. It is a book that will give you insight into yourself. How are you leaning into the world right now? Why? Do you know that God is big enough, good enough, and powerful enough to handle you however you find yourself in this moment? Angry, scared, or proud - you can tell God in prayer. You can give everything you know about yourself to everything you know about him.
Be still - Of course, this is the hardest part. Once we’ve stopped and taken inventory how do we then wait for evil to pass? The only thing that gives us strength to wait is the truth that evil is not merely passing by. Evil is not a storm that blows. Evil is a storm that ultimately is stopped. Jesus stopped the storm in Mark 4:35ff. And he stopped the storm of evil in his death and resurrection. Now the evil we experience in the world is temporary, the last wave splashing the boat before calm waters.
If we delight ourselves in that and commit ourselves to Him, then we will have the power and patience to be still and not fret.
Verses 7-9 round out the first part of the psalm in the same way it began: Fret not. The rest of the poem compares and contrasts the righteous and the wicked through life’s twists and turns. Why not take some time to sit down and delight in these words today?
In Him,
Tag