Heart of a Psalmist - Worshipping Christ Through The Psalms

• The choice to love God results in an outpouring of his love upon us. • The choice to be honest with him results in the favor of his justice.

David’s preventative prayer: “ Don’t let the proud trample me; don’t let the wicked push me around (11). He prays that the power of grace will triumph over the power of sin.

David’s permanent prayer: “ Look! They have fallen! They have been thrown down, never to rise again. (11, 12)

There is a final destination for those who do not conquer the power of sin in their lives, it com- pletely degrades and destroys. It’s clear that God’s unfailing love is the better choice!

PSALM 37: DELIGHT YOURSELF IN THE LORD Developing Your Inner Life

This is a psalm about developing the ‘inner life’ attitudes of trust, patience and delighting in God. It is David’s version of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ as Jesus quotes verse 11 directly in his teaching; “ God blesses those who are gentle and lowly, (meek) for the whole earth will belong to them.”(Mt. 5:5) There are several additional parallels between this psalm and the sermon of Jesus. It is also a classic com- parison and contrast between the ‘wicked’ and the ‘godly.’ This is an acrostic psalm where every two verses of the psalm begin with one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. (Verses 1 and 2 begin with aleph , the Hebrew ‘ a ’; verses 3 and 4 begin with ‘ beth ’, the Hebrew ‘ b ’ etc.) The exceptions are verses 7, 20 and 34 of which they have one verse per Hebrew letter. It is written in a short, repetitious, proverbial style with recurring themes and is possibly the in- spiration for Solomon’s book of Proverbs. INTRODUCTION : Verse 25 gives us a clue as to the background for the writing of the psalm. “ Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly forsaken, nor seen their children begging for bread. ” The psalm is done in a reflective style of an older person looking back upon a lifetime of serving God. It is possible that it is David’s instruction to his son Solomon as he succeeded him as the King of Israel: “ So now,…I (David) give you (Solomon) this charge for all Israel …Be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God, so that you may possess this good land and leave it to your children as a perma- nent inheritance. (1 Chronicles 28:8) “ A Psalm of David ”

The Psalm alternates between instructions for a godly life and insights into the lives of the godly and the wicked.

I. INSTRUCTIONS for LIVING (v. 1-11) II. INVESTMENTS of LIFE (12-26) III. INSIGHTS for LIVING (27-40)

I. INSTRUCTIONS for LIVING (1-11)

“ Don’t worry about the wicked. Don’t envy those who do wrong. For like grass, they soon fade away. Like springtime flowers, they soon wither.”(1,2)

The first instructions of David are negative. To develop a healthy ‘inner life’ we must root out the two powerful spiritual weeds of worry and envy. Jesus deals with both of these in his Sermon on the Mount. “ So I tell you, don’t worry about everyday life…” (Mt. 6:25) Like David, Jesus uses the illustra- tion of the dying flowers: “ And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone to- morrow, won’t he more surely care for you? (Mt. 6:30) 86