1 Of David. Fret not thyself because of the evildoers; be not envious at the workers of iniquity.
2 For like grass they are speedily cut off, and like the greenness of the tender herb they do fade.
3 Trust in Jehovah and do good, inhabit the land and feed upon truth.
4 Delight thyself also in Jehovah, and he will give thee the requests of thy heart.
5 Roll thy way upon Jehovah; trust also in him, and he will do [it].
6 And he will bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noon-day.
7 Be silent to Jehovah and wait for him; fret not thyself because of him who maketh his way to prosper, because of the man who doeth wicked devices.
8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath; fret not thyself only to do evil.
9 For evil-doers shall be cut off, but those who wait for Jehovah, they shall inherit the earth.
10 And yet a little and the wicked [man] is not and thou considerest his place, and he is no more.
11 But the meek shall inherit the earth and delight themselves in abundance of peace.
12 The wicked [man] deviseth evil against the righteous [man] and gnasheth his teeth upon him.
13 The Lord laugheth at him, for he hath seen that his day is come.
14 A sword have the wicked drawn, and they have bent their bow, to cause the poor and needy to fall, to slay the upright in way.
15 Their sword shall come into their own heart and their bows shall be broken.
16 Better [is] a little to the righteous [man] than the abundance of many wicked.
17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but Jehovah upholdeth the righteous.
18 Jehovah knoweth the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be for ever.
19 They shall not be ashamed in the time of evil, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
20 For the wicked shall perish and the enemies of Jehovah as the precious part of lambs: they have vanished, into smoke they have vanished.
21 The wicked [man] borroweth and payeth not, but the righteous [man] hath compassion and giveth.
22 For his blessed ones shall inherit the earth, but his accursed ones shall be cut of
23 By Jehovah the steps of a man are established, and be delighteth in his way.
24 If he falleth, he is not cast down; for Jehovah upholdeth his hand.
25 I have been a youth, I have also become old: yet have I not seen the righteous [man] forsaken, nor his seed begging for bread.
26 All the day [is he] being gracious and lending; and his seed [is] for a blessing.
27 Depart from evil and do good, and dwell for ever.
28 For Jehovah loveth justice and forsaketh not his holy ones; they are preserved for ever, but the seed of the wicked is cut off.
29 The righteous shall inherit the earth and shall dwell for ever upon it.
30 The mouth of the righteous uttereth wisdom and his tongue speaketh justice.
31 The law of his God [is] in his heart; none of his steps slip.
32 The wicked [man] lieth in wait for the righteous [one] and seeketh to kill him.
33 Jehovah will not leave him in his hand, and will not condemn him when he is judged.
34 Wait for Jehovah and keep his ways, and he will exalt thee to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see [it].
35 I have seen the wicked [man] strong and spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil.
36 And he passeth away and, behold, he is not; and I seek him, and he is not found.
37 Mark the perfect [man] and behold the upright [man], for the end to [that] man [is] peace.
38 But those who transgress are destroyed together; the end of the wicked hath been cut off.
39 And the salvation of the righteous [is] from Jehovah, [he is] their refuge in the time of trouble.
40 And Jehovah helpeth them and delivereth them; he will deliver them and save them because they have trusted in him.
Notes on Psalm 37
This beautiful psalm is a moral and, one might say, aphoristic application from the wicked and his doom to the profit of the righteous who can abide in Jehovah. It has an alphabetic order not carried out perfectly. The preceding psalm rises as far as was possible under the law, though of course only for faith, to enjoy mercy and loving-kindness in God, yea the fatness of His house and the river of His pleasures, wonderfully suggestive of what is our portion as Christians—the communion of the Father and the Son in the power of the Spirit. Here we are shown the blessedness of faith in the moral government of God, which delivers from fretfulness no less than envy—a government which is yet to be displayed in “the land” as nowhere else. But it is ever true in its principles, though for the Christian now in a less visible way. Hence the allusions to the psalm in the N. T., as citations from Psalm 34 in 1 Peter 3. The Lord Himself refers to it in Matthew 5.
The next two psalms (38, 39) constitute a pair, distinct from and rightly following those that precede, and as duly followed by Psalms 40, 41. They do not express the path of the just sustained by trusting in Jehovah, and tried in the face of confident prosperous enemies, with the land in full view spite of all. Here it is the far deeper distress under Jehovah’s anger because of sins. Nevertheless God is unhesitatingly looked to in the sense of His arrows and of utter corruption in themselves. This is carried out yet more in the companion psalm, where it is rather the sense of self, and man at large, being mere breath or vanity, and all under God’s consuming hand; but the hope is in the Lord, as before in Jehovah.