This is the meditation of a believer, or a worshipper, as he looks on the moral scene around him, called by the Apostle “the course of this world,” in the light which faith and hope afford him; and in the calmness and certainty of that light he delivers a word of rich consolation. He tells of the future and final settlement of things between the righteous and the wicked, though all may appear very different for a season.
The burden of this Psalm is the excision of the wicked from the earth, and the investing of the meek with the inheritance of it. It might take for its motto the words of Isaiah—“Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him.”
And he gives us his experience as a kind of seal of the truth of this; for in his observation of persons and circumstances he could say that he had never seen either the righteous finally forsaken, or the wicked, though for a while spreading himself like an evergreen, finally prosperous (Psa. 37:25,3525I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. (Psalm 37:25)
35I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. (Psalm 37:35)). Wherefore he would have the righteous encourage their hearts, though present griefs may be many and various. Their end shall be peace, when the wicked are cut off; their inheritance shall come and last forever, when the day (that is, the judgment) of the ungodly shall come (Psa. 37:13,1813The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming. (Psalm 37:13)
18The Lord knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever. (Psalm 37:18)).
Meekness, which is thus to end in the inheritance (See Matt. 5:55Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)) appears to be that temper of soul that makes us willing to be nothing till the promised inheritance comes. The Lord Jesus (in whom was all perfectness) fully expressed it. Though Lord of all, He was content to have nothing; and the kingdom is a reward of His meekness. (Matt. 21:55Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. (Matthew 21:5).) The saints, in their measure, are the meek now. The Remnant will be so in their day. (Zeph. 2:33Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. (Zephaniah 2:3).) This Psalm may therefore be read by us all; for the experience of all God’s chosen is in kind the same as to this; but the remnant, in fuller measure, will need the consolation of it when they come to be pressed by the successful confederacies of the wicked in the latter day. Psalm 37:1111But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. (Psalm 37:11) and Matthew 5:55Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5) show the disciples of the Lord Jesus and the Remnant of the last days to be in much moral identity.
Thus this Psalm would teach us not to live for any hope short of resurrection and the kingdom—and that they are divinely wise, and they only, who “consider their latter end.” A simple, serious, and holy lesson—a happy one to God’s strangers and pilgrims. “For the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”