Week 16 Psalm 37
David’s subject matter is Good people & Bad people. He splits his time roughly 50:50 between the two. But his most useful advice is for the Good ones.
Because self-interested Bad people tend to evolve toward taking hostile action against Good people David offers suggestions to Good people.
First…what not to do:
• don’t fret about Bad people
• don’t envy Bad people’s success
• don’t get angry.
Then a couple of pieces of positive advice:
• first he says to trust in the Lord and do good (a bit later he adds: do good not evil)
• secondly he says to rest and wait patiently (and later: rest and keep to the Lord’s way).
David’s recommendations don’t really solve the obvious problem. There are still plenty of Bad people all around who might eventually prey on Good people. What David does do is give me a short Recommendation List – an action plan for dealing with adversity.
So…when I’m backed into a corner by evil opponents and when my fretfulness & anxiety & anger are getting jacked up and when I realize that I can’t manage my outside world…then what? Then I turn in.
Trust the Lord
Do what’s right & good
Be patient – settle-in & wait
Keep to the Lord’s way.
David’s recommendations are counterintuitive. And they’re difficult to practice routinely. They sound like exercises that are intended to help me start fundamentally reformatting my normal reactions to my external environment.
Note: quotes from Psalm 37:1 7 8 3 27 7 34 (NIV)