34 Be waiting for the Lord, and keep his way; and you will be lifted up, and have the land for your heritage: when the evil-doers are cut off, you will see it.
Let your hope be in the Lord: take heart and be strong; yes, let your hope be in the Lord.
Only with your eyes will you see the reward of the evil-doers.
For the evil-doers will be cut off: but those who have faith in the Lord will have the earth for their heritage.
Do not say, I will give punishment for evil: go on waiting for the Lord, and he will be your saviour.
So that the true metal of your faith, being of much greater value than gold (which, though it comes to an end, is tested by fire), may come to light in praise and glory and honour, at the revelation of Jesus Christ:
For every man who gives himself a high place will be put down, but he who takes a low place will be lifted up.
Still the upright keeps on his way, and he who has clean hands gets new strength.
The highway of the upright is to be turned away from evil: he who takes care of his way will keep his soul.
He has given with open hands to the poor; his righteousness is for ever; his horn will be lifted up with honour.
But my horn is lifted up like the horn of the ox: the best oil is flowing on my head. My eyes have seen trouble come on my haters; my ears have news of the fate of the evil-doers who have come up against me.
Have faith in the Lord, and do good; be at rest in the land, and go after righteousness.
For he has knowledge of the way I take; after I have been tested I will come out like gold. My feet have gone in his steps; I have kept in his way, without turning to one side or to the other. I have never gone against the orders of his lips; the words of his mouth have been stored up in my heart.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 37
Commentary on Psalms 37 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 37
This psalm is a sermon, and an excellent useful sermon it is, calculated not (as most of the psalms) for our devotion, but for our conversation; there is nothing in it of prayer or praise, but it is all instruction; it is "Maschil-a teaching psalm;' it is an exposition of some of the hardest chapters in the book of Providence, the advancement of the wicked and the disgrace of the righteous, a solution of the difficulties that arise thereupon, and an exhortation to conduct ourselves as becomes us under such dark dispensations. The work of the prophets (and David was one) was to explain the law. Now the law of Moses had promised temporal blessings to the obedient, and denounced temporal miseries against the disobedient, which principally referred to the body of the people, the nation as a nation; for, when they came to be applied to particular persons, many instances occurred of sinners in prosperity and saints in adversity; to reconcile those instances with the word that God had spoken is the scope of the prophet in this psalm, in which,
In singing this psalm we must teach and admonish one another rightly to understand the providence of God and to accommodate ourselves to it, at all times carefully to do our duty and then patiently to leave the event with God and to believe that, how black soever things may look for the present, it shall be "well with those that fear God, that fear before him.'
A psalm of David.
Psa 37:1-6
The instructions here given are very plain; much need not be said for the exposition of them, but there is a great deal to be done for the reducing of them to practice, and there they will look best.
Psa 37:7-20
In these verses we have,
Psa 37:21-33
These verses are much to the same purport with the foregoing verses of this psalm, for it is a subject worthy to be dwelt upon. Observe here,
Psa 37:34-40
The psalmist's conclusion of this sermon (for that is the nature of this poem) is of the same purport with the whole, and inculcates the same things.