Download Psalm 37 Part 2 - Victory Bible Studies.

Psalm 37 Part 2
Just as a reminder:this Psalm expresses both a security for those who trust in the
Lord, and the insecurity of the rebellious Wicked. It was written by David in his
old age (noted in verse 25), and is all the more valuable as the record of so varied
an experience.
As we have already observed in the first 24 verses, David seeks to answer the
question of the great riddle; the mystery about the prosperity of the wicked and
the affliction of the righteous, one which has perplexed so many.
In the first part of this Psalm David has been and will continue in this study,
dealing with that question.
Psalm 37:25:I have been young, and now I am old: Yet I have not seen the
righteous forsaken, or his descendants begging bread.

David’s perspective seems to be limited to God’s material blessing
for Israel. For today’s Christian, our blessing is spiritual, even though
it may include God’s physical provision. Now you may object, saying,
didn’t David beg bread from Abimelech for himself and his soldiers?
There may be times when even the world’s richest men may be forced to
beg for bread. David’s insight was not intended to include the
occasional seeking of relief, rather, continually depending on it as a
manner of livelihood; ________from door to door, which according to
Psalm 109:10 is a judgment pronounced upon the wicked.
Comparatively, Psalm 119 for the most part, speaks of the blessings that
God will shower upon the righteous.
What materially transpired under the Old Covenant with Israelremains
true for us today, but in a spiritual manner; so the principle is sound,
“never will the righteous be forsaken”. Our hope is in Jesus Christ and His
promises. We read of God’s blessing hand inEphesians 4:30:Do not grieve
the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption. (NASB)
Psalm 37:26:All day long he is gracious and lends; and his descendants are a
blessing.

The righteous person is not parsimonious in sharing their bounty, rather
they are the ones who trust in God for their continued ___________ and
so, are generous to a fault. More than that, the children of godly parents
also are positively influenced by the blessings God showers upon the
righteous ones.
Compiler’s Note: As we shall read in the next few verses,it is well to keep
this in mind. David, an Israelite, was writing from a perspective under the
Law, and so the blessings promised were material. You and I today are
under the New Covenant and our blessings as promised are of a spiritual
nature. God may bless some materially more than others, but that is His
choice and we must accept that in the blessing. He has a plan and a
purpose for the good of the blessed or of others who will be cared for by
that blessing. Whether willing or not, your employer is sharing his bounty
with you, that you may be a blessing to another by your tithe.
Psalm 37:27:Depart from evil, and do good, so you will abide forever.

This is the seventh teaching acrostic used to make a positive and
negative comparison between the wicked and the righteous. The
righteous must not be envious of the wicked. Perhaps we can look to the
narrative of Lot and Mrs. Lot for an illustration of the principle. Lot left
Sodom without even a glance backward, while his wife in Genesis 19:26;
looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. [ASV] We are
not told what was in her heart, was she lusting after the familiar, or was it
out of envy for her old life? In either case God was not pleased.
What we can be sure of is that God doesn’t want us looking back.
Ezekiel 20:43 says something that is apropos for our day, dare we look
back on our time before Christ. “You will look back on all the ways you
defiled yourselves and will hate yourselves because of the evil you have
done.”Jesus reiterates this truth in Luke 9:62; But Jesus said to him, "No
one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the
kingdom of God."Not in yearning or unforgiving,but rather keeping our
eyes focused on our deliverance. Life is a school where our mind learns
what our spirit already knows. As Christians, we must not yearn for our
old life before Christ; we are to _______ from ____________. Ephesians
4:22-24, instructs us that we are to throw off our old evil nature and our
former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and
deception. [23] Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of our thoughts
and attitudes. [24] We must display a new nature because we, who are
born anew, are a new person, created in God's likeness—righteous, holy,
and true.[Paraphrased] Psalm 1:5 records the fate of the wicked: They will be
condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among
the godly; while those who do good will _________ with our Lord forever.
Psalm 37:28:For the Lord loves justice, and does not forsake His godly ones; they
are preserved forever; but the descendants of the wicked will be cutoff.

It must give God great pleasure to right wrongs and dispense equal
justice, thwarting the scheming machinations of the wicked, who will
be ____ ______ forever. God will not ___________ His faithful. It is as
if the wicked challenge God to a game of chess, handicapped by their
side having only pawns.
Psalm 37:29:The righteous will inherit the land, and dwell in it forever.

For the Israelite of David’s day and beyond, their hope was in the “land”,
and that would be the Land that God had deeded to Abraham, the land of
Canaan. For the believers this side of the Cross it is the paradise of
Heaven and the new earth, where the righteous will _______ forever.
Compiler’s Note: We know from Isaiah, 2nd Peter, and Revelation that even
the Old Testament Jews understood that there would come a day when this
old earth would pass away and God would create a new heaven and a new
earth where the righteous would dwell forever.
Isaiah 65:17: "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the
former things will not be remembered or come to mind. 2 Peter 3:13: But
according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth,
in which righteousness dwells.
Revelation 21:1: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first
heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.
(NASB)
Psalm 37:30: The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks
justice.

Since this whole Psalm is a contrast of the righteous and the wicked,
including the fate of both, it would seem only appropriate that God’s
inspiring Spirit would offer a test for onlookers to determine which is
which.
The adage accredited to the American Indian for liars is that “they
speak with a forked tongue”, (like that of the snake), and of course Jesus
spoke that about Satan in John 8:44 when addressing the religious leaders
of His day; For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love
to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He
has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he
lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of
lies.(NLT)
The mouth betrays the heart. Matthew 12:34 reads:You brood of
snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For
whatever is in your heart determines what you say. The determination is
found in Matthew 15:18: But the words you speak come from the heart—
that’s what defiles you.(NLT)
________ Men generally speak of things which is are edifying and
enlightening, especially when engaged in a religious conversation. Their
dialogue is consistent with the divine illumination found in the Word and
propagated by the internal Spirit of God. All who are truly born again
have received a new nature, when baptized with His indwelling Holy
Spirit. Charles Spurgeon writes, “Righteousness is wisdom in action;”i one
who is a champion and advocate of sound justice, rendering honest
verdicts on all things. Unlike the wicked, thespeech of the righteous is
neither foolish nor vulgar, nor is it indecisive, insipid, or irreverent. Our
conversation is far more revealing than some would imagine.”
Psalm 37:31:The law of his God is in his heart; His steps do not slip.

My thoughts go to the words of Jesus as He tells the parable of the lost
sheep. In David’s time they had the written Law and the priesthood. If
they could follow the letter of the Law, then their feet would not
_______. In our day, when the still quiet voice of the Holy Spirit speaks,
He is often drowned out the roar of emotional stimuli that consistently
assails our mind and bombards our ears. Thank God we have a loving and
forgiving Shepherd who looks after us. Matthew 18:12; “If a man has a
hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t
he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the
one that is lost?(NLT)
At a point in my life, my family kept a flock of sheep. One of the
things we learned early on is that you don’t drive sheep like you do cattle.
You must lead them, just as our Shepherd leads us. When you attempt to
drive them, they become like the people with an unwilling heart,
following the dictates of their fleshly desires, indisposed and foolishly
unwilling to move in the direction that their protector and provider
desires for them. When the principles that formed God’s Law are resident
in our hearts, our feet will avoid the devil’s slippery trap.
Psalm 37:32:The wicked spies upon the righteous, and seeks to kill him.

Thank God for godly governments, rare as they are these days.If it were
not for the laws of the land, we should soon see a massacre of the
righteous, as is now becoming evident in some of the countries ruled by
Sharia Law, where Christians are being put to death for their faith. The
Spirit writes through Paul in Romans 13:4; “The {governing} authorities are
God’s servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course
you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are
God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what
is wrong.”(NLT) 1 Timothy 2:1-4 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people.
Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.
2
Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live
peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. 3 This is good
and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to
understand the truth.(NLT)
So Governments are charged with three responsibilities according to the
Word of God, first, to protect Her Citizens; second, to punish Evil; and
third, to insure Order. A word of caution here; as believers, we must
remain alert; the Spirit warns us in 1 Peter 5:8“Stay alert! Watch out for
your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking
for someone to devour.” (NLT) The devil is not above infiltrating
governments in an effort to perpetrate his dastardly deeds upon the
righteous.
Just as Jesus was watched by His enemies looking to put Him to death, so
must we always remain on alert as followers of Jesus.We have acquired a
powerful enemy who will ____________ ways to kill us, both physically
and spiritually.
Jesus told His followers in Luke 21:17, that we can expect to be hated:“All
men will hate you because of me.”This is especially true as we approach
these end times. We read in Matthew 24:9"Then they will deliver you to
tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because
of
My
name.”(NASB)
Psalm 37:33:The Lord will not leave him in his hand, or let him be condemned
when he is judged.

Our Lord will not leave us targets of the wicked forever. We can better
understand how God works on our conversion when we read the
narrative of Job. God has a plan and a purpose for all natural born
people, and Satan is but an unwilling tool that God often manipulates to
bring about our transformation into Christ-like individuals. There may be
times when the larger picture is blurred by time eternal, but by faith we
know that the Father has our eternity in mind. And even when it may
appear that the wicked are succeeding, at the Judgment the righteous will
be vindicated and not be ________________.
The Jews of Jesus’ day watched as the enemies of God seemed to
succeed by putting Jesus to death, but God vindicated Jesus’ innocence by
raising Him from the dead. We read in 1 Corinthians 2:8 about the
wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they
had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;[NASB]
The story of the vindication of those who will receive Jesus as Lord
and Savior is clearly presented in Colossians 2:10-15: So you also
are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every
ruler and authority. 11 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,”
but not by a physical procedure.
Christ performed a spiritual
circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. 12 For you were
buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were
raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who
raised Christ from the dead. 13 You were dead because of your sins and
because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you
alive
with
Christ,
for
he
forgave
all
our
sins.
14
He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by
nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and
authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the
cross.(NLT)
Psalm 37:34:Wait for the Lord, and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit
the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.

The hope of Israel was in the ________, while the Christian’s hope is in
the King, who rules the entire earth, for there is coming a day . . . Ancient
Israel had to wait upon the Lord to make clear a path into the promised
land, as do we if we are to find our way along the highway of holiness
that leads into the Kingdom of Christ.True faith moves forward, learning
to trust in God’s authority over all things, and therefore we will keep his
way. As we trust in Himfor all things, we will begin to pay more attention
to the state of our souls than the things of this world. Isaiah 35:8: And a
highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean
will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way;
__________ fools will not go about on it.(NIV)
Psalm 37:35-36:I have seen a violent, wicked man spreading himself like a
luxuriant tree in its native soil. [36] Then he passed away, and lo, he was no more;
I sought for him, but he could not be found.

In my lifetime, I too have been alive when some of the world’s most
notorious and __________ men have lived; men like Joseph Stalin, Adolph
Hitler, Chairman Mao, and Fidel Castro. Men, who at a point in their lives
seemed like the mighty oak tree, offering a daunting and sprawling
canopy that overshadowed the common plants beneath. But where are
they today? All have gone to the grave except Fidel, who remains but a
breath away from the logger’s axe, who will cut them to pieces, humbling
them as they meet with their Creator. Yes, even these powerful men are
but men, and they, like the rest of us must await the Judgment of the true
ruler of the ages. Perhaps these were men who expected to find heaven
in their own created hell, but they too must pass ________, no longer to
be found among the living.
Psalm 37:37-38:Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; for the man of
peace will have posterity.[38] But transgressors will be altogether destroyed;
Posterity of the wicked will be cut off.

The Spirit writing through David teaches us to keep our eyes on the
__________ and godly; these people can have peace in the most trying
circumstances, and in the end, will have peace until the end of peace.
There will be times when the going gets rough, and the path seems to be
strewn with pot holes, but the path leads home.

Not so for the ____________, their fate is found in the second death
and the lake of fire. Their pleasure will yield regret; their future is not
what they have planned, while those who hold fast to the uprightness of
our Savior have a true and worthy heritage.
Compiler’s note: The upright, blameless and godly are those who trust God
and rest their hope of salvation upon Him. Because of God’s goodness and
love, they choose to walk the path laid out before them by Him.
Psalm 37:39-40: But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their
strength in time of trouble. [40] And the Lord helps them, and delivers them; He
delivers them from the wicked, and saves them, because they take refuge in Him.
[NASB]

Our salvation is much more than that which takes place at our physical
death, rather it is that which occurs in our daily lives as we learn to be
more and more like Jesus; allowing His indwelling Spirit to renew our
minds, bringing them into agreement with the New Nature that He has
instilled in our hearts. We will find our strength in times of
____________, when we begin to react as Jesus would. In all of those
troubling situations, the wisdom of our Lord prevails, and He leads us to
victory.
Most will recall the narrative about Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, found in the third Chapter of the book of Daniel. Although it
was an event that took place well after David’s time and perhaps as much
as 600 years before Christ, our God is outside of time and space, so what
was true then is equally true today.
Nebuchadnezzar II, had cast these three God-fearing Jews into a fiery
furnace with the intent of incinerating them for their refusal to bow down
to the golden statue that he had erected; but to his surprise when he
looked in the oven, there were four, all walking about without harm.
While trouble eventually defeats the wicked, it only drives the righteous
to their strong Helper, who rejoices to uphold them.
We read in Daniel 3:27: . . . the high officers, officials, governors, and
advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched
them. Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not
scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke! (NLT) God could have easily
overpowered king Nebuchadnezzar and delivered these three Hebrew
children before they were thrown into the furnace, but, He took
advantage of the king’s ignorance and delivered the condemned from
within the fire. The end results are recorded in Daniel 3:28-29. Then
Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego! He sent his angel to rescue his servants who trusted in him.
They defied the king’s command and were willing to die rather than serve
or worship any god except their own God. 29 Therefore, I make this
decree: If any people, whatever their race or nation or language, speak a
word against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they will be
torn limb from limb, and their houses will be turned into heaps of rubble.
There is no other god who can rescue like this!”(NLT)
As David records throughout this Psalm of comparisons between the
fate of the righteous and the wicked, we need to keep this in mind, if God
allows us to enter into difficulties; He will also deliver us out of them.
God’s Spirit writes through Paul’s pen in 1 Corinthians 10:10-13; and don’t
grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of
death. 11 These things happened to them as examples for us. They were
written down to warn us who live at the end of the age. 12 If you think you
are standing strong, be careful not to fall. 13 The temptations in your life
are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will
not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are
tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.(NLT)
i
The Treasury of David, Psalm 37:30.