A Study in Psalms - Psalm 3

Let's get into Psalm 37 Last week we looked at Psalm 37 verses 1 to 11 Tonight we're going to go back to verses 9, 10, and 11 and try to go through 40 There's no way, you know, I could preach three, four messages on Psalm 37, but so I'll go pretty fast tonight But why Christians don't need to fret, part two Okay, but let me start off by maybe giving you some reasons why you might fret Okay, and you may have heard this before, but how can you tell when it's going to be a rotten day? And I added to that some things to fret about Number one, you wake up face down on the pavement

You might want to start fretting Number two, you call the suicide prevention line and they put you on hold Number three, you see a 60 minutes news team waiting at your office Number four, your birthday cake collapses from the weight of the candles on it Number five, you turn on the news and they're showing emergency routes out of the city You might want to start fretting Number six, your twin sister forgot your birthday And number seven, my favorite, your car horn goes off accidentally and remains stuck as you follow a group of hell's angels on the freeway You might want to start fretting

Number eight, your boss tells you not to bother to take your coat off when you come into work in the morning Number nine, that bird singing outside your window is a buzzard or a vulture Number 10, you wake up and your braces are locked together Number 11, your income tax check bounces Number 13, you put both contact lenses in one eye And last but not least, your wife says good morning, Bill, and your name is George You might want to start fretting

So those are little comedian ones, but let's turn to Psalm 37, and we're going to read all 40 verses of Psalm 37, okay? Psalm 37, it's a Psalm of David Fret not yourselves because of evildoers Be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb Trust in the Lord and do good Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart Commit your way to the Lord Trust in him and he will act He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices Refrain from anger and forsake wrath Fret not yourself, it tends only to evil For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait on the Lord shall inherit the land In just a little while the wicked will be no more Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him

But the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose way is upright Their sword shall enter their own heart and their bows shall be broken Better is a little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous The Lord knows the days of the blameless and their heritage will remain forever They are not put to shame in evil times In the days of famine they have abundance But the wicked will perish

The enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pastors They vanish like smoke, they vanish away The wicked borrows but does not pay back But the righteous is generous and gives, for those blessed by the Lord shall inherit the land But those cursed by him shall be cut off The steps of man are established by the Lord when he delights in his way Though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand. I have been young and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread

He is ever lending generously and his children become a blessing Turn away from evil and do good So shall you dwell forever, for the Lord loves justice He will not forsake his saints They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom and his tongue speaks justice The law of his God is in his heart His steps do not slip The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks to put him to death

The Lord will not abandon him to his power, nor let him be condemned when he is brought to trial Wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land You will look on when the wicked are cut off. I have seen a wicked, ruthless man spreading himself like a green laurel tree, but he passed away, and behold, he was no more Though I sought him, he could not be found Mark the blameless and behold the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace But transgressors shall be destroyed The future of the wicked shall be cut off

The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord He is their stronghold in times of trouble The Lord helps them and delivers them He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him Let's pray Father, I pray that today, when we leave here tonight, we will know more of you and what it is we are to do In Jesus' name, amen You have an outline there with three simple points Do not fret because of David's wisdom, verses 9 to 22 Do not fret because the Lord loves you, verses 23 to 34

And then lastly, do not fret because of eternity, verses 35 to 40, and you can follow along You know, we mentioned last week in this psalm, we have two categories of people that are seen in this world, the righteous and the wicked Those are the key words in this psalm The righteous have a path that teaches us we don't need to fret, but the wicked are always fretting about, fretting for more money, more power, more sinful lifestyle choices This section that we're going to look at tonight is all about the wicked at first

In verses 1 to 11, we looked at last week, the word wicked was mentioned one time, but tonight it's going to be mentioned 12 times in verses 12 to 40 In this section, King David mentions and explains the kinds of things that occupy the lives of those who feel they do not need God in their lives. I want you to notice, you may have noticed the word but, and Lance has talked a lot about the but-ologies in scripture When you see the word but, you need to stop and look at what's before and what's afterwards

And if you go back to starting in verse 9 to verse 39, you have a lot of buts which are contrasts When you read your Bible, always look for the contrasts Some of them are easy In Romans 9, God says, Jacob I loved, Esau I hated There's a contrast In Genesis 13, there's a contrast between Abraham and Lot You have contrasts in Galatians 5 between the sins of the flesh versus the fruits of the spirit Contrasts are all through the Bible And in the wisdom literature, you often see the word but, and that shows you the contrasts here And I won't take time tonight

If you look, there are contrasts in Job There are contrasts in Psalms But turn with me to Proverbs chapter 10 Proverbs chapter 10 So you know King David's son Solomon wrote Proverbs and wrote Ecclesiastes So as I was preparing this message, I was wondering that how, you know, I know King Solomon had wisdom, but, and we all know that God gave him wisdom, right? But it also says two times, David says to Solomon, you are a very wise son So even before Solomon got his wisdom from God, he already was wise

And I think one of the ways he was wise is from what his father taught him and probably taught him from Psalm 37, all these contrasts But look at Proverbs 10, see what I'm talking about It says the Proverbs of Solomon, a wise son makes a father, makes a glad father, but a foolish son is sorrow to his mother So you've got a contrast between the wise and the foolish there, son Verse two, treasure gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death You've got a contrast between the wicked and the righteous there, much like Psalm 37

Verse three, the Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked Again, wicked versus righteous And then you've got number four, the slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich You've got a contrast between the diligent working man and the lazy man Number five, he who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in the harvest, but he who sleeps in the harvest is a son who brings shame Again, you've got a prudent son, you've got a lazy son So if you go through the entire chapter, 32 verses, there are 25 buts in Psalm 10

In fact, if you look at Proverbs 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, six chapters, there's a total of 184 verses and 136 of them have the word but contrast So I think, and we could spend time tonight going and looking at Ecclesiastes, but Solomon wrote Proverbs, Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes, and I think his father David taught him well about the contrast and the butologies that we'll look at So we're going to look at now, David in his old age is going to teach principles for his son Solomon, for even us today, by contrasting the wicked versus the righteous

We ended up last week looking at verses nine through 11, and we said the wicked man's destiny and the righteous man's destiny And tonight is kind of the same Let's look at number one, the contrast one and two There's two in verse nine to 11 Okay We have two contrasts here It says the evildoers will be cut off And then you have, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land That's the righteous Then it says in a little while, the wicked will be no more, though You look carefully at his place

He will not be there, but the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant, please The wicked are going to be cut off and will be no more We mentioned last week, five times in this Psalm, it says the wicked will be cut off versus nine, 22, 28, 34, and 38 And it mentions five times in this Psalm that the righteous will inherit the land versus nine, 11, 22, 29, and 34, including twice here in verses nine to 11 When it says cut off, that simply means their destiny is hell They're going to come to an abrupt ending

Their wealth, their fame, their power, their influence will be cut off Matthew 25, 46 in the New Testament, Jesus expands on this and says, and these will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life There's only two paths, two ways, but the righteous are going to inherit not just heaven, but a new heaven and an earth. I know we all want to go to heaven, don't we? We all want Jesus to come back to go to heaven, but that's not all that heaven's about

You know that many people would ask my dad when he was alive, are you ever going to go to Israel? Cause he never went to Israel in all the years of this church And he would always give him the same answer Now he had prostate cancer, so he didn't like to travel, but he'd always tell him I'm going in the millennium And that's what I tell people when they ask me to sing, because there's a thousand year reign of Christ You're not just going to be sitting up in heaven, strumming on a harp or doing something You're going to be working for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and Father

So we are going to inherit the land, the whole land And then someday God's going to destroy and build a new heaven and a new earth So we mentioned this last week, when you stop thinking about the wicked and start thinking about heaven, it helps you to stop fretting When you look to your eternal home, your destiny, everything here is temporary Everything here is temporary, this passing world And we'll talk more about that when we get to the very end Contrast number two, plotting versus patience It says, the wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him

But the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming So the wicked plots The wicked just doesn't do evil He plots to do evil He plans to do evil But the righteous just need to be patient We need to wait on God, because God's not worried God's sovereign, and he's in heaven, and he's laughing So somebody said patience is a virtue, and I'm not a real patient person myself It doesn't come early But the wicked, it says, they're not just doing evil, they're plotting to do evil

It reminds me, how did so few people in the LBGQ get so powerful and accomplish so much so fast? Well, it began by plotting, by meeting together and seeing how they can do it They made an agenda that said, we just want equality We just want tolerance We want to be liked Not anymore Now the plotting is to destroy anything that's Judeo-Christian or remotely called Christian But we don't need to fret We need to be patient and wait on God Because what does it tell us the Lord is doing in heaven? The Lord laughs at the wicked And you probably remember that verse in Psalms 2

Two places in the Psalms, two places in the Bible, it says the Lord laughs at the wicked Psalms 2.6 says the Lord laughs at the wicked It says, he who sits in the heaven laughs The Lord holds them in derision It's not a joking laugh It's a laugh of derision, of mocking God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, wanting all people to come to repentance Then he says that he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill God says, I have sent my king His king is his son, Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ will be in charge of the judgment So one commentator says, Jehovah laughs at him The Lord who regards the attack on the righteous as an attack on himself When they attack Christians, when they attack the righteous, it's like they're attacking God himself But God is patient and God is laughing at them Contrast number four, violence versus vengeance It's not just enough to plot sin The wicked have drawn the sword, they bend their bows to bring down the poor and the needy, to slay those who are upright You know, we used to live in one of the safest countries in the world

But if you live in India, if you live in Pakistan, if you live in China and you're a Christian, I know when I lived in India for seven years, there was a man that the local Hindu temple said that his dog had come into the temple and desecrated the temple And so they ended up beating him up and beating the wife up, building the children up The only problem was he didn't have a dog The problem was he was a Christian and they just needed an opportunity to beat him, to attack Christians And this happens all over the world in countries like India

So here you don't have the word but, but it's a contrast They're going to commit violence and you're seeing this happen more and more Maybe not so much killing Christians today, but you're seeing the filthy words, you're seeing protests in places, even in churches now, where they're bringing their violence, they're bringing their protests So not only do the wicked plot violence, they commit violence And it says it's often against the poor and the needy In Psalms, six times we have the word poor and needy together This is the first time

So they go for the weak, the Christians in place, you know, only 2% of people in India are Christian So it's easy to attack the Christians It's easy to make up some story against them and go after them The sword and bow here are figures for all kinds of weapons that do injury And here they're being directed against the poor and the innocent But God says that the sword shall enter their own heart and their bows shall be broken Now the wicked have a sword They have a sword of lies

They have a sword of untruth, a sword of falsehood that they yield that sword very, very powerfully today, don't they? But we have a sword too called the word of God And we're to yield our sword, the word of God, which guides us It's called the sword of the spirit And you know, it's the only offensive weapon in Ephesians six And it's the only weapon that we need to divide our battles daily We need not to commit vengeance The Bible tells us, vengeance is mine, I will repay, thus says the Lord

This week, Monday morning, I woke up and I was really discouraged because in Myanmar, they executed four They said they were anti-coup protesters. I think they just made it up One of them was a rock star Another one was Aung San Suu Kyi's politician But they hung them in the prison there and they executed them And it just had a gut check there And it just, I don't want to go to Myanmar in a way because the generals there who run the country are horrible But God says, vengeance is mine, I will repay

And what we try to tell the Christians in Myanmar, and I haven't been there, but Jeremy and our brothers there, don't join the underground Don't join the terrorists There are 130 ethnic groups in Myanmar And pretty much every one of them hates the military, which owns the hotels, the oil, the gold, the jade, everything And Christians, you imagine having democracy and now they're saying there's no more democracy So Christians don't have hope, or they think they don't have hope And so many of them will go join the underground army and fight And it's a losing battle

So we try to tell them, keep your church, keep fighting, let God do the violence, do the vengeance, God will repay those generals someday So move on to number four, greed versus contentment Here we have a beautiful verse for us to remember Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of the many wicked So remember last week we talked about, we look at the wicked and we're jealous because they have the bigger houses, the bigger cars, they have the power, they have the fame, the fortune

But it says the arms of the wicked are going to be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous So you have another contrast here And I call this greed versus contentment because they never have enough, do they? There's never enough money, never enough power, never enough violence But God tells us that we are to be content with a little and not worry about the abundance of the wicked Proverbs 12.25 says, the righteous has enough to satisfy his appetite, but the belly of the wicked suffers want

They never have enough, do they? Proverbs 15.16 says, better is a little with fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it Proverbs 16.8 says, better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice So while the materialistic world and our world, you know, it's not just materialism in America, I would tell people that the religion in Thailand is not Buddhism It is, but the real religion in Thailand is money Everybody's chasing money And as materialism has gone to China, to Thailand, all over the world, people are chasing materialism

And Mark Devers said, materialism is the stupid philosophy where everything is invested in what will eventually become nothing So it says that God is going to break the arms of the wicked These are the instruments of wicked And he's going to break their arms Psalms 10.15 says, break the arm of the wicked and evildoer Call his wickedness to account till you find none So someday God is going to judge them Someday God will pour out his vengeance, his wrath on the wicked But we're to be satisfied with contentment and not keep our eyes on the wicked who have a lot

Let's look at number five, contrast number six, perishing versus provision, verses 18 to 20 It says, the Lord knows the day of the blameless and their heritage will remain forever They are not put to shame in evil times In days of famine, they will have abundance, but the wicked will perish The enemies of the Lord are like the glory of pastors They vanish like smoke They vanish away

You notice the last one, it said the wicked had abundance, right? Here it says that in times of famine, the righteous are going to have abundance or we're going to have enough to eat, okay? And here for the fifth time in this Psalm, David mentions the temporary existence of the wicked They're here for a little while and they vanish Here though, he doesn't use the tree He doesn't use the pastors He doesn't use the green laurel tree He uses a metaphor of smoke, smoke that's here for a little while and then vanishes The wicked are going to perish, but God's going to take care of the righteous

And we know King David did not have the New Testament like we do And I read, I think last week from Matthew 6, where God promises us, one of his promises is that we will have food, clothing, and shelter Let's move on to number six, contrast borrowing verse giving King David here compares the wicked who does not pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives For those blessed by the Lord will inherit the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off Got two more contrasts there with the word but

The blessings and curses of God are seen in the different lots of the righteous and the wicked here The wicked who are cursed by God will be reduced to poverty And it's here in some cases they're compelled to borrow and they never pay back So technically they steal If they borrow and they're not planning on paying back, they're stealing Whereas the righteous has even abundance Lance mentioned that verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 last week Yet out of their poverty, the Christians gave abundantly

And here it says they have abundance, not only for their wants, but for the wants of others, right? So the wicked, I mentioned, are actually stealing because when he borrows, he doesn't even want to repay But the righteous are going to give out mercy to those poor, those needy They're going to support missions and do work at the church And it says the blessed shows, the blessed, the righteous will get mercy and inherit the land while the cursed are cut off You know, this verse, you can think of the nation, I think of the nation Israel because it was addressed to King David

King David is addressing it to his nation Israel God made a promise to the nation of Israel that in Deuteronomy 15.6, the Lord your God will bless you as he promised you and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you And who, what is the most richest ethnic group in the world? And it's been that way for thousands of years The Jews, every Jewish boy has an occupation Jesus was going to be a rabbi, but he was also a carpenter Paul was a tent maker, but he was also a tenor preacher

So they're the richest group in the world So it seems like even though they may not be walking with God and now is the time of the Gentiles, it still applies All right, let's move on to point two Don't fret because the Lord loves the righteous The Lord loves the righteous And you know, seven points here that if you would look at these real carefully, I'll go through them quickly Just reasons why we don't need to fret God loves us And number one, the Lord is pleased in the righteous or he's pleased in the righteous man

And it says the steps of a man are established by the Lord when he delights in his way The old King James says the steps of a good man are ordered When God is pleased with a righteous man, when a righteous man is walking with God, God guides that man in every aspect of the way of life God guides his steps and makes them secure And even though he may fall, God lifts him up Proverbs 16.9 says the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps Many years ago, gosh, it's probably 25 years ago, Tom Mason, I think we went to Tyler, Texas on a short-term mission trip

Tom Mason's brother was a pastor in Tyler, Texas, and he was starting a church So we flew to, I don't know where we flew, Dallas and went to Tyler, Texas And we worked in a black neighborhood going door to door, inviting people to come to church on Sunday, a new church And we went to two different churches that Sunday And I'll never forget, they sang a song at that black church called Order My Steps. I never forgot that And it goes like, order my steps in your word, dear Lord, lead me, guide me every day Send your anointing father, I pray Order my steps in your word

Please order my steps in your word The word here for order means to establish You're asking God, the way of the righteous, their steps are established They're directed by God They're confirmed by God God gave us this wisdom literature in Psalms and Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Job to direct our steps When we walk in the righteous way, God delights in that way, he says And then it says in verse 24, that though he falls, he shall not be cast headlong for the Lord will uphold his hand Literally a picture of the right hand of God holding us We may stumble and we all sin

We all stumble once in a while, but we continue to get up and walk Proverbs 24, 16 says, for the righteous fall seven times and rises again But the wicked stumble in times of calamity So the idea here is these verses that the righteous man is under the direct care of God He cares for us He loves us And when we stumble and when we have times of difficulty, when we have times of disappointment, even calamities come, when we fall down, the Lord is going to uphold us by the power of his hand, not by our power, but by the power of the invisible hand of the almighty God That's reason alone

We don't need to fret when things come Number two, the Lord provides for him Not all kings were good kings Now, King David was a good king King Solomon was a good king for part of his reign But most of the kings of Israel were not good kings. I think there were maybe six to eight kings that were good and about 12 that were bad and some really bad So the principle was for Israel that if the king was good, then usually the nation would follow the Lord and the nation prospered But not all kings were like that

But again, we have Matthew 6, that Jesus tells us, don't be anxious for what you shall eat, what you shall drink, what you shall wear For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you will need them God provides at least the basics for us, right? And then we Christians try to help those who are in times of need, too Number three, the Lord preserves him Turn away from evil and do good, verses 27 and 28 So you shall dwell forever The Lord loves justice He will not forsake his saints He says they are preserved forever

We're in the very hand of God. I always love those verses in John 10 Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life They shall never perish And he says, no one shall snatch them out of my hand And then he goes on a couple of verses later and says that even the heavenly Father, no one shall snatch them out of his hand We've got, I think the eighth contrast here It says that the Lord is going to preserve his saints, but the children of the wicked will be cut off again Let's go on to number four The Lord is going to prosper him Okay

It says the righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever This is the fourth time so far that David has told us the righteous are going to inherit the land And I will spend a little more time in this point at the very end You may not see yourself prospering now You may not see yourself very prosperous in this life, but God tells us to store up our treasures in heaven and not on earth Let's move on to point five The Lord loves him Not only loves him, not only prospers him, not only preserves him, not only provides for him He's going to prepare him

What do I mean by this? He says the mouth of the righteous utters wisdom and the tongue speaks justice The law of his God is in his hearts His steps do not leave So David did not have the 66 books of the Bible we have, but he says the mouth of the righteous utters wisdom Where did he get that wisdom? Well, David taught it to Solomon Solomon would teach it to his son It's the word of God The Bible tells us we're to believe it John 5.24 says whoever hears my word and believes on him who sent me has eternal life And I trust everybody tonight has eternal life

But that's just the beginning of your Christian walk You then need to memorize scripture Psalms 1.19.11 We learned this one in Sunday school It says I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you So you don't just believe the word of God You memorize it And we talked last week about meditating upon it Joshua 1.8 says this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do accordance to all that's written in it For then your way will be prosperous and you'll have good success

So you believe the word of God, you memorize it, you meditate upon it, and you study it You know, I trust you come on Sunday Everybody here coming out on Wednesday nights But you also got to have time to study the word of God And 2 Timothy 2.15 tells us what? Do your best to present yourself to God How do you do that? A worker who has no need to be ashamed who correctly or rightly handles the word of truth He studies the word of God He grows in the word of God He has a desire to learn each and every day Number five Well, you believe it You memorize it You meditate upon it You study it

Number five, you obey it You remember the woman in Luke 11 who yelled at Jesus, blessed is the bosom that bore you And Jesus looked back at her and said, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it. A lot of people hear the word of God, but they're not obeying it Number six, you defend it Jude 3 tells us we're to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered for the saints Number seven, you live it Not just on Sunday, not just on Wednesday night Titus 2.10 says showing all good faith so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of our savior

Literally, you put on the doctrine of the Bible You live that life every day And then number eight, you proclaim the word Matthew 28.19 says to go make disciples, baptize them and teach them everything I've commanded you So this first here, the mouth of the righteous can utter wisdom because he knows the word of God His tongue can speak justice He knows the Bible He knows the difference between the wicked and the righteous

And the law of God is on his heart and he's ready to share that word because he believes it, memorizes it, meditates upon it, studies it, obeys it, defends it, he lives it and he proclaims it Number six, the Lord loves the righteous and he's going to protect him You know, God mentioned the man in India, God that was killed God doesn't ask many of us to die for him, right? But he does ask all of us to live for him Here it says the wicked are watching for the righteous and they're looking to kill him, to put him to death The Lord will not abandon him to his power nor let him be condemned

Countries like India, countries especially like Nigeria, there are people being, Christians being killed every day You won't hear a word about it in our newspapers or our country. I thought of the five missionaries that were killed in Ecuador almost 60, 70 years ago It was the biggest story in the world then It was in the front of Life Magazine There's no more Life Magazine It was on all the news They were enamored about these five missionaries who went to Ecuador and were killed

But today, if a missionary is killed, it won't even make the news, will it? But the wicked are always watching the righteous And they're not only just trying to watch them to kill them, they're watching them to accuse them, to find some reason to attack them And why not? Because their leader is Satan, right? And Satan in Revelation 12.10 is called the accuser of the brethren So if he's going to accuse the brethren, the wicked are going to accuse the brethren

So even though David and Solomon were good kings, at least Solomon for the first part, that doesn't mean the judicial system in Israel was always good, okay? Often, the rich, the powerful, the wicked would abuse the poor They'd abuse widows And often, the poor people would suffer And the rich, the powerful would take what little they possessed But you notice here, we have the word Lord or Yahweh It depends on your translation, 14 or 15 times in these 40 verses, we have the word the Lord And he's our defense counselor He comes to our defense

And you notice the last part of that verse 33 says, when he is brought to trial So even back in David's day, there were people that were being brought to trial And in Matthew 10, Jesus said, beware of men, for they will deliver you over to the courts and flog you in synagogues. I mentioned last week, about three or four Canadian pastors were arrested and went to jail because they refused to stop meeting during COVID And soon, we'll probably have some American pastors arrested, maybe not for COVID, but for other things So one commentator said, men may condemn, but God acquits

But number seven, the word is exalt in verse 34, but I changed it to praises him Wait for the Lord, keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land You will only look on when the wicked are cut off So remember back in verse seven, it said, be still before the Lord, wait patiently for him Fret not yourselves, it only leads to evil Then in verse nine, it said, those who wait for the Lord will inherit Well, here we have the third time in this Psalm telling us to wait for the Lord The wicked have their day, right? They have their week, but soon they're going to be cut off five times

This is the fifth time it says the wicked will be cut off Okay And the fifth time it says the righteous will inherit the land God is going to exalt the righteous You may not be famous You may not be powerful You may not be rich You may be a nobody, but you know, God is going to exalt you while all those people, you know, Ellen Musk, all these people that are rich, all these people, they will have nothing and their works that won't be remembered when we're in heaven Let's move on to the last point Don't fret because of eternity

And two points here, the wicked will perish, the righteous will prosper This is what the whole Psalm is about That the wicked are going to perish They're going to be cut off So you look at, he says in verse 35, I've seen a wicked, ruthless man spreading himself like a green laurel tree And he says, but he passed away and he was no more. I saw him and I could not find him So in verse two, the wicked man was compared as grass that grows and dies In verse 20, it was compared as a pasture, a pasture of green grass Here it's compared

The metaphor is for the wicked is a green laurel tree that is there for a while and it's gone and you pass by and nobody even knows that tree was there That's the description of the wicked They have no legacy in God's eyes They'll have no legacy when you're in heaven and they're in hell And I mentioned last week, we can compare that green laurel tree to the tree planted by streams of water in Psalms 1.3 So there's one last reminder here The future of the wicked will be cut off One last reminder, they will spend eternity in hell

One last reminder, they have no lasting future, just an eternity in hell And then sub point two, the righteous will prosper We have this beautiful verse in verse 37, mark the blameless and behold the upright There's a future for a man of peace This expression here, mark, when it says mark, it means take note of, pay special attention to this man David's instruction for the reader or for us is to look at the examples of those who are blameless and upright And two characteristics, blameless does not mean you're perfect You're not sinless

The only other person, the only person who was ever sinless was Jesus Christ But it really means you're above reproach You know, elder qualification in first Timothy three, and Titus says that the elders to be blameless or above reproach, but that doesn't mean all Christians are to strive to be blameless All Christians need to work on that In a similar way, he mentions upright and upright means straight versus the wicked, which are crooked So there's a comparison there that the wisdom literature shows So then it says the salvation of the Lord, we end up in verse 39 to 40

The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord He is their stronghold in times of trouble And then notice the three verbs He's going to help them He's going to deliver them He's going to save them Why? Because they take refuge in them Salvation is from the Lord We've mentioned in all of our Psalms, the word salvation in the Old Testament and Psalms does not mean salvation like you and I have Salvation in Jesus Christ, it means deliverance Often the word salvation meant deliverance in a time of battle or a time of war But we have the whole scope of scripture now

And we know that salvation is from the Lord No one else There's no other name in heaven So if you want to be righteous, you have to have the salvation of Jesus Christ Then you got another great word there He's our stronghold Not only do we have Jesus Christ, we don't need to fret when you have Jesus Christ And you don't need to fret because he's our stronghold, it says And that just simply means you trust him You trust him with all your heart We're all going to go through times of difficulty We're all going to go through temporary bouts of depression or discouragement

Monday morning, when I saw what was going on in Myanmar, I was just down in the dumps And I said, I don't want to go to Myanmar But now I'm still going if I can get in there But you have bouts of discouragement, doubts of depression But God is our stronghold We just have to trust in him And then you have three verbs I mentioned Helps, delivers, actually delivers there is twice, and saves We don't have to fret because God helps us We don't have to fret because he delivers us And he's constantly delivering us from the wicked or out of the wicked And he saves us

But the key is to take refuge in him You take refuge in the word of God You take refuge with the body of Christ, with brothers and sisters You don't go at it alone Don't be a lone ranger Christian because you won't have refuge There's strength in numbers So let's talk about, we talked about last week that, you know, I mentioned don't fret If you trust in the sovereignty of God, don't fret Today, I just want to talk about two things Take care that you don't watch the wicked too much Don't go home on Fox News and just watch the latest, the latest sin or the latest whatever is going on

We need to stop focusing on the wicked and their wickedness because you all know it's going to get worse You know, Lance, when we studied the book of Daniel, he spent a lot of time talking about all millennialism, post-millennialism that say things are going to get better And there's just no way that is true. I'm a pre-millennialist. I've always been one Things are getting worse And John Aker gave a very vivid description a few weeks ago about, you know, we're in, the United States is in the toilet and it's going to be flushed

But we got to keep our eyes off the wicked because when you're watching the wicked, you're going to fret You're going to get envies of the rich You're going to get angry at the things that are going on But what we need to do is we need to do two things You need to seek and set And that comes from the verses I want to close with tonight, Colossians chapter three So we're going to go to the New Testament, Colossians chapter three, and you probably know these verses, but if you would pull up Colossians chapter three, verses one to four, and we'll finish with this

Colossians three, verses one to four says, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God When Christ who is your life appears, then you will also appear with him in glory You know, it says there, if you have been raised with Christ, if you have Jesus Christ in your heart, we don't need to fret We don't need to worry We don't need to get angry We don't need to get envious

Now I'm not saying that's easy when someone cuts you off or something happens, but if you've been raised with Christ, we don't need to fret Why? He says, seek the things that are above That's what I like to do Seek the things that are above You know, I mentioned five times we're going to inherit the land What are we going to inherit? What are we going to inherit? Do you ever think about what you're going to do in heaven, what you're going to inherit in heaven? I'll just give you five simple things Well, your inheritance is in heaven

First Peter one, four says our inheritance is kept in heaven for you You inherit heaven Number two, you inherit eternal life This is just a temporary life. 60, 70, 80 years if you're lucky Many people don't make you that far Well, as long as not lucky is the word, God gives it to you But John 5 24 says, he who hears my word and believes on him who sent me has eternal life So you have heaven, you have eternal life, and you have a home in heaven Jesus is the carpenter on earth John 14 3 says he's going to prepare a place for you

Number four, we're going to have rewards, and yet we'll take these rewards and we'll cast them at Jesus' feet First Corinthians 3 14 says, you know, we'll receive rewards at the beam of seat judgment And then number five, we're going to have a citizenship in heaven You're not a citizenship of America or Mexico or Russia Philippians 3 20 says our citizenship is in heaven So sometimes when you feel like you're going to when you see the wickedness, stop looking at the wickedness, stop thinking about the wickedness, and seek the things that are above

And then it also says in verse two, set your mind on things that are above You got to stop fretting But when you start seeking, you'll start setting your mind. A calmness will come over you The peace of God from Philippians 4 6 that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus And then it ends in Colossians 3 verses 4 says, when Christ who is your life appears, you're going to appear with him in glory Glory is the ultimate destination But the wicked, they're going to go to hell Somebody said three things, fret not, faint not, and fear not

Fret not, they chose John 13 1 And Jesus said in that verse, that was the verse he gave to his disciples in the upper room And Jesus is talking to them And he said, he's talking to them And he says that now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, he says, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end, not just the 11 disciples, but he loves us So we don't need to fret not because he loves us Faint not because he holds you

Psalms 139 10 says, even there, your hand, the right hand of God shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me So when you're going through times of discouragement, times of depression, when you feel like fretting, remember that the invisible hand of the almighty sovereign God is holding you So fret not he loves you John 13 1 Faint not, Psalms 139 10 And fear not because he keeps you Psalms 120 1 5 says, the Lord is your keeper So, you know, Colossians 3 would be the verse to verses 1 to 4 to meditate upon if you're having a problem fretting Let's pray tonight

Father in heaven, I just want to pray for anybody tonight, perhaps that is apt to fret Where it would be their family situation, their children who aren't walking with the Lord, their grandchildren Father, we could fret easy about the situation in our politics, our country, even the local city councils now fretting about the grime But as Christians, we know you're sovereign We know that God is in heaven and he laughs at the lawmakers who pass their laws We know that the judge Jesus Christ is coming and the wrath of God will be poured out upon the wickedness of this world

And we also know father that each and every day you wait, you tarry, is another day, another opportunity for those wicked to repent and come to Jesus Christ And we know the reason you didn't come today is you, your patience, you're waiting on more to come So father, I just pray that we will, you teach us not to fret, but that we would seek you, seek the things that are above, that we would set our minds on the things of Christ, knowing you're coming soon And may Jesus come soon in Jesus name Amen.