So if you'll turn to Psalm 37, which is place 498 in the two Bible, Psalm found just right about the middle of the Bible, the 37th Psalm. Psalm 37 is a wisdom Psalm, and it reads a lot like a passage out of proverb. I want you to imagine before we read of certain desire in your part perhaps a desire that has remained unsulfilled in your life. You've been very patient. Perhaps you have prayed much about this desire. You've been very faithful to God. Perhaps you've even gone so far as to say God not mine will be done, but mine be done in this situation in my life. For some reason, no, not only to God, and here's my own providence. He's not done this thing for you. He has not answered you in the way that you wish that he would. And I want you to say very seriously about that. It could be something as serious as a healing and someone very close to you in your life and maybe a financial situation. It's something possibly in that person's life, or this person's life, and you know that if God would just do it, that it would make a huge difference in their life. It may then be one of your children, but God in his providence has said no. And then you look around and you see all of these pagans. You see all these people who don't care anything about God. They don't inquire of God in any of their business feelings. They don't care anything about it. They could care less about what God thinks. And they not only prosper, but they actually enjoy the very things that you've been praying for for you. Imagine there, the pagans are the ones who are enjoying the very things that you've been asking of God for whatever reason the primary is that you've been asking you. If you know anything about that, then you can appreciate and identify with this psalm tomorrow. As we stand for the reading of this psalm, all 40 inspired verses of this psalm, the very mind of God and prayer. Let me say this because we don't say it often. We stand, obviously out of respect for God's word, out of reverence for it. It's part of our work, as we say, we're going to stand when we read God's word. If you're not physically able, nobody looks down on each other. Okay, we don't have any by our shirts. We're valued because I'm just not going to stand for the word or God. So if you're unable, I think I might put some people, people's minds as well. If you're not able, that's okay. We're not going to put external criteria on somebody's whole and it's a source standing for the word. Let me tell you this, say Matthew Henry says this about this psalm. This psalm is an exquisition of some of the hardest chapters of God's prophets. Beginning of verse 1, beginning of chapter 5, a psalm of David, verse 1, do not fret because of evil doers. Lord be invious of the workers of an Italy, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. Well in the land and feed on His faithfulness. Delights yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart to miss your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the moon day. Rest in the Lord and wait hastily for Him. Do not fret because of Him who phosphors in His way because of the man who brings wicked things to pass. Seize from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret. It only causes harm. For evil doers shall be cut off, but those who wait on the Lord they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while in the wicked shall be no more. Indeed you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more. For the me shall inherit the earth and shall delight himself in the abundance of peace. The wicked spots against the dust and mashes at him with his teeth. The Lord lasted him for he seized with his day of coming. The wicked have drawn the sword and have bent their bows to cast down the poor and needy to spray those who are of upright conduct. Their swords shall enter their own bar and their bows shall be broken. A little bit of righteous man has is better than the riches 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 upright and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil times, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. For the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord like the slinger of the meadow shall vanish, and the smoke they shall vanish away. The wicked borrows and does not repair, but the righteous shows mercy and gear. For those blessed by him shall inherit the earth, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. The steps of the good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his way. Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down. For the Lord upholds him with his hands. I have been young and narrow and old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread. He is ever merciful and lean, and his descendants are blessed. The clarts from evil and do good, and dwell forevermore, for the Lord's law is justice, and does not forsake his sins. They are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell in it forever. The mouth of the righteous face is risen, and his tongue talks of justice. The law of his God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide. The wicked watches, the righteous, and seeks to sway him. The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged. Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exhaust you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it. I have seen the wicked and great power, and spreading himself like a native green tree, yet he passed away, and behold, he was no more, and did I saw him, but he could not be found. Marked the blameless man and observed the upright, for the future of that man is peace, but the transgressor shall be destroyed together, the future of the wicked shall be cut off. For the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord, he is their strength in the time of trouble, and the Lord shall help them and deliver them, he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them for cause they trust in him. All men are right-grath, and all their glory is like the flowers of the fields, and man, he may be seated in an architimate fortified. I have already alluded to the fact that this film is about the frustration of the wicked process. You say, here I am, I am working very hard, I am honest in all of my business feelings, I am integrity in my relationship, I am committed to prayer, I am getting up early, I spend every morning in prayer with God, and not only are those non-Christians, not only do they seem to prosper, but they actually have the very things that I want. These are the very things that I wake up early in the morning and pray to God for. They seem to have the desires of my heart. Again, that's what this film does, it addresses what would be very typical reaction to these wicked people, not only prospering, but having the very things that you desire, the very things that you pray for, reactions like bitterness, reactions like frustration, specifically the reaction of anxiety, threatening as the word used in this film. But that's what this film is, this film is a strategy to deal with anxiety. The film has set out, he's our example here, he sets out the gain, biblical control over his mind. He sets out the gain, biblical control over his heart, over his emotions, what I don't get away from him and what this Christian sees in the wicked in his offerings. He wants to have this biblical control over his passions, over his desires, particularly as he grapples with this mystery that we call God's taught us. In other words, this film is a prescription to dealing with anxiety using biblical truths. Now, we're bent toward worrying in different ways, different people in different ways are given to us, some of us just look for things to worry about. And that's what this film is about, particularly the first 11 verses, the principle that is said before in the first 11 verses is that we must go through ourselves against anxiety using biblical arguments. The great way to fight worries, a great way to fight anxiety is using biblical arguments against it. This is why he tells us, this is why I shouldn't be worried, this is why I shouldn't be anxious because the Bible says this, and the Bible says that. Again, that's what this film is all about. One list after another, another of another of things you can do, the fight against anxiety. Unless you ever heard the story of the Presbyterian minister who was invited to preach at the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, to the story, to the preach songs. The very thing Jerry Walson said, I'll talk about Wednesday night, Philippians 4, verse 6, the anxious for nothing part of our call to worship tonight. And he began his firm and by asking for anyone to raise their hand if they struggled with being a murderer, anybody that murdered in their in their heart, nobody raised their hand. They said, anybody's struggle with being a thief raised their hand, nobody raised their hand. He said, anybody's struggle with a large, it was one man, the best brother raised his hand. He said, we've got one honest person in the congregation. And then he said, anybody in here struggled with worries. And he said, every hand in the congregation went off. And this is what he said, he said, could it be that we feel some embarrassment over struggling with murder in the heart, struggling with truthfulness or life thereof, profiting out of our mouths, struggling with other things that are obviously out of a corner who got ill, but we don't realize that worry isn't a threat to God's problem. He went on to say, we don't realize that worry is something God has commanded. It's not to do. It is something about which he has said, thou shalt not. And then he goes on. He went on to preach a wonderful exposition about practice in which he entitled, God, or Paul, but he got Paul's antidote to anxiety. That could be a title over the song. It's an antidote to anxiety, specifically anxiety over the injustice that does the ought to be punished in this world, seem to be the ones who get blessing after blessing after blessing, enjoying the very things of the faithful thing to go with that. Now that word antidote, it ends up for anxiety. I don't really love that word. It seems a little false. Maybe I think it's false because it just doesn't carry the punch that really these first 11 verses offer. What is being offered in these first 11 verses is not just an antidote. It is an offensive attack. Here is how you can have an offensive attack against anxiety in your life. It's one imperative. I alluded to this earlier. One imperative after another imperative. I have seven. I read someone that had as many as 10 imperatives of how to fight anxiety, but it is a quiver of biblical weapons. And instruction in this song is not like the pastor of the man who went to his pastor with the struggle of war and laid out before his pastor in a elaborate fashion. All these reasons lie in his life. He was suffering from worrying. And he finally comes to the end of it and says, how can you help me, pastor? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? And the pastor says, stop worrying. It's more than that in this song. But the flavor here is not okay. You're struggling with anxiety. You have stopped worrying. The flavor here is worry is a sign of spiritual danger. And you need to stop worrying at all costs. This song is saying that worry leads to bitterness. Worries will lead to a distrust in God. And you must realize, you must be convinced in your heart and in your mind that if you are worried, you are in a dangerous place spiritually. And so this song is saying, yeah, stop worrying. But let me tell you how to stop worrying. I'm not just going to tell you to stop. I'm going to give you some ways, some practical ways to stop fretting. The great times he uses that statement, do not fret, do not fret, do not fret versus 1, 7, and 8. Do not fret. Literally means do not get heated. Do not get worked up over the wicked having the very things that you pray for. Be cool. And that's really what the word mean. That's basically what the song was saying. Stay cool, even when the wicked crossburks, especially at the expense of the run. I do want you to notice verse 11. I mean it's worth pointing out. If you notice, verse 11 says the meat shall inherit the earth. And where have we heard that before? The ferment on the mountain. Jesus actually takes specifically from Psalm 37, verse 11, and he uses it in his moment on the mountain. Verse 11, or let me just comment, a kidner says there is no finer exposition of the third narrative in Psalm 37. And then verse 11 continues, the meat shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Peace. And that's what we want. That's what we're asking. That's what we do. We go to the Psalm 37 because we want to know how to have peace. How can we do that? Again, we go to the Psalm and say, how can I fret not? Well, how is it that I can refrain from fretting when what? I mean, you have to fill in the blood. In your blood. That's what you want to know. How can I keep myself from fretting when this is when this is not happening in my life? In his first 11 verses, very simply are saying you can keep from fretting by looking up and looking ahead. The last thing you want to do is look at the wicked. The last thing you want to do, in fact, is look at yourself. So he says, look up, look at God, look at his blessings in the future. So that's the first one is trust in the Lord. Verse 3 says, trust in the Lord. Trust is faith. Faith is not only passive, it can be, and it is active. And he's saying, by all means, put your faith in God. When you're worried, when you're anxious about the wicked rosary, by all means, put your faith in God. Look at him. Trust in his providential care. He's committed himself to you. How many times do we need to hear that? He has committed himself to you. Or you should therefore commit yourself to him. Trust in him. Secondly, do what is life. That's what verse 3 says, trust in the Lord, and do what is God. And in parallel, you do it. Because sometimes the word parallelizes. Sometimes it keeps us awake enough. We turn over and over in our mind, it's saying that we're obsessed with it, saying that it's causing us to worry. And again, in parallelizes, we become unproductive because of the saying for which we're worried, about which we're worried. And his soul is saying, the soul is saying, don't do that. If it's simply, don't do that. It rather do that. Don't be paralyzed by your work. Do good. You live in the land. Look at the second part of verse 3. Use well and less. Use well and he is land. So be faithful. Be truthful. And then the third way to find anxiety is to delight in the world. Find your delight in him. Look at verse 4. Delights yourself also in the Lord. And he shall give you the desires of your Lord.
The psalmist knows there's one saying that God will never ever take away from his people, and that is himself. God can take away every single thing, away from you in your life. Take everything away from you. He will never take away from you himself. The believer is never, ever bereft of God himself. So the believer always has something in his life in which he can delight himself. No matter what it is, no matter how you find yourself in whatever emotional state you find yourself, you can always find something to delight yourself in, because you can delight yourself in the world. You always have him. So when you're worried and you're questioning God's providence, and that's what worry is, do not fail to delight yourself in the Lord, especially when you feel that the other delights are being with him. Practically speaking, you would delight yourself, and this is sort of explained in this will be a way of meditating on God. You delight yourself in his soul. You delight yourself in his exaltation, who he is, and all of it's awesomeness. And then you would further delight yourself in his mercy, his grace, and his compassion, his patience, and his love, and you just really things over and over and over again in your mind when you're tempted to worry, when you're tempted to have anxiety. The reason that so many people cannot delight themselves in him is because they don't love him. And the reason they don't know him is because they never delight themselves in him. The only way to know him is to spend time with him. Every day, the fourth way to find anxiety, put in a sense of attack on anxiety is to commit your way to the Lord. Verse 5 says, commit your way to the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass, this word commit, it means to roll one's way onto God. And the idea is to take his burden off of your shoulders and just roll the burden off yourself and roll that burden onto God's shoulders. As you know that Peter had fallen 37, verse 5 in mind when he wrote first Peter 5, verse 7, passed all your anxiety on him. Why? Because he cares for you. I asked Doug Shelley one time. In fact, on a trip where he was picking his brain constantly and saying, one of the questions I asked him, how do you pray for service? How do you pray before he prays? He said, I always prays on 37, 5 and 6. Since that day, almost without fail before I prays, I pray. So on 37, 5 I think I used the in-average, commit your way to the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall do this, he shall make your righteous a shine like a dome. And the justice of your cause, like the many days on. And then simply be still before the Lord is great way to fight anxiety is to just rest in God, rest in who he is, verse 7, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. And the idea here is to actually relax in the Lord. That's the tongue. Because you find him to be your shelter,
voice in his commentary on his song Quote Test out. He says, the basic thing that is wrong with the world is that man does not know how to stay quietly in his own room. Now, the wife is like the person who sort of sticks out. Let me read it for you again. The basic thing that is wrong with the world is that man does not know how to stay quietly in his own room. Another way to fight anxiety is to wait patiently for the Lord. We just read that in verse 7, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. At the very moment that you feel your patience is being hacked, you discern and I will wait on the Lord. I have determined in my life that I am going to be patient in this area of my life and I'm going to wait on God's timing. I'm going to wait on him in his blood. And then verse 7, refrain from anger. It doesn't verse 8, cease from anger. Verse 9, do not fret. It only calls his harm. Whether this is anger, when this cease from anger, whether it's anger toward God or anger toward the wicked, that's not really the issue. What is important is, is that the mark of the godly man or the godly woman is the person who can maintain a calm and settled frame of mind simply because they trust and don't. You see the wicked, you see the prospering, you see them going about and they're unethical business practices, they hypocrite, that they are and they're prospering again. The very things that you've been waiting for years and it's as if to say, you just let them do their little thing and you realize that you are trusting in the Lord. You put all your trust in him. Let me just say, impacting that there are reasons that the psalmist gives as to why we should not fret or be envious of others. Look at verse 2, he says, where they shall sin, be cut down like the grass and wither as the greener. I will say this in the three verses on their way, the three reasons why we shouldn't fret about the evil, about evil doers, and all is in the context of the fact that life is too short to decide. It's just too short for you to worry about the wicked and we should see them in light of eternity. We should see them in light of judgment. They shall sin, be cut down like grass, he says, and then verse 8, it only calls his harm and then verse 9, for evil doers shall be cut off, but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. It's all in light of judgment. We need to train ourselves to think that way. There's a psalmist who described the fate of a hypocrite, perhaps he's saying a hypocrite crossword. But what is it? We ask what is it that really awaits that hypocrite? Maybe somebody you even have in mind right now. What is it that awaits that person? I hope this was very strong. The realizing said what awaits them in judgment and eternity with those that he attempted to face his religion with. Mocking him that he met his face though he pretended to be so launching. The first section of this psalm is exactly what we said that it was. It's biblical truth to help us fight against anxiety. The second section of this psalm is life. Life is a better phrase. It's like an out-of-body experience for the psalmist. It's like he can just get off the velvet and pull the veil back and he sees the wicked and he sees the righteous and he's able to contrast the truth. We'll just run through it quickly in verses 12 to 13. Basically, the point is the wicked plot against the righteous but the Lord laughs at them. Same laughter we find in psalm 2. In psalm 2 where there's the Lord's cost to post who think that they can overthrow him. What is God laugh at the wicked? What is he laugh at those that seem to frustrate us and cause us anxiety in our lives? God can laugh at them because he knows they're in. And that's what voice is able to ask. It's very probing. I think very encouraging questions. The first is if God can laugh at the wicked, shouldn't we be able at least to refrain from being agitated by him? In that true, if God can laugh at them, surely we can piece ourselves from being agitated by them. And in the second question, the voice asks, shouldn't we be able to trust God and commit our way to him in quiet confidence in verses 14 to 15? Basically, Jesus, the wicked draw weapons against the righteous but they fall by their own weapons. This is to say, basically, sin will deform you, sin will find you out. Sin will be your end. People can change, they can use you, they can intimidate you, they can do that all they want but they can only do it for a time because they will come a day when their true character will come out. Their true colors will be seen by everyone. And in verses 16 to 17, the wealth and the power of the wicked will be taken away. But God will sustain the righteous and in verses 18 to 20, the righteous will survive days of deprivation but the wicked will perish. Look at verse 20, the wicked shall perish. And the enemies of the Lord like the splendor of the men shall vanish into the snow, they shall vanish away. I can't help but think of Hollywood's definition of beauty. Hollywood's definition of fame, these high fashion models, exceptional wealth, but the influence these people have, celebrities in this song that says, like the splendor of the men shall vanish in that room. And don't we see it even on this side of heaven? Don't we see it? Don't we see a glimpse of their ends in the way we see their lives, the way those lives work themselves now? They vanish into the snow because we all know we should notice Christians' beauty fades, popularity wanes, wealth over it sins itself and is lost. And what about influence? We all want a little bit of influence. So here today, dawn to more. That's what this psalmist is saying. Let me just say, as an example, and enclosed, and I know there was no way we'd actually do the psalm just as the whole psalm and one psalm. But I want to give you an example of a particular group of people who might say, well, why is this not happening in the minutes? It comes from the fact that they cannot see particularly singles over the years. We were 26 and 27 when we met 27 and 28 and we got married and we know that feeling. It's like, well, when is God going to bless me? When am I going to be able to define my mates? We will have a family. We will be able to have children, particularly best I think of when we're in the years past or maybe R.U.F. conferences or where different young ladies. And these are young ladies that are faithful to God. As I was using this as an example, the beginning of this firm. People that are faithful to God, people that have worked in the ministry of the church and these young girls. Longing to be married, longing to have children, longing to have families that take care of. And then you have those individuals that are Christian girls who never knew a day of rebellion. And they actually led other girls to the Lord and they even counseled them in their rebelliousness. These girls become Christians, they grow in great, they meet a Christian man and they get married and there's a Christian they love them and take care of them. And they don't have children. Here's this young girl, say, why not me? I've never rebelled. I've been faithful to God. Why haven't God given me the desire of my heart? That's what this firm is again, it's saying that we do not always know and answer the God's covenant. God doesn't tell us the trust in him just as long as we have an answer to every problem in our lives. Our lives. What he does tell us is that we are doing interpret our experiences in light of Scripture. That's what the last verse is, 27 to 40. The idea is live in light of eternity, live in light of Scripture. 27 says, the part for me going to do good and dwell forever more. 28 for the Lord loves justice, does not forsake it, says, they have reserved forever. The descendants of the wicked shall be cut off, whatever is going on, the righteous shall inherit the land and dwell in it forever. Every time you are handed a certain providence in your life. Every time there is an experience in your life that causes you to ask, why is it true in my life? Why do I not know blessing like this other person? Why am I having to stop or why do the wicked prosper? Why is God unanswered my prayer? Every time we have a situation in our life, it is a test, it's a test to say, who do you really love? Who really has your heart? Who do you love the most? Where is your priorities? Is God really your ultimate desire in this life or the blessings and simple things more precious to you than the spiritual strizer that he holds in store for you?
Do you notice those bumps of unanswered prayer and those bumps of un- of non-understandable suffering of bumps that are telling you to re-align your priorities? Where do you stand tonight? Where do you stand, look upon this? Will you allow the Word of God to interpret your experience? What will allow?