Psalm 37
The theme of this psalm is, obviously, "dwell in the land." This phrase, and "inherit the land" are found at least seven times in this psalm.1 In his Commentary on the Psalms, George Knight gives this psalm the title: "The Righteous will possess the Land." The strange thing is that the conquest of Canaan in David's days was an accomplished fact. David used his royal powers mainly to wipe out some pockets of resistance. But this hardly relates to the content of this psalm. Inheriting the land, and dwelling in the land, therefore, must have a more profound meaning than the occupation of a geographical place. We have to interpret this psalm in the light of what the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrew says about entering the rest of God. We read there: "We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.' Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, 'So I declared on oath in my anger, ' 'They shall never enter my rest.' ' And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: 'And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.' And again in the passage above he says, 'They shall never enter my rest.' It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.' For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience."2
Possession of the land is used in Scripture as a rich symbol for the heritage God has given us in a hostile world. Jesus' beatitude: "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth"3 is probably based on this psalm. According to Vincent's Word Studies, Christianity has given a completely new meaning to the Greek word praeís, which is translated with "meek." According to Aristotle, meekness had the connotation of "between hardheaded anger and a negative characteristic which was not even able to bring itself to righteous anger." In the Biblical sense the word has acquired the meaning of an inner tenderness, which is the result of God's greatness and the realization of man's smallness. This characteristic is clearly present in this psalm. The psalm deals with two types of people: first, those who see their lives as not dependent upon God, and who, consequently, live for themselves, and second, those who have surrendered themselves to God, and who have subjected themselves to His will, and live a life of obedience. The man who lives for himself believes that the world revolves around him alone. He sees himself as the center of the universe, and he tries to manipulate everything for his own advantage. The meek sees God in the center. It is his greatest satisfaction to serve God. We have to keep the distinction between the two in mind when studying this psalm, because there is constant tension between the two groups. We live in a world that is possessed. Some of us realize that we live in enemy occupied territory, others have made a pact with the enemy.
Man's problem is that his field of vision is limited to life on earth; our five senses cannot observe what happens after death. Faith in God helps us to see over the boundaries, but our physical eye cannot see that far. As far as our everyday life is concerned, we live in this world alone, not in the one to come. This fact distorts reality for us; unless we can see the perspective, we cannot see things as they really are. This faulty image of reality is the cause for the fretting, or jealousy the psalmists speaks about. David addresses the man who has put his trust in God. It seems that the person who does not take God into account in his life comes out better in this world than the believer. This is true, as long as we look at a section of life, without putting things in their perspective. When David says: "Like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away," we can hardly interpret this in the light of life on earth only. We cannot maintain that those who commit injustice always receive their just reward on earth. The people David has in mind are those who believe that the end justifies the means, and who do not follow the rules of life. Their only concern is their riches, and they do not care about the way they accumulate them. The Bible calls them "evil men," and "those who do wrong." Evil is their way of life. These are people who not only make an unintentional wrong moral judgment, but their philosophy of life is evil. David encourages us, not to look at the end result, but at the way it was obtained. It is not too hard to become rich if one is willing to climb over dead bodies.
Over against this David shows what the attitude of a Christian ought to be. The first requirement is trust in the Lord, Yahweh. We have to take Him at His Word, and we have to compare the false appearance of daily life against the measure of His revelation. We have to keep the rules. The strange thing is that we apply this principle in all kinds of sports and games, but not there, where it is most important, in daily life. Doing good is nothing more or less than acting in accordance with the character of God.
The expression "dwell in the land" is loaded with meaning. In vs. 3 it is used as a parallel for "trust in the Lord." Both sentences say the same thing. As we said above, the conquest of Canaan was an accomplished fact in David's days. So there is more involved here than the physical occupation of a geographical area. It pertains to an attitude towards life; to a claiming of God's promises, to an acceptance of the logical results of salvation. For Israel this meant deliverance from Egypt and entrance into Canaan, by means of God's supernatural intervention, which was an image of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and His resurrection life within us. Dwelling in the land means resting from one's own work, as the writer to the Hebrews states: "For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his."4 It means a refusal to try to live in our own strength, and it means leaning upon the life of Jesus which is within us. We have to learn to do this consistently, and to simply enjoy the Lord. That is what David means when he says: "Delight yourself in the LORD." Fellowship with God is a source of enjoyment and satisfaction. It is strange, however, that we, more often, consider Bible reading and prayer as an obligation, rather than an relaxation and enjoyment. Yet, our "Quiet Time" brings us joy and it dissolves tensions.
All social contacts and love relations, and all friendships on earth are a vague image of our relationship with God. When David says: "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart," he does not mean that we should delight ourselves in the Lord in order to obtain the desires of our heart. If we would enter into fellowship with God for the purpose of getting out of it what we can, we, obviously, have no idea what it is all about. Our fellowship with God cannot be driven by ulterior motives. Our attitude should be the one the prophet Habakkuk had, who wrote: "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior."5 The fact that God gives us the desires of our heart is a byproduct. It means, however, that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, the Lord will delight Himself in us. It is also clear that, if God is to give us the desires of our heart, some drastic changes will first have to take place within us. It would be unsafe for us to obtain our heart's desires without thorough cleansing and sanctification. This cleansing is brought about by our delighting ourselves in the Lord. Fellowship with God will purify our motives, because we learn to subject our will to His will. James says that God does not hear some of our prayers, because our motives are not pure. We read in his epistle: "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."6 It is also true that, often, we do not really know what we our true desires are. We do not really know ourselves. Fellowship with God will give us self-knowledge. In that way we will learn to distinguish our vague desires from our real needs.
C. S. Lewis expresses some of this in his book Till We Have Faces. He writes: "How can we meet the gods face to face, till we have faces?" Fellowship with God requires maturity.
We find in this verse one of the great promises of the Bible. God gives us a blank check. Our heart will have to be healed, so that, with a healthy heart and a sound mind we can give free reign to our desires.
A second aspect of our dwelling in the land is that we commit our way to the Lord, and trust in Him. This has a profound meaning also. The Hebrew word for commit is galal which, according to Strongs Definitions, means: "to roll (literally or figuratively)." The phrase could be translated with: "Roll your way upon the Lord." Rolling away something suggests the removal of a heavy object, or an unbearable load. It is the equivalent of what the apostle Peter writes: "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."7 The uncertainty of where the road leads us, the tension of encounter with our adversaries, and our relationships with our fellowmen, can add up to a very heavy load. God invites us to let that load roll from our shoulders to let it fall upon Him.
The intent is not primarily sin, but tasks and responsibilities, and relationships. And then not only those things about which we feel inadequate, but also those we think we can handle. Dwelling in the land presupposes that the conquest is an accomplished fact. What lies before is the daily chores of fetching water, cutting wood, and working the fields. We have to learn to roll those tasks upon the Lord, and to let Him do the work for us. God wants us to relax. One British preacher8 once spoke about God's prohibition to the priests to wear woolen underwear,9 and he said: "God hates sweat." This may be the hardest lesson we will ever learn.
The NIV renders vs. 5 with: "Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this…" Other translations say: "Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act" (RSV), or "Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass" (KJV). God will act in our behalf; He will take up our case. There is no need for us to build up a reputation for ourselves. We are not expected to defend ourselves, or to furnish proof of our innocence in order to demonstrate that we are good. God will take care of our reputation. We should never get used to the fact that the Bible speaks about "your righteousness," and "the cause of your justice." We usually tend to keep on putting our acts of unrighteousness and our injustice before us as documents of our guilt, as something we have to confess before the Lord; otherwise, He would not accept us. It is true, of course, that confession of sin is part of our conversion. If we refuse to confess our sins, we also reject the sacrifice of Christ for our sins. But if we never go beyond confession of our sins, we do not understand what God's intention for us is. If we only lay our sins upon Jesus, and we do not allow Him to clothe us with His righteousness, we only do half of what we are supposed to do. The amazing thing is, not only, that God gives us righteousness, but that He calls it our righteousness. This is the essence of the sunrise over our lives: God testifies to His righteousness within us, and thus we begin to live in the light.
Being still before the Lord, and waiting for Him are some of the hardest things to do. Paul Tournier, in his book Fatigue in Modern Society, recommends meditation as a remedy against exhaustion. Studying the Bible and quieting oneself before God, certainly, falls into this category. If we let the verses of the Bible speak to us, we give God the opportunity to speak to us. This is part of "dwelling in the land;" it is the essence of victorious living. Our problems usually keep pace with the amount of noise we admit into our lives. In order to be spiritually healthy, we need quietness, a quietness filled with the presence of God. If we do not wait for the Lord, quietness in itself has no value. We have to expect God to speak to us.
If we decide to wait for the Lord, we acknowledge that His timing is not the same as ours. He is Lord of our time, and it is up to Him to decide what we should do and when we should do it. This kind of relationship with the Lord places our human relationships in a different light also. It eliminates jealousy, which is the cause of most of the tensions in our relations.
It is interesting to see that the words "do no fret" occur three times in the first eight verses of this psalm. The word "anger" is used as a parallel. We are rarely aware of the fact that jealousy occupies such an important place in our human relationships. We tend to compare ourselves with other people, and we believe that others get a better deal than we do. This feeling demonstrates itself in our efforts to "keep up with the Joneses." In doing so, we deny the fact that our relationship with God is unique, and that God made us as unique individuals.
Jealousy is always geared to the outside of things. As soon as we look, as Christians, at the lives of others and probe their motives and the content of their lives, jealousy will disappear. David speaks about the success or prosperity of people in carrying out evil schemes. He unmasks a world of iniquity with this phrase. He shows that this prosperity is the result of man's own efforts, which was based on egoism and egotism. This prosperity does not come from God, and it is not even recognized as such. It is the fruit of manipulation. This is clear from the use of the term "wicked schemes." There is prosperity that comes from above, and there is affluence that comes from below. It is good if we are jealous of those who are blessed by God. We ought to follow the example of those people, and become ourselves people who make others jealous. This is what the Apostle Paul means to say, when he writes to the Romans: "Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring! I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them."10
David's warning against anger and wrath makes one wonder if he read modern books on psychology. It may happen that we get angry in certain situations, and that this triggers in us an anger, which is out of proportion to the cause. We may discover that there is, under the surface of our consciousness, a large reservoir of anger that bursts open as soon as there is a fissure. In our being still before the Lord, and our waiting for Him, we have to learn to be freed from those kinds of tensions, that we cannot control ourselves. The Lord is able to heal us deep down. Jesus Christ is the best psychologist alive. We ought to give Him a chance in our lives. The peace of God, which is "dwelling in the land," is the rest of our soul. Jesus says: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."11
It seems as if, in verses 8-10, the things on earth are mixed up with heavenly things. Everyone knows that the righteous die as well as the wicked. Inheriting the land does not mean that we will live eternally on earth. Evidently, David means to say more than that the empty place that is left by the wicked is the fact that he dies. Dwelling in the land is more than life on earth; it stands for the influence a man's life has upon his surrounding. If the fact that we live does not make any difference in the lives of others, we could just as well not have been born. Inheriting the land means that we influence the course of world history. If others have come to know the Lord through us, we have not spent our time on earth in vain. Waiting for the Lord has a great influence upon the way in which we live. Isaiah says: "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."12 We will experience this kind of deep inner peace if we live with the Lord.
In verses 1-11 the topic was man's relationship with God, which made the difference between the righteous and the wicked. The verses 12-15 deal with relationships between humans, based on their relationship with God. Those who do not know God will turn themselves against those who live in fellowship with the Lord. In the previous verses we read about jealousy in the heart of the righteous toward the wicked. Here we see hatred in the wicked for the righteous. The feelings of the wicked seem to be out of proportion also. Why would a man want to slaughter his fellowman, because he serves God? The only explanation is that this hatred is demonically inspired. This hatred culminated in the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. David says that the Lord laughs at the man who hates. Elsewhere he says: "The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them."13 We should be careful, as Christians, not to be intimidated. Human violence can be frightening, if we lose sight of the omnipotence of God. Jesus warns us not to lose track of the right proportions, and to be afraid of those who can do nothing but kill the body. In Matthew's Gospel we read that He says: "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell."14 There is also the warning that "all who draw the sword will die by the sword."15
Vs. 16 gives us an interesting refutation of the doctrine of "Green Power," which states that every child of God should have the best of everything. We should not conclude from this that righteousness and poverty are synonymous. But intimate fellowship with God does not guarantee abundance, it does assure us of a reasonable existence though. Isaiah says: "He who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil-- this is the man who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. His bread will be supplied, and water will not fail him."16 Seeking after abundance and fellowship with God are, in principle, mutually exclusive. George Mueller, who was an expert in the realm of survival, always put the emphasis in his diary on the nutritious qualities of the food the Lord gave him for his orphanages. The words that describe our condition are "the little that the righteous have," "times of disaster," and "days of famine." We have the promise that the Lord, YHWH, will uphold us, and care for us under those circumstances. Our inheritance is eternal.
The wicked, who were out after the lives of the righteous, are called "the Lord's enemies" in vs. 20. God identifies Himself with people who surrender their lives to Him. We see this same principle demonstrated when Paul meets Jesus on the way to Damascus. In the book of Acts we read: " 'Who are you, Lord?' Saul asked. 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' he replied."17 Also in the parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus says: "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' " And: "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' "18 In connection with the above, we can also refer to Paul's words to the Romans: "What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-- more than that, who was raised to life-- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."19
Verses 21-26 introduce ethical principles in the field of economics. The wicked is dishonest in his commerce. He asks for credit without the slightest intention to pay his debts. A righteous man can always afford to give a loan, and a Christian can always afford to pay. After all, we possess the land. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future-- all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God."20 If we are poor, our material poverty is only temporary and outward. If we receive God's blessing, we possess the essence of all riches. God will make our steps firm and He guarantees our basic needs. In practice, however, we often receive much more than our minimum wage.
In vs. 25 we find one of the great promises of the Bible: "I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread." It appears from those words that David wrote this psalm at the end of his life. God promises to bless our families, and He serves as the collateral of our existence on earth. If a parent puts his or her trust in the Lord for the sustenance of the family, the children will be blessed. What a profound truth! Our dwelling in the land is demonstrated in our generosity. We can always afford to help others. Again, Paul says: "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously."21 Our lives should be characterized by compassion with the suffering of others. Our inheriting the land is related to the condition of our heart. Generosity is the result of our confidence that God takes care of us. Avarice is often an indication of fear that we will not be able to make ends meet. We use money to build walls and fortresses around us, as a substitute for a sense of security. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews says: "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?' "22 Dwelling in the land means that we lean on the Lord for our financial security. If we do this, our children will learn the lesson also and become a blessing to other people.
The main stress in verses 27-29 is upon the phrase: "For the LORD loves justice, and does not forsake His saints,"23 or, as the NIV renders it: "For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones." In the movie The Jesse Owen Story, Jesse Owen, who won a gold medal in the Olympics in Berlin in 1935, influenced the lives of several young people by taking them out for walks and explaining to them the similarity between the principles of athletics and of life. Both can only exist if the game is played according to the rules. The rules of life can be summed up in the word "justice." Dwelling in the land means keeping far from everything that reeks of corruption. Turning from evil and doing good means acting correctly in daily life. Sometimes small things, such as not returning borrowed books, can spoil our righteous life. In the Song of Songs we read: "Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom."24 We have to watch out for "the little foxes."
Our sense of righteousness and "eternal security" go hand in hand. "The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever." This sounds contradictory, but the life of a child of God is built upon this paradox.
Dwelling in the land demonstrates itself also in our speech. We could consider vs. 29 as part of the following stanza, so that the next paragraph would go from the verses 29-33. Our mouths testify to the reality of fellowship with God. See the sequence of this: The testimony of our acts precedes our speaking about it. The devil will always tempt us to speak first, his technique is a trap that is hard to avoid. It is a good principle for a new convert to keep his mouth shut, until the time that silence becomes impossible.
What we say is always determined by our relationship with the Word of God. Our wisdom in speaking will improve as we enter deeper into biblical truths, and the Word of God takes more and more possession of our lives. We will never become important in the Kingdom of Heaven without being faithful in our Quiet Time, and without systematic Bible study.
This will also determine our attitude toward the enemy. We do not read in this psalm whether David had to deal with human enemies or with Satan himself. In the trial that is mentioned, Satan is called "the accuser of our brothers,"25 but the Holy Spirit is our Paraklete, that is our advocate. The Apostle Paul says: "What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? … Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies."26
The theme of verses 34-40 is basically the same as of the preceding verses, but the keyword here is "wait." Our Lord Jesus uses the word "wait" and "watch" several times in His parables. Waiting for the Lord means expecting the return of Christ, the Parousia. The virgins waited for the bridegroom;27 the servants waited for their master.28 Waiting and watching are an indication of a conviction that the present situation is not normal, nor lasting. It is a disposition of our life. It should be the typical attitude for a Christian to be occupied with whatever our task may be, in the expectation that we have to give account of our actions. Both the Apostles Peter and John speak about this aspect, and they call it "the hope." John says: "Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure."29 Waiting for the Lord and keeping His way go together. If we wait for the Lord and obey His Word, He will exalt us and make us inherit the land. From within ourselves we will never be able to produce the quality of life, which is required to dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven; God will have to give that to us. He brings us up to that level. This does not mean that we will be exalted in relation to other people. The point here is not our reputation, but the quality of our life. God does not give us the land unless we are worthy, and He makes us worthy.
The conquest of Canaan becomes an image of our spiritual life. This is what the author of the Hebrew epistle calls "entering into God's rest," when he says: "It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.' For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his."30 The cutting off of the wicked, or, as the RSV calls it the destruction of the wicked, has, of course nothing to do with the execution of human criminals. What is meant is the casting out of demons. It speaks about a great clean-up, such as Jesus performed when He walked the land of Palestine. He did this, as He lived on earth as a human being, so that we would follow His example. That is why He would not allow the demons to speak and call Him "Son of God." Our being exalted by God includes authority over the Evil One. And the exercise of this authority will give us great joy. The best commentary of this is found in Luke's Gospel, where we read: "The seventy-two returned with joy and said, 'Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.' He replied, 'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.' "31 In connection with this kind of victory, the Dutch lady Corrie ten Boom said: "Most missionaries have given everything to the Lord, but they have not taken everything the Lord wants to give to them."
David compares the wicked to a flourishing tree. "I have seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing like a green tree in its native soil." The comparison sounds more flattering than may be intended. The Hebrew word translated with "green tree" is 'ezrach, meaning a spontaneous growth, which is derived from zarach, which Strongs defines as: "to irradiate (or shoot forth beams), i.e. to rise (as the sun); specifically, to appear (as a symptom of leprosy)." The spontaneous growth may be a cancer like growth, which is spontaneous and luxurious but unnatural and fatal. This makes the comparison the more striking. This tree stands for something that deviates from the laws God had set for the flora of His creation; it is a parasite that lives at the expense of others, and kills what grows up around it. It is the weeds the enemy sowed among the wheat in Jesus' parable.32
The NIV says: "but he soon passed away and was no more." The Hebrew is, evidently, open for several translations. The ASV, for instance, says: "But one passed by, and, lo, he was not." We could then ask: "Who passed by?" It would seem that the passing by of a certain person caused the death of the wicked growth in God's nature. This would point in the direction of a prophecy about the coming of Jesus Christ. In Him the glory of the Lord passed by in this world and caused the power of the Evil One to wither away. When Christ arrives, we will look in vain for the manifestations of demonic activity.
The next verse again allows for different interpretations of the Hebrew text. The NIV reads: "Consider the blameless, observe the upright; there is a future for the man of peace," but in the NAS we read: "Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; for the man of peace will have a posterity." The Hebrew word, rendered with "future," or "posterity" is 'achariyth, which can mean either: "the last or end, hence, the future, or posterity." The inference is not only that there will be a happy ending for the man of peace, but that the life of a child of God makes a difference for good in this world. Every human being leaves behind his mark upon the time in which he lives, either in a positive or a negative sense. A child cannot be born if the father and mother had never existed. In the same way the life of a man, who lives in fellowship with God, causes conversions, salvation, and blessings, which would not have come about if that person had not lived. The Jews saw in their posterity a symbol of eternal life. The life of the person who died on earth continued in his children. Posterity also contained the hope of the coming of the Messiah. Every birth embodied a confession of faith that light would conquer darkness. It stood for a protest against the present condition of the tyranny of the enemy.
The posterity of the blameless and upright is not necessarily physical. The Apostle Paul writes to Philemon: "I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains.33 The word does not exclude physical descent, of course, but the point is the influence one's life exercises, and the blessing it brings. The Jews considered it a shame when a woman did never give birth to a child. We ought to consider it an embarrassment when we have no spiritual offspring.
No one should live for himself alone. Everything we can say about the righteous in a positive sense can be said negatively for those who have the devil for their father.
Yet, the man of God has nothing in himself he can be proud of. "The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD." Nobody will leave any positive imprint upon life unless the Holy Spirit works in and through him. If we lose track of this, we will start to slip and fall. We should always keep in mind that Christ is in us, and that the One who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world.34 This is our refuge.
1
See the verses 2, 9, 10, 22, 27, 29, and 34.2
Heb. 3:14 – 4:11
3
Matt. 5:5
4
Heb. 4:10
5
Hab. 3:17,18
6
James 4:3
7
I Pet. 5:7
8
Major Ian Thomas
9
Ezek. 44:17
10
Rom. 11:11-14
11
Matt. 11:28-30
12
Isa. 40:31 (KJV)
13
Ps. 2:4
14
Matt. 10:28
15
Matt. 26:52
16
Isa. 33:15,16
17
Acts 9:5
18
Matt. 25:40,45
19
Rom. 8:31-39
20
I Cor. 3:21b-23
21
II Cor. 9:6
22
Heb. 13:5-6
23
vs. 28 (NKJ)
24
Song 2:15
25
See Rev. 12:10
26
Rom. 8:31,33
27
See Matt. 25:1-13
28
See Matt.25:45-51; Mark 13:34-37; Luke 12:35-38
29
I John 3:3
30
Heb. 4:6-10
31
Luke 10:17-20
32
See Matt. 13:24-35
33
Philemon vs. 10 (NKJ)
34
See I John 4:4
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