Wisdom Truck 24

 

Our next stop is in Psalm 37... but this one takes us a lot of places, and the bedrock place to start is in Matthew 12...

Mat 12:35 (Jesus speaking)... The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 

Mat 12:36  I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 

Mat 12:37  for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” 

Good treasure and bad treasure... and as I studied the footnotes to this Psalm, I saw that it had a dark reflection.  But first, our verse...

Psa 37:30  The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. 

Psa 37:31  The Law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide. 

This Psalm is a back and forth between the blessings for the righteous and the fate of the wicked.  For the righteous, it mentions the ways to achieve this status:

-Trust in the LORD (v3)

-Delight yourself in the LORD (v4)

-Commit your way to the LORD (vv 5, 34)

- Be still and wait for the Lord (vv 7, 34)

But it also marks down that, in the end, the wicked will not win:

Psa 37:9  For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land. 

Psa 37:10  In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. 

So the good treasure from the mouth of the good man is wisdom; but what of the mouth of the wicked?  For that, we turn to that dark reflection, in Psalm 17:

Psa 17:10  They are enclosed in their own fat; with their mouth they speak proudly...

See the difference? The heart of the good man contains the Word (Law) of God; the heart of the wicked is "enclosed in his own fat".  The word for fat translates to 'the best part' (Because the fat was ALWAYS to be burned to God); the wicked wraps himself in his own 'best parts', rather than giving his best to God.  And what I love about this is that, while the LORD blesses those who have His word in their hearts, what does He do about the evil?

Psa 37:12  The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him, 

Psa 37:13  but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming. 

Like the Parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30), God allows the wicked to flourish "for a little while", because "He knows that His day is coming".  And our assurance of that is found in our last stop, in 2 Peter...

2Pe 2:7  ...and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 

2Pe 2:8  (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 

2Pe 2:9  then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 

2Pe 2:10  and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. 

I want to bring out some points from this, beyond just, "The LORD knows how".

I am Lot.

Not that I am righteous, but in that I 'torment my righteous soul' every day by falling for the same old temptations over and over.  My soul is righteous- it is indwelt by the Holy Spirit.  My flesh is not, and it seeks after the lawlessness it gets bombarded with every day. 

And the hope is that, the LORD knows how to rescue me.