Psalm 37 is one of my favorite Psalms. It appeals to my sense of fairness and gives counsel for how to keep my head on straight and my heart in the right place when things seem not to be going as they should.
“Fret not yourself 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 (Psalm 37:1-5).“
“Fret not,” it begins. That’s so often our default position. It’s so easy to get into the habit of being constantly worried and anxious. It can become a habit of thought life, as we replace the thing we fretted over for the last while, but has now lost its imagined threat, with the new worry we take on for the next while.
To get out of that negative trap I have several interconnected options. First, I can keep reminding myself that evildoers and wrongdoers don’t last too long. They wither like frost-bitten flowers. They have their season but then they’re gone. Once I get that settled in my view of circumstances, I’m ready to spiritually and emotionally have reason to actually delight in the goodness of the Lord. Pausing to remember the many ways God has blessed me along the way is a delightful thing to do. Steadying steps such as trusting in the Lord, concentrating on dwelling in the here and now and finding ways of doing good produce positive energy. Desires begin to align with God and come to be.
“Commit your way to the Lord and trust in him and he will act,” the Psalm asserts. I’m more than ready for some delightful God action. Aren’t you?
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