Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - February 01, 2023


REPLAY： Most Misused： Psalm 37_4


Episode Stats

Length

29 minutes

Words per Minute

183.78746

Word Count

5,495

Sentence Count

345


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Relatable. Today we are going to start a series that I'm really excited about. I had a
00:00:07.880 ton of fun preparing for this episode. Some of you have asked me to do this before and I just
00:00:12.340 thought that it was a great idea. So what we are going to do, I don't know if this is going to be
00:00:16.680 a series that is every week in a row or if I'm going to kind of spread it out. It might be good
00:00:22.020 to spread it out so you guys don't get worn out by this, but I am going to take a commonly used
00:00:28.100 and commonly misused verse and talk about what it actually means. What is the real context of this
00:00:36.140 verse? What does it tell us about God and how are we supposed to apply it to our lives? Today we are
00:00:43.420 going to talk about Psalm 37, 4, which is delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the
00:00:49.920 desires of your heart. This is a very popular verse. In future episodes, we will talk about
00:00:55.420 Philippians 4, 13. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Jeremiah 29, 11.
00:01:00.820 I know the plant I have for you. Matthew 7, 1. Don't judge lest you be judged. And any other
00:01:05.960 verses that you guys would like me to approach that you see misused pervasively, not just a one-off,
00:01:13.640 I'm happy to address those as well. I think even those of you who might anticipate what I am going
00:01:19.860 to say or who know the proper study of these verses, I still think that you will enjoy these
00:01:26.100 episodes. And as always, if you've got something to add or even something that you disagree with
00:01:31.240 in what I say, please feel free to reach out to me and let me know. I love learning with you guys.
00:01:36.380 So like I said, I am really excited about this. I had a whole lot of fun preparing it. It took me a
00:01:41.560 long time and I could really probably talk about this for a lot longer than I'm going to today because
00:01:46.100 there's just so much here and so much to talk about. But before we get into all of it, I do
00:01:51.120 want to say that we have all misinterpreted verses at one point in our walk. I have never met someone
00:01:58.680 who had a full and flawless theological understanding as soon as they got saved. We have all had bad
00:02:05.120 theology at some point in our lives. I was actually thinking about this because I know I mentioned this
00:02:08.820 the other day and couldn't think of examples off the top of my head, but I was thinking about
00:02:12.400 bad theology that I've had or just theological misunderstandings. I remember this phrase that I
00:02:17.500 used to use when I was in college that I thought was so clever. I'm sure other people have used it
00:02:21.820 as well. But I remember saying the phrase, God cannot use a parked car or God cannot drive a parked
00:02:28.500 car, meaning I have to be moving forward so God can actually direct me. That is not true. God does not
00:02:34.820 need me. Yes, we are called to obedience. We are called to be obedient and responsive to his calling.
00:02:40.260 Of course, there are actions that we are called to take. But even my obedience, even our obedience
00:02:45.200 is a work of the Holy Spirit. I can't even take credit for that. Not any kind of innate discipline
00:02:51.260 that I have actually moves me towards obedience to God. It is all him working in my life. Just as a rule
00:02:58.540 of thumb, by the way, most phrases, theological phrases that start with the term God can't, they're
00:03:06.860 probably going to be inaccurate. We have to be really careful in saying what God cannot do. God
00:03:12.960 doesn't need us. He is God. He can do whatever he wants to do. If he can raise us from spiritual
00:03:18.620 death to life through Christ, because of no merit of our own or no effort of our own, as Ephesians 2
00:03:24.400 says, then I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure God can drive a parked car. So that to say, if you're
00:03:29.220 listening to any of these episodes and you realize, oh, wow, I have misused that verse. That's
00:03:34.660 embarrassing. Yeah. All I have to say to you is welcome to the club. We have all done that at some
00:03:40.240 point in our lives. That is how I know it happens because not only have I seen it happening, but I've
00:03:45.120 also done it myself. I have been there, girlfriend. I've been there. Thankfully, God is faithful. He is
00:03:51.100 good. He is gracious. He draws us in. He is our teacher. He gently instructs us. He corrects us.
00:03:57.820 He disciplines us and thank God for the Holy Spirit and that he left his inerrant word for us to be able to
00:04:03.740 learn from. He wants us to have a correct understanding of who he is. He uses, as I said,
00:04:09.620 the Holy Spirit and his written word to guide us. As this is episode number one in the series,
00:04:15.680 I do need to back up a bit and give us some context for our analysis or for why we're even doing
00:04:21.520 analyses of these verses in the first place. I did an episode a while ago titled Reading the Bible
00:04:27.080 that walked through how we can approach scripture, scripture reading to make sure that we are
00:04:32.640 interpreting the text as accurately as we possibly can. That means we look at the text in the context
00:04:37.480 and ask ourselves, what does this mean? What does this say about God? And from there, what lesson
00:04:42.960 am I supposed to draw from this? So that's not inserting ourselves in the center of the narrative
00:04:47.840 and making ourselves the star of the biblical play. It is making sure that God is in his rightful place
00:04:55.040 in the center and acknowledging him as the leading role in the biblical narrative and the historical and
00:05:01.080 eternal narrative. Of course, as I've said many times, it is impossible to know God intimately
00:05:06.940 unless we know God accurately. It is impossible to know God intimately unless we know God accurately.
00:05:15.460 If you couldn't tell me any of your spouse's characteristics, for instance, if you couldn't
00:05:21.020 tell me what his interests are, what he likes, what he doesn't like, what his background is,
00:05:26.020 where he's from, what he does for work, I'm going to assume that you guys, I'm going to probably
00:05:31.080 you guys are married or that you're just a terrible listener. And I'm going to kind of wonder how
00:05:34.660 things are going. I'm also going to assume just that you guys aren't very close or the same thing
00:05:39.680 with a friend. If you can't relate to the spouse example, if you can't give me an accurate description
00:05:44.280 of what your friend is like, I am just going to assume that you don't know her very well and that
00:05:48.900 your friendship probably isn't very strong. I think that's probably a fair assessment.
00:05:52.720 When you start dating a guy and you start to really like them, and especially when you feel
00:05:57.980 yourself falling in love with them and every waking moment you want to spend with them and
00:06:02.300 nothing they could do would possibly ever annoy you, you try to learn everything about him.
00:06:07.560 You want to know about his family, his background, his hobbies, his interests, his strengths,
00:06:13.400 weaknesses, his pet peeve, what makes him angry, what brings him joy. You spend hours talking to him,
00:06:19.720 thinking about him, coming up with ways to show your love for him, to serve him, to prove how well
00:06:25.120 you know him. That's because knowledge and love go hand in hand. When you love someone,
00:06:30.920 you want to know them. And it's only when you know someone that you can really, truly love them.
00:06:37.860 Unfortunately, in young women's Christian circles, sometimes emotion reigns. Now, women do tend to
00:06:44.560 be more emotional than men, and that is not a pejorative. That is not a bad thing. There's nothing
00:06:49.780 wrong with that. God made us that way. Women's inherent sensitivity and empathy are God-given
00:06:55.320 strengths that can be used for his glory as we comfort those in affliction, as we nurture the
00:07:00.480 vulnerable, as we sympathize with those in need. That doesn't mean that men aren't also called to
00:07:04.440 those things or that men aren't also nourishing or nurturing, and men don't also have emotion.
00:07:09.840 Of course they do, but women tend to be more emotional than men are, and that is a good thing.
00:07:15.540 That's why men and women, one reason why we compliment each other so well, and both men and
00:07:19.420 women are made in the image of God. So our innate propensity towards being a little bit more emotional
00:07:24.020 is not bad. But here's the thing with that. In order for our emotions to glorify God,
00:07:31.300 they first have to submit to God. When we don't submit our emotions to God, they end up ruling us
00:07:38.020 and leading us astray. Jeremiah 17 9 says this,
00:07:41.040 The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? That
00:07:47.000 is a radical verse in this day and age. In a time when self-obsession is regarded as virtue,
00:07:53.960 when self-discovery is presented as the path to fulfillment, when introspection and constant
00:07:59.340 self-evaluation are offered as the most important and necessary tools to maintaining this overused term
00:08:06.320 of mental health. The world is stunned and offended to hear that we shouldn't follow our hearts, that not
00:08:14.400 all of our feelings are valid, that not all of our desires should be given into. That is blasphemy
00:08:20.160 today. Blasphemy towards the entity that society today worships, the God of self. As I said, saying
00:08:27.220 that we should not follow our hearts because our hearts, as the Bible says, are desperately wicked
00:08:33.100 is blasphemy toward the entity that society today worships, the God of self. If you are your own
00:08:40.260 God, you have no other option but to follow your heart, to defer to your feelings. But guys, how
00:08:46.500 exhausting is that? How tiring is that? Even those of you who aren't Christians, can you just have a
00:08:51.520 moment of honesty for a second with yourself and admit that, yeah, more than once your heart has led
00:08:58.760 you astray? Maybe you thought that that guy would love you after you had sex with him and he didn't.
00:09:03.540 You were wrong. Maybe you thought that pursuing your dream job would fulfill you, but it didn't.
00:09:08.400 Maybe you thought that traveling Europe after college to find yourself would make you feel free
00:09:13.440 and happy, but it didn't. I mean, can't we all do the same thing? Can't we all think of the times when
00:09:19.180 our hearts led us in the wrong direction, toward a wrong person, toward a wrong life choice, one that seemed
00:09:25.140 right at the time, but turned out maybe not just disappointing, but devastating? Can't we all think
00:09:31.540 back to times in our lives when we've done the same thing? The heart is deceptive. It is wicked. It is
00:09:37.440 not worth following. The new age has made a comeback in recent years. We've talked about this before as
00:09:43.460 Christianity has become less mainstream in this country, which is essentially the worship of self.
00:09:49.160 You even hear language like the universe will smile on you if you do this, if you're confident, if you do
00:09:54.620 the things that make you happy. So in this scenario of this new age universe smiling on you, you are the
00:10:02.560 center of the universe and you are being worshiped by the entire cosmos. That is what the new age
00:10:08.940 believes. Crystals, hypnosis, Zen, vibrations, so like good vibes. Yes, even the Enneagram, which we
00:10:17.320 talked about a couple of weeks ago, have all been glorified as tools for self-knowledge. The new
00:10:24.600 age regards self-knowledge, self-understanding as the highest form of spiritual health and the key to
00:10:30.640 lifelong satisfaction and confidence. But guess what? Self-understanding will never fully satisfy us
00:10:39.080 because it's not the fuel our souls run on. We can be intimately acquainted with ourselves and still
00:10:47.300 feel lonely and unfulfilled. This would be why, by the way, if you follow any account dedicated to
00:10:54.100 self-love for women. I talked about this on Instagram last week. Typically, the people posting them, as you
00:11:01.420 can tell from the captions, are miserable. They're miserable. Every post is about being depressed or about
00:11:08.640 being insecure. Every post is about feeling suffocated or tired or sad or anxious. And every post blames these
00:11:15.520 things on the patriarchy, on society, on capitalism, white supremacy, imperialism, etc. No, no, no. My response to that is,
00:11:24.100 no, no, no. You people are miserable because your prescription for what ails you is making you
00:11:30.620 sicker. As we have said on this podcast many times, the self cannot be both the problem and the
00:11:38.180 solution. If the problem is the self, we need a solution other than the self. Depression and anxiety
00:11:44.300 are very real things for many people. I've done an episode on this as well. I think it was titled
00:11:48.880 Depression and suicide a couple months ago. These are very real things for many people. We
00:11:53.460 certainly shouldn't trivialize them or write them off as things that aren't real or have quick fixes
00:11:58.280 for it. But don't you think that maybe if self-love were really the solution to these things,
00:12:04.700 the people propagating self-love would feel better than they do? Like, don't you think so? Isn't it
00:12:10.040 interesting that most of the people insisting that self-love and self-acceptance are the keys to
00:12:14.680 happiness aren't happy and are trying to get other people to wallow in misery with them? Misery loves
00:12:22.120 company. This is true of this crowd obsessed with the self. Now, one note, I do think that self-awareness
00:12:29.900 is good. Knowing what talents God has given us, our temptations that we have a propensity toward,
00:12:37.300 et cetera. I think knowing these things is important. If you think that you're an amazing singer,
00:12:42.340 but you can't carry a tune, it would be very detrimental to you. And probably the people
00:12:47.300 around you, if you try to pursue a career in singing, if that's just not a talent that God
00:12:54.940 gave you, you need someone to tell you the truth. You need a little bit of self-awareness. If you are
00:13:00.140 going to spend all of your time doing something that's never going to add anything to the world,
00:13:04.320 whereas a career utilizing your talents would. But here's the thing with self-awareness.
00:13:09.360 When self-awareness, which is healthy, I believe, turns into self-obsession, which is unhealthy,
00:13:17.140 self-understanding becomes a way to glorify ourselves rather than God. So I'll repeat that.
00:13:23.000 When self-awareness, which is healthy, turns into self-obsession, which is unhealthy,
00:13:27.860 self-understanding becomes a way to glorify ourselves rather than God. It is self-idolatry.
00:13:33.360 It is a way to worship the God itself. And what does the very first of the Ten Commandments tell
00:13:38.600 us? You shall have no other gods before me. We went off on that tangent for a couple of reasons.
00:13:46.180 One, as a way to explain that the knowledge of God, not share emotions about God, are necessary to
00:13:52.920 knowing him both accurately and intimately because the heart is deceptive. So following our emotions,
00:13:59.620 even when we are studying the Bible, is going to lead to self-worship rather than God worship.
00:14:05.080 And whether we are self-proclaimed Christians or not, following our emotions in any scenario,
00:14:11.020 rather than submitting our emotions to God, will lead to devastation, destruction, disappointment.
00:14:18.200 And two, the second reason we went off on that tangent, is to explain the nature of the heart,
00:14:23.460 which is necessary to understanding the first misused verse we will be discussing today,
00:14:28.760 which is Psalms 30, Psalm 37, for delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your
00:14:36.700 heart. I love Psalm 37. I love this verse, but I love the whole chapter of Psalm 37. I encourage you
00:14:43.560 to read it today, this week. If that's not a place where you've spent a whole lot of time,
00:14:47.400 there are lots of parts in the Bible. I haven't spent a whole lot of time. And so
00:14:50.420 if you haven't ventured over to Psalm 37, I recommend that you do. I had a ring in high
00:14:56.060 school. It was an ichthyus ring, you know, the Jesus fish. And on the inside, it had inscribed
00:15:01.760 Psalm 37, 1 through 7. My sister-in-law and my brother actually gave that to me. I think it was
00:15:08.660 for my 17th birthday, if I'm correct. Oh, maybe that's why they did 37, 1 through 7. I just now thought
00:15:14.960 that 1, 7, 17. I think that's what it is. But let me, let me read those few verses for you because
00:15:20.680 they have ended up being incredibly comforting and specifically applicable to almost every stage
00:15:27.720 of my life. It feels like it says, uh, verses 1 through 7 say, fret not yourself because of
00:15:33.960 evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the
00:15:39.000 green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight
00:15:45.140 yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the
00:15:49.960 Lord. Trust in him and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your
00:15:54.760 justice as the noon day. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over
00:16:01.240 the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices. These verses have proven
00:16:07.740 to be, like I said, uh, extremely comforting and reassuring to me in most seasons of my life,
00:16:13.820 as I am reminded of God's unchanging nature, his faithfulness to his children, his trustworthiness,
00:16:20.760 his power, even when it seems like the world around me is falling apart. Most people I would say
00:16:28.100 are unfamiliar with the verses surrounding verse four, which is kind of crazy. And I'll talk about
00:16:33.240 why I think that is because the surrounding verses are beautiful. They are, uh, meaningful.
00:16:39.220 They are a fulfilling and comforting to read. And yet we know verse four much better than we know the
00:16:44.120 other verses. I'm sure that I was one of those people who maybe misinterpreted this verse. When
00:16:50.100 I first got my ring in high school, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your
00:16:55.640 heart. How this verse is commonly read is that if we follow God, so if we say we believe in him,
00:17:01.380 if we pray to him, if we go to church, if we read our Bible, he will give us what we want.
00:17:05.920 So he will give us a husband. If we're craving that he will give us children. If we're longing
00:17:10.760 for that, he will give us a promotion. If we're working towards that, he will give us success,
00:17:14.500 popularity, happiness, healing, whatever we feel our soul is longing for. We are comfortable with this
00:17:21.040 transaction because, uh, we like the idea of giving something to God and getting something
00:17:27.580 tangible in return, giving our time and belief to God and giving us some kind of material
00:17:32.580 blessing in return, which is why I think verse four is far more popular than the other verses.
00:17:38.920 The other verses are much harder to misinterpret, but when we hear the desires of our heart,
00:17:43.640 it sounds like God is going to give us something that we see if we, uh, you know,
00:17:49.700 rub the genie in a bottle just the right way so that he will respond to our wishes.
00:17:54.840 But if we think about this just a little bit, we start to see that that interpretation of that
00:18:02.420 verse falls apart. The apostles have faith and church tradition holds that most of them were
00:18:07.700 martyred, uh, at least persecuted. Job had faith in all he had was taken from him. Uh, some of the
00:18:13.760 greatest, most faithful missionaries throughout history, uh, were martyred. Christians around the
00:18:19.240 world today are being brutally persecuted, tortured, killed, imprisoned for their faith.
00:18:23.840 Right now. Christians die every day of a cause. Other than old age, Christians lose their jobs.
00:18:32.100 They suffer. They're cheated. They are lied to. They're smeared. Does God not love those Christians?
00:18:39.200 Are they not delighting in him enough? Is that why their life is hard? If they just believed a little
00:18:44.540 bit harder, would God give them what they want? No, because Jesus never promises his followers an easy
00:18:52.100 life. He promises persecution, not promotions. And while God may choose to bless us materially,
00:18:58.860 he may, he may choose to do that, uh, with a promotion or a husband or kids or a house or
00:19:05.360 influencer success. And we should thank him for all of these things, but these are given to us because
00:19:09.720 he is gracious, not because we deserve them. Therefore, every gift we have is to be used in obedience to
00:19:17.020 him for his glory. We are stewarding the things that belong to him that he has given to us for the
00:19:23.860 time being. Everything the Christian has is God's. That's why we can rest assured that God's faithfulness
00:19:29.840 is not dependent upon what we have. As Job says, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name
00:19:37.560 of the Lord. As Paul says in Philippians four, I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound
00:19:43.300 in any and every circumstance. I've learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and
00:19:47.920 need. Then he says another often misused verse that we will analyze on a later episode. I can do
00:19:52.840 all things through him who gives me strength. Uh, Romans eight 35 through 38 says this, who shall
00:19:58.940 separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or
00:20:04.100 danger or sword. As it is written for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded
00:20:09.440 as sheep to be slaughtered, slaughtered. No, in all things, we are more than conquerors through him
00:20:14.220 who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present,
00:20:20.320 nor things to come, uh, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able
00:20:25.840 to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. I don't know about you, but distress and
00:20:31.900 persecution and famine and danger are not the desires of my heart. They are not what I will sit here and tell
00:20:38.160 you that I want. And yet the Bible says Christians can and will face these things. And in the midst of
00:20:42.920 them, we are still resting within God's unconditional, unchanging love for us. So knowing all of this,
00:20:51.020 what does it mean for God to give us the desire of our hearts? Well, let's look at that in context.
00:20:56.960 Uh, the book of Psalms is a collection of praise of petition, thinking God, asking him for help for
00:21:02.360 guidance, for wisdom, praising him for his goodness, talking about his characteristics, talking about
00:21:07.920 the righteousness of his law, the goodness of his law, the protection of his law. Most of the Psalms
00:21:13.280 were written by David, who was known in Israel as an accomplished musician and songwriter. We read his
00:21:19.460 reactions and his prayers to God as he is fleeing from the persecution of Saul, as he is seized by the
00:21:25.040 Philistines, as he declares victory over Transjordan, as he's wandering through the desert of Judah, as well
00:21:30.560 as various other events and stages in his life. According to my ESV study Bible, the key themes in
00:21:37.560 Psalms are in the book of Psalms are monotheism. So the emphasis on God being the one and only God, a
00:21:43.980 creation and fall, we are made as image bearers of God and have all sin during need of God's grace, election
00:21:49.600 and covenant. God has chosen a people for himself and has bound himself to them in an everlasting
00:21:54.400 covenant, covenant membership, describing, describing the salvation of God's people, his faithfulness to them, the
00:22:00.880 suffering they will endure, and the hope that they have. Eschatology, the anticipation of a future
00:22:06.200 reality in which all Jews and Gentiles who trust in the Messiah will be united in their worship of
00:22:11.880 the Savior. This particular Psalm, Psalm 37, is a Psalm of David. It is referred to as a wisdom Psalm. It
00:22:18.740 follows a lot of themes that we see in Proverbs about the wisdom of waiting on the Lord, of staying close
00:22:24.800 to the Lord, of following his way, of resisting the urge to be hasty, even against our enemies. It is
00:22:30.420 also an acrostic poem, which is interesting. So the first letter of the first word of every stanza
00:22:35.260 begins with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The first verse in this chapter,
00:22:40.520 fret not yourself because of evildoers, is the theme of the chapter. This is what the entire passage is
00:22:47.700 about, why the people of God don't have to worry about those who do wrong, especially those who do wrong
00:22:53.500 and prosper. David has looked around him in his life, and he has seen the wicked seemingly get away
00:22:58.920 with their wickedness, but he is reminding himself and those who follow God that though justice seems
00:23:04.220 to elude us, that God is not going to forsake us. That even though we can't see it right now, even
00:23:10.180 though it doesn't feel like it, God has vengeance in store for those who do evil. Yes, God sees. Yes,
00:23:16.960 God hears. Yes, God cares. Yes, God is going to do something about it. God is a God of justice.
00:23:23.860 This truth is exactly what comforts me when I look around at the world and feel, especially today,
00:23:29.140 and feel that evil is winning, that darkness is taking over, that everything is backwards.
00:23:34.480 God is just. The Bible says he will not be mocked. He will not let the wicked get away with their sin
00:23:39.920 forever. One day he will destroy evil once and for all. So within this context of trusting and the
00:23:46.400 Lord's faithfulness and justice, let's look at verse four and the verses around it.
00:23:50.280 Fret not yourself because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon
00:23:56.240 fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and
00:24:01.820 befriend faithfulness. This can also be translated as feed on faithfulness. Delight yourself in the
00:24:07.260 Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him and
00:24:11.920 he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as light and your justice as the noonday. This text
00:24:17.620 is saying, even when it feels that the evildoers around you are winning, even when it seems hopeless,
00:24:23.280 delight in, find joy in, derive your happiness from, cultivate peace in the Lord. The Hebrew word
00:24:30.700 for desire in this verse is, I hope that I'm saying this right. Probably not. Any Jewish friends that might
00:24:36.300 be listening to Theology Monday, welcome. Please tell me if I'm saying this incorrectly. It's
00:24:41.160 Mishalah. I think that's how you say it. That's the Hebrew word for desire in this verse, Mishalah,
00:24:47.020 which can mean to petition or to request. So this verse could be phrased as, God will grant you
00:24:53.940 the requests of your heart when you find your joy in him, even when calamity and injustice seems to be
00:25:00.940 winning around you. So don't worry. Do not worry. Your petitions will be answered. Your desires will
00:25:06.620 be fulfilled. Your needs will be met. How? Because as you delight in him, as you find your satisfaction
00:25:13.700 in him, what your heart seeks will be that which he seeks. That doesn't mean that you won't want a
00:25:20.020 husband or kids or whatever else you long for because you might. But if you are delighting in God,
00:25:24.980 what you desire more than anything is his will, his glory, his justice and mercy and faithfulness
00:25:32.820 to be made manifest in your life, to be proclaimed to other people. And God may also grant us other
00:25:40.280 things. But even if he doesn't, he promises to satisfy you with himself, no matter what you have
00:25:46.840 or don't have. You will be cared for. You will be seen. You will be known. You will be fought for.
00:25:52.120 Your righteousness will be made known even when others slander you. Truth will be brought to light
00:25:57.420 even while everyone around you is lying. Justice will be executed even when all you can see is
00:26:03.740 corruption. Those of us who follow God can trust in that ultimate and eternal reality. I really want
00:26:09.840 to read this whole chapter. I'm not going to because it is pretty long, but here are some other verses.
00:26:15.800 Verses 10 through 13. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more. Though you look carefully at
00:26:20.900 his place, he will not be there, but the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in
00:26:25.180 abundant peace. The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him. But the
00:26:30.020 Lord laughs at the wicked for he sees that his day is coming. Verses 16 through 19. Better is the little
00:26:35.680 that the righteous has in the abundance of many wicked for the arms of the wicked shall be broken.
00:26:40.120 The Lord upholds the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the blameless and their heritage will remain
00:26:44.860 forever. They are not to be put to shame in evil times. In the days of famine, they have
00:26:50.340 abundance. Verses 27 through 28. Turn away from evil and do good. So you shall dwell forever for the
00:26:56.680 Lord loves justice. He will forsake his saints. Aren't these the true abiding deep desires in the hearts of
00:27:06.440 those who love God? To be saved? To be ultimately and eternally defended and protected against death
00:27:14.340 and evil? God promises, he guarantees his children these things. He promises us his faithfulness and
00:27:21.420 strength. He says to us over and over again in this passage, children, do not fret. Don't fret. Don't worry.
00:27:29.560 Do not worry about the evildoer. I have a plan for him. He's got nothing on me. And in the meantime,
00:27:35.620 I've got you. Do not fret. Isn't this the desire of our hearts? Those of us who find our delight in
00:27:43.280 the Lord. This reminds me of what Jesus tells us in Matthew 6, 31 through 33. Therefore, do not be
00:27:49.660 anxious saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek
00:27:54.760 after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them all. But seek first the
00:27:59.780 kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. How fitting that Jesus,
00:28:05.160 the true and better. David has the same message for us generations later. God knows what you need.
00:28:13.220 Seek him, pursue righteousness, and God will care for you. He longs to be gracious to you.
00:28:20.280 This reading of Psalm 37, 4 is so much better, is so much longer lasting and richer than the reading
00:28:29.280 of the verse that tells us this means God's going to give us a job promotion. How fleeting and
00:28:34.660 unsatisfying is that compared to what it actually means, that God's going to give us himself,
00:28:40.780 his protection, his love, his strength, and that we have nothing to worry about. God the father is so
00:28:47.660 much better than God the genie. Reading the Bible for what it means rather than what we want it to mean
00:28:54.920 will be so much more satisfying in the long run. Maybe it temporarily doesn't tickle our ears as
00:29:03.180 the Bible says in another passage about false teaching. But it is so much more satisfying as
00:29:09.680 it points us to the well that never runs dry in the bread of life that is Jesus. The truth that God
00:29:15.540 has for us is always better than the so-called truth that we come up with. Why? Because while our
00:29:21.920 hearts are desperately wicked, God is perfectly good. And while we can't follow our hearts because
00:29:27.200 they're untrustworthy, we can follow God because he alone is worthy of our trust. That is what Psalm
00:29:33.920 37, 4 tells us. Okay, that was episode one of this series. I hope that you guys learned something from
00:29:41.320 it. Let me know what you think. I look forward to seeing you back here on Wednesday.
00:29:51.920 Bye.
00:29:52.920 Bye.