Psalm 37:1-9 (Summer of Psalms #3)

Happy Father’s Day. And if today is a rough day for you, I pray you will find comfort in your heavenly Father.

Several weeks ago I was worried. Worried enough that I ended up confessing it to our staff and to our elders. What I was worried about was our Building Lives campaign.

Back in March we talked with our leaders and felt that if we are supposed to be leaders — the Sunday team and the elders — we ought to lead the way in this campaign. So we all talked with our spouses, prayed, and pulled together our finances. When it was all tallied up, the leadership alone had given over twenty thousand dollars. That had me excited. Combined with what was already in our building fund, we were over twenty-seven thousand — more than half of the fifty thousand we needed, before we ever asked the rest of the church family to contribute.

So I assumed we would hit one hundred percent by the end of May, when the active period of the campaign ended. Our series in Nehemiah was wrapping up. Our growth groups were done discussing it. We were going to stop mentioning it in the weekly email. And I thought we would be at goal.

Instead we were at seventy percent.

Now some of you may be thinking: you told us we had until July 3rd, so there were still five weeks. What were you worried about?

Two things. First, research shows that in churches running a campaign structured like ours, most of the giving happens in the second half of the active period — which for us was the last two weeks of May. And we still had not reached goal. Second, churches have their lowest giving in the summer, and we are no exception. We were heading into June.

So I was genuinely worried we would not reach fifty thousand. And if we did not, we could not meet the matching grant, which meant we could not move forward on buying the building. I actually started raising the question with our elders: what do we do if we don’t get there?

Thankfully our elders were calmer than I was. They said: we still have five weeks. Let’s pray.

So that is what we did.

And Then God Did It

And wouldn’t you know it — this week God brought in the rest of the money we needed. I learned just last night that another gift pushed us over the fifty thousand dollar mark.

We did it. Actually, let me amend that. God did it.

When we were studying Nehemiah, we mentioned but did not dwell on something in chapter 2: some of the supplies the Jewish people needed to rebuild the wall were supplied by the king. In other words, some of it came from outside the city, from outside the people.

God chose to do that for us.

Two weeks ago I was contacted by another church. They said one of our brochures had been given to them, that they believe in the local church, that they believe God is using the local church to help people meet Jesus, that they believe in what we are called to do — and that they thought they wanted to be part of it. But they had questions. Where are you currently at? What does this look like? And they asked what kind of participation we had seen.

I did not actually know, so I asked our office to look. And the answer was deeply encouraging: over eighty percent of you had participated. That gave me great confidence. You are in this with us.

I shared those figures with that church. They thanked me and said they would be in contact. On Tuesday they called: our board voted. We want to support you. We want to give you five thousand dollars.

That is what pushed us up so dramatically. Then last night I learned more had come in, and that is what put us over the top. I came in this morning thinking I was announcing forty-eight thousand — that is what is printed in your handout. It turns out the handout is wrong. We are at fifty-one.

So all my worrying was for nothing. O ye of little faith, Pastor.

But We Are Not Finished

If you have not given, this does not mean you should not give now. There is still so much more we want to do and need to do.

We have shared in the brochure and on the website that we would really like to get real chairs in here. If you love folding chairs, I understand why you might not want to contribute. But the rest of us — and our backsides — would appreciate something more comfortable. We want first-time guests to walk in and have their attention on hearing God’s Word and connecting with God, not on what their lower back feels like.

We also need lights in the parking lot. My growth group meets here on Wednesday nights in the winter, and when we leave it is dark out there. The only light we have is our sign. If you park in one area you can see well enough to get to your car, but off to the sides it is simply not safe. That is not the right environment. If we cannot do it out of this campaign, we will have to do it later — but it is a real need.

And maybe you have already contributed and God stirs you to do more. As the school year ended, my wife found out the school district was hiring ticket takers for softball and baseball, so she signed up. She is being paid nine dollars an hour to sell tickets. We do not need that nine dollars an hour, so she is donating all of it. And she roped me into it — I worked one of the softball games, so we will be donating that too. Is it much? No. But it might buy a chair or two.

The good news is that by our July 3rd deadline, we can tell the bank we can make the down payment.

But we need to celebrate this: God did it. He brought the money in through unbelievable means.

I Come by This Honestly

And honestly, I feel a bit convicted.

I grew up in a home with a mother who worried about everything. If I was out with friends on a Friday night, she worried. If my wife and I were making a long car trip, she worried. If her Nebraska Cornhuskers were about to play a game, she worried — which was ridiculous, because that was back when they were actually good and won by enormous margins. These days I would understand. My mom is a different woman now, much calmer, and she does not even listen to the games. But she used to worry constantly.

I always thought I was different. I do not spend much time worrying about my kids — right now they are driving over to visit us for Father’s Day and I am not worried about the trip. I rarely worry about my sports teams either, probably because I have watched my baseball team lose far too often to get worked up.

But as I looked at my life, I realized there is one area where I have spent too much time worrying: finances.

When my wife and I lived in Denver, we were genuinely poor — below the poverty line — and I worried about whether we could make the mortgage. When we began the journey of planting this church, we had to fundraise, and I worried we would not raise enough. And as I just confessed, less than a month ago I was worried about fifty thousand dollars.

Maybe I am more like my mother than I realized.

And I do not think we are alone. I suspect all of you have worried at some point. Maybe about a job. Maybe about money. Maybe about a relationship. Maybe about something in your past. Maybe about the unknown of your future. Maybe about a health crisis.

If you are human, you have worried.

The Text: Psalm 37:1–9

Today the Psalms address this directly. We are going to hear King David say fret not — and he says it about three different things. But he does not merely say don’t worry. He gives us an actual game plan for moving out of worry and into trust.

“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. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.”

Last week I picked Psalm 34 because it contained my wedding verse, and I learned it was an acrostic psalm — each verse working through the Hebrew alphabet. This week, without realizing it, I picked another acrostic. There are only eight of them in the Psalms, and I stumbled onto a second one. In this case it is roughly every other verse. And since Psalm 37 is about double the length of Psalm 34, we are focusing on verses 1 through 9 — which capture the heart of the whole psalm.

I chose this one because a couple of weeks ago was graduation. My son graduated high school, which meant many of his friends did too, and we had a stack of graduation cards to fill out. And as I wrote in them, I kept finding myself writing: take Psalm 37:3–7 with you. It is great advice for graduates. But it is not only for graduates. It is great advice for anyone.

What “Fret” Means

David starts with fret not. The Hebrew word carries the connotation of worry, but it also has overtones of anger. So this is not only fear-based worry — oh no, I don’t know what will happen. It also carries I cannot believe that is happening, I cannot believe they are doing that. You are getting hot and bothered. You are about to lose your temper. All of that is in the mix.

I also learned that the Hebrew verb here is singular. David is not addressing a general audience. He is writing to his reader, to an individual. Which means this is for you. If you struggle with worry, this is not merely a set of good ideas. This is God writing through David saying: listen up, I want to help you with this.

Three times in these nine verses we hear fret not, and each time David expands what he wants us to stop worrying about.

1. Fret Not Over the Wicked

Verse 1: “Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers!”

David is using a standard feature of Hebrew poetry called parallelism, where the first phrase gets expanded by the second. So he says fret not over evildoers, and then does not simply restate it — he expands it: be not envious of wrongdoers.

That is curious. Why would David tell us not to be envious? Honestly, I do not look at the worst villains of history and think, I sure wish I had what that guy had.

Let us think it through. What do ruthless, wicked people actually want? Money. Power. Pleasure. Fame.

Those are exactly the things most cultures value. We esteem those with great wealth, those who are ultra-attractive, those with influence, those who are well known.

You might say our culture also values talent. I would agree — we lavish attention on people with great musical, artistic, or athletic ability. But what do those people receive for their talent? Money, sex, power, and fame.

These are the things our world wants. And because we naturally want them too, it is easy to look at people who have them and feel a flicker of envy — even when we know they got there by ruthless means.

David is not the only one warning us. Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6 that godliness with contentment is great gain, since we brought nothing into the world and can take nothing out of it — and that if we have food and clothing, we should be content with that. He warns that those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. The love of money, he says, is a root of all kinds of evils, and through that craving some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

What does Paul call success? Not riches. Not wealth. Not power. Contentment.

Can you simply be content?

Now, I do not think this eliminates ambition. God called me to help plant a church, and that took work. We could not just sit back and say we were fine where we were. God said he wanted this done, so you go after something. But can you be content with where God has you while you are striving? Rather than chasing riches, power, and pleasure — can you chase God?

Because when you combine contentment with godliness, you become countercultural, and you will change the world. Nobody lives that way. When you start to, people will notice. People will remark on it. You will be different — because you will have peace.

If you get caught up in the rat race of the world, it starts leading you down a dangerous path. Paul warns us. And so does David.

Look at verse 2: “For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.”

Why should you not fret over the wicked? Because they are not going to last.

It may not be today. It may not be next year. It may take a decade or two. But they will not last.

Some will fall because someone more ruthless comes along and topples them. Some will fade because the values of our culture shift — things once considered admirable become despised, and people who built wealth and position through a once-acceptable route are suddenly seen as demagogues and discarded. Some will fade because their ruthlessness gets exposed and people finally see what it took to get there, and they are no longer venerated. And some will simply die. They will fade like grass and wither like an unwatered plant.

David wants to spare you from that.

2. Fret Not Over Their Success

The second one is in verse 7: “fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!”

This sounds much like verse 1, but David is expanding it. Verse 1 sounded like fret not over their power and their possessions. This time it is fret not over their position, their standing, their prosperity, their success.

I cannot help thinking David is writing this to himself.

David was anointed the next king of Israel while still a teenager. For a long time Israel had no king, but they wanted one, because they wanted to look like the other nations. God kept saying, I am your king, I am your God. They kept insisting. So God finally allowed them a human king, and they selected Saul.

Saul looked the part. Good-looking. Taller than everyone else. Very unlike me. But he was ruthless, selfish, and deeply insecure. Out of that insecurity and selfishness he chased exactly what everyone else chases: wealth, power, and fame. And because he was not chasing after God, God was going to remove him.

Saul found out his replacement was David. At first he liked David. At first he pretended to accept that this was what God wanted. But he could not do it. He wanted to keep the throne for himself and pass it to his son. So he tried to kill David — about as ruthless an act as a person can commit.

For much of David’s life he was fleeing just to stay alive. So I picture him looking at Saul, knowing he is wicked and ruthless and unethical, and knowing he still gets to be king — and writing himself a poem: fret not over those who appear to prosper. Fret not over their success. God is in control. Trust him. He will take care of this.

3. Fret Not, Period

The third comes in verse 8: “Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.”

Notice that this time he does not attach it to anything. Verse 7 said fret not over the one who prospers. This time it is simply: fret not yourself.

In other words, do not worry about anything. Just stop worrying about life. Do not get angry. Do not lose your cool. Stop fretting. There was a book making the rounds years ago telling us not to sweat the small stuff — David got there about three thousand years earlier.

Why? Because look at the reason he gives: it tends only to evil.

If you make your life about worrying, you will eventually make your life about yourself. And eventually you begin to act like the wicked. You start wanting those same things for yourself, and you become evil, ruthless, and unethical.

It does not happen overnight. It is a slide. At first you think you are fine, no big deal. A little worse. A little worse. And years or decades later you are no different from the very people he has been describing.

And what happens to them? They fade.

So to spare you the pain of the fade, David says: do not worry about anything. Not the wicked. Not their success. Not life.

Instead, do something else.

Keep Calm and Carry On

In 1939, as war raged, the British government wanted to bolster public morale and produced a series of posters. One of them said Keep Calm and Carry On.

Most of you have seen it, along with its endless imitations, parodies, and memes. What you may not know is that this particular poster was never actually released. The government printed nearly two and a half million copies, and it never went up. It was part of a series of encouraging messages, but by the time this one was ready, the invasion had begun — and as bombs fell on London at night, it suddenly sounded tone-deaf to tell people to keep calm and carry on when a bomb had just landed on their house. So they shelved it.

The only reason we know it existed is that in 2000, a bookshop in England bought a couple of boxes of used books, and inside one of them were two of these posters. They investigated, realized what a find it was, framed one, and hung it by the cash register. Customers were so curious that they dug into the history — and it went on to inspire everything that followed.

But the message meant something even then. And David beat the British government to it by three millennia. Verses 3 through 6 are exactly this: keep calm and carry on. And here is how.

Trust in the Lord

Verse 3: Trust in the Lord. That is it.

The question is: do you? Do you trust that he is good? Do you trust that he is for you? Do you trust his power? Do you trust his existence?

Last week we saw that when you view life through the lens of me and now, all you can see is your circumstances and the difficulty you are in — and that can lead you to a place of not trusting God.

That is why we need the lens of eternity. We need a much bigger picture. And when we look through the lens of eternity and the lens of the gospel — God’s heart toward us — we see that Jesus Christ, God the Son, took on human flesh and lived a sinless life. He did not need to pay the penalty for sin. And he went ahead and died on the cross in our place anyway.

When you look through that lens, when you see what God has done across history, you realize God can be trusted.

If all you ever look through is the lens of me and now, I understand why you would say you cannot trust him. But back up. Look at what God has done throughout history. Look at what he has done through the gospel for you. He can be trusted.

Delight in the Lord

Verse 4: Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Whatever you delight in — whatever brightens your life — is what you will desire. If you think cake is what will bring you delight, you will desire cake regardless of what shape your body is in. But if what you delight in is good health and feeling good in your body, there will be moments when you happily say no to cake. I know it is hard to believe, but it is possible.

If all you desire is what the world tells you to desire — money, sex, power, fame — you will go after those things. To avoid getting trapped in the way of the wicked and fading away with them, you have to delight in something else.

We all have desires. So do the wicked. The difference is that they place their delight in themselves. David wants your delight placed in the Lord — because when your delight is in the Lord, you begin to want what God wants. When you know God does not want you corrupted by money, you will happily stop making your life about riches. You will become extraordinarily generous, and that will bring you delight.

How do you get there? I believe it comes through the gospel. I do not think the gospel exists merely to save us from our sins. I believe it is what God uses to sanctify us and make us more like Jesus. As you look at the cross, as you see the resurrection, God uses the gospel to lead you into delight — and then he transforms what you desire, so you begin to desire what he wants. And you end up receiving the desires of your heart.

Commit Your Way to the Lord

Verse 5: Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.

I believe the gospel shows us that God is committed to us. Jesus did not stand around waiting for us to clean up our act so he could say, all right, I see you’re trying, I guess I’ll die for you now. Romans 5 tells us that while we were still sinners — while we were enemies of God — Jesus died for us.

He was that committed. Because when God created humanity, he placed his image in us like a brand saying this one is mine. So when what belongs to God walks away, he loves it, he is for it, he is committed to it. And Jesus comes and dies in our place to redeem us and bring us back to God, so our sins are forgiven.

When you look through the lens of the gospel and see God’s commitment to you, it helps you commit yourself to him.

Some of you want to trust the Lord. You want to delight in him. But you cannot, because you have never committed. You have let God sit off to the side, when what he wants is to be the center.

Will you turn to your heavenly Father today and commit — go all in?

For some of you that means getting baptized. Some of you are embarrassed that at your age you have never been baptized, and you think it is too late. It is not. It is never too late. Jesus publicly went to a cross for you. Will you publicly get dunked in water for him?

Some of you kids have given your life to Jesus but you are scared of being the center of attention, so you do not want to be baptized because you would have to talk and everyone would look at you. But baptism does not put the spotlight on you. Baptism puts the spotlight on Jesus. He did this for you. Will you show your commitment to him?

Committing also means using your time differently. It means turning off some things so you can turn on others. It means saying no to some things so you can say yes to more important things.

Because when you commit, your desires begin to change. What you delight in becomes different. And then trusting becomes so much easier — so that when the money is not coming in the way you thought it should, you find yourself saying I can trust God, he will handle this. You find peace. You find greater joy. You find yourself calmer. And you find yourself not fretting.

Come to the Table

That is why I want to move into communion — to create space for you to commit.

If you are not a follower of Jesus, here is how I want you to use this time. As we dim the lights and come to the table, do not worry about the elements. They are entirely about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and shedding his blood for us; that is what the bread and the cup represent. Instead of the elements, I want you to trust, delight, and commit. Give your life to Jesus.

Most people, when they realize the truth of the gospel and see what Jesus did for them, first confess their sin — acknowledging that they have fallen short of God’s standard, and that even so, God loved them enough to cover the gap and pay it all so they could come into relationship with him.

Would you let today become your spiritual birthday? Would you let today be the day your heavenly Father becomes truly your Father and not some distant God? As the band leads, pray. Confess your sin. Express your desire to trust, to delight, and to commit.

And some of you follow Jesus but you have been fretting. You are worried about a relationship, about money, about a job, about your health. You are worried about someone else, about a neighbor, about something from your past, about something coming up.

Today God is telling you: fret not yourself. Do not worry about these things. Do not get hot and bothered. Instead, come to me. Trust me. Delight in me. Commit to me.

And we can do that because as we look at the gospel, as we come to these elements, we see that God committed himself to us and that he delights in us — so we can trust him.

Father, work right now. For the person who has never surrendered their life to you, let this become their spiritual birthday, and let them commit themselves to you because you, Jesus, gave yourself for them. For the person who has been fretting, let this be a time of confession — and also of commitment, and of renewed trust.

But we cannot muster these things up on our own. Holy Spirit, come. Give us the courage to confess. Give us the courage to trust. Change our desires so we truly delight in the Lord. Help us commit again.

Your Scriptures teach that your mercies are new every morning. So many of us have fallen short in so many ways, time and time again — and you do not look at us with anger. You do not look at us as someone to discard or give up on. You look at us as a loving Father who desires our hearts. You do not want to watch us fade. You want to see us enter into life, into you.

So do what you need to do in these next moments. Say what you need to say — through the song, through the whisper into our hearts. Use this time to help us fret not, and instead to trust, to delight, and to commit. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

At any point during this next song, come to the elements when you feel led. And as you do, let us do it in remembrance of him.