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Psalm 37:1-40

The Meek Shall Inherit

Lyrics · Psalms

The Meek Shall Inherit

Psalm 37:1-40

Lyrics

About this song

About this song

This song belongs to the Psalms collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book
Psalms
Collection
Psalms
Musical styles
Acoustic
Do not work yourself up over people doing harm; Do not go envying the ones who bend the rules. They get cut down as fast as grass And dry out like a green plant in the sun. Lean on the Lord and do good; Live in the land and feed on what is faithful. Make the Lord the thing you enjoy, And He will hand you what your heart has been asking for. Hand the Lord your road; Lean on Him, and He will see it through. He will bring out what is right in you like daylight, And your case will come up clear as noon. Be still in front of the Lord and wait for Him without fussing. Do not get worked up over the man whose way is going well, Or over the one whose schemes keep coming off. Let the anger go. Put the heat down. Working yourself up only takes you somewhere worse. People doing harm get cut off, But the ones who wait for the Lord come into the land. A little while, and the wrongdoer is not there; You will look at the place he stood and it will be empty. The ones who stay low are the ones the land comes to, And they will have peace in more than they can use. A little in the hand of an honest man Is worth more than a lot of what the wicked pile up. The Lord holds the honest man up. The steps of a good man are laid out by the Lord, And He is glad about the road that man is on. Even if he falls he is not thrown away for good, Because the Lord has him by the hand. I was young once and now I am old, And I never yet saw an honest man abandoned Or his children out begging bread. Turn away from harm, do good, and stay put. Watch the man who is whole; look at the one who is straight, Because there is peace at the end of that man. The rescue of the honest comes from the Lord; He is their strength when the day is hard.

About the passage

Psalms 37: The flourishing that does not last

Psalm 37 is patient because appearances are loud. The Book of Psalms looks at people who prosper through wrongdoing and refuses to deny that they can look green, powerful, wealthy, armed, and firmly rooted. Its answer is to ask what lasts. Grass is cut, a spreading tree disappears, swords turn, bows break, and riches lose their weight beside the Lord's sustaining hand. The danger is not only what evildoers do. Resentment can tempt the observer to copy the conduct he hates, so anger itself comes under instruction. The righteous life is described through trust, good work, waiting, generosity, inward law, wise speech, and ordered steps, yet even ordered steps can fall. The difference is that the fall is not final because the Lord upholds. Again and again, inheritance is set against brief display. The psalm measures lives by their end, not by how impressive they look in the middle.

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