Faith is not stuff of dreams. Faith is practi­cal and realistic because it engages God, the one great and absolute reality. To trust Him is to enter the world of fact, not fiction or make believe. Naturally, we arrive at knowl­edge by observation; we tend to believe the report of our senses. After all, seeing is believing. Biblical faith, however, introduces another element: believing is seeing. It is by faith that we know, regardless of what we see. The problem of living by faith is very simply that it is all too easy to walk by sight. The tension between what we believe and what we see is sometimes overwhelming. It seems that this tension that is all too frequent in our hearts bothered the inspired psalmists as well. How many times in the Psalms do we find discouragement over this or that, and how many times do we see the inspired psalmist praying and praising his way out of that despair? The Psalms constantly remind us that unless there is the constant use of the means of grace we will revert to the same problems over and again.

Psalm 37 is one of a trilogy of Psalms (along with 49 and 73) that directly addresses the issue of the apparent inequities of life, particularly the prosperity of the wicked. The Psalm is an acrostic (each unit beginning with the sequential letter of the alphabet) in four stanzas:

1. counsel not to fret (vv. 1&11);
2. temporary prosperity of the wicked (vv. 12&20);
3. certain reward of the righteous (vv. 21&31);
4. final contrast of fates (vv. 32&40). In this meditation, our attention is on the first stanza where three times we are commanded not to fret (vv. 1, 7, 8).

The Hebrew word has the idea of getting agitated, heated, or bothered. If we are not to get hot and bothered by the stuff of life, we should follow the counsel as to how faith should look at life.

The Future Look⤒🔗

Psalm 1 contrasts the righteous and the wicked, and clearly it is the righteous who experience and enjoy the blessing. Yet so often the opposite appears to be the case. The prosper­ity of the wicked is something that can grate on faith. The most spiritual men have been bothered by it, as Jeremiah confessed more than once (12:1; 15:17). However, appear­ance and reality do not necessarily equate, and looking to the certain future puts things in the proper perspective. Faith’s future look puts two things in focus.

First, the future is bad for the wicked (vv. 2, 9a, 10). It is a sobering truth that this life is the best it will ever be for the wicked, and this life is so brief. The text makes this point both figuratively and literally. The wicked are like grass, a common image for that which is weak, transient, and perishable (see Pss. 90:5, 6; 103:15, 16). It doesn’t take long for grass, which for a while appears lush, to wither and lose its beauty as the seasons change. So with the wicked. Verses 9 and 10 make the point directly: they will be cut off in a little while and be no more. Divine justice prevails; the triumph is short and the weeping is everlasting. Here, then, is the folly of fretting over something that is so temporary. Not fretting does not mean that we are to rejoice in their coming calamity. On the contrary, if temporal tragedy gen­erates efforts to alleviate suffering, how much more should the prospect of eternal tragedy move believers to warn the wicked of impending judgment lest they repent.

Second, the future is good for the righteous (vv. 9b, 11). There is a promise to the meek (those who are afflicted and oppressed) that they will inherit the land (see Matt. 5:5), implying rest and enjoyment of God’s presence, and that they will take delight, or literally “pamper themselves,” in the enjoyment of peace. This prospect belongs to those who wait on the Lord. To wait is to hope with confident expecta­tion and anticipation in what God will do. Waiting actively with importunity is the future focus of faith. It is not wish­ful thinking; it is confidence in God’s unfailing Word.

This is the bottom line: the sight of eternity puts the experiences of time in the right perspective. Paul learned the secret of this (2 Cor. 4:17, 18), and so should we.

The Godward Look←⤒🔗

Biblical faith is always objective; the object of faith deter­mines its value. The focus of faith is God; this is why it is not a vain or useless thing to wait upon the Lord. It is look­ing to God that provides contentment in life regardless of circumstance. Although eternity puts things in perspective, our religion is not just a narcotic to tide us over to eternity. There is a way to be content, to be satisfied dare I say, to be happy in this life. It is a preoccupation with the Lord that achieves perfect peace (see Isa. 26:3, 4). The text suggests five steps to finding contentment.

FIRST: trust in the Lord (vv. 3, 5b). To trust is to find safety, refuge, and security. Finding in the Lord our refuge generates the confidence that in Him all must be well, and thus enables us to submit to His will whatever it may be.

SECOND: dwell in the land and graze on faithfulness (v. 3). This is the literal translation reflecting the imperatives in the Hebrew that together form a unit of thought. In the Old Testament, the land concept was symbolic of God’s presence; thus, dwelling in the land was always conditioned by faith and obedience (see the warnings of Moses in Deut. 27&28). So the first imperative is a call to faith to take up residence where God is. In residence with the Lord, we are to nourish ourselves consistently in God’s steadfastness. The word “faithfulness” (trans­lated “verily” in the AV) is the same word Habakkuk uses to describe how the just are to live (2:4). Living by faith is feeding on the Lord.

THIRD: delight in the Lord (v. 4): To delight is to make merry over, even to pamper oneself perhaps an odd expression, but it vividly pictures how we should be overwhelmed with the God of covenant grace and find in Him what really makes us happy. If it is in the Lord that we seek contentment, then we will not be disap­pointed because God’s desire is to draw near to us as we draw near to Him (James 4:8). The Hebrew reads, “take delight in the Lord so that He can give you the desires of thine heart.” It is as though the Lord is “waiting” for us to delight in Him so He can grant us what we desire (what we delight in), which is the rich experience of Himself.

FOURTH: commit thy way to the Lord (v. 5): literally, “roll upon the Lord your way.” We are to cast all our cares, anxieties, and nagging concerns to Him with the confidence that He will take care of them. Implied in the rolling over to Him is the leaving of what we roll. Too often, in prayer we cast our cares upon Him and take them back when we say “amen.”

FIFTH: rest in the Lord and wait (v. 7). The Hebrew word translated “rest” means “to be quiet” or “keep still”; in other words, just calm down. It is the opposite of the fretting and agitation that occurs so naturally. We can know contentment as we look to God with that patient expectation that all will be well. Evaluating life by comparing our life with another’s will never bring contentment. But, looking to God and enjoying Him is how faith ought to look at life.

Thus looking to the future and looking to God are the right ways for faith to look at life. It follows that if we look at life rightly, we will live rightly as well, since thinking always determines behavior. The psalmist sums up the proper life­style for God’s people in simple terms: do good (v. 3) and don’t do bad (v. 8). That is the essence of sanctification’s mandate, to die to sin and to live to righteousness. That is a good way to live and is possible only through faith. What we see can so easily bother us, but we must not be blind to what is more real than sight. Only those realities can keep us calm and content. Faith enables us to live in reality.