Psalm 37: Getting Off Our Values and Getting to Work

READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS

PART XXVIII

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Psalm 37

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Many wicked people flourish, and a host of righteous people do not prosper.  Psalm 37 acknowledges this reality.  Divine justice will play out, the text tells us.  Our schedule is not God’s schedule, we read.

The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) and the Beatitudes and Woes (Luke 6:20-26) contain echoes of Psalm 37.  Pay close attention to the references to “the land” or “the earth” (depending on translation) in Psalm 37, O reader.  Those are germane to Matthew 5, also.  The meek will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:6).  Another link to Psalm 37 comes in Luke 6:24, in which we read:

But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.

—Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition (2002)

The context of Luke 6:24 was a society in which a relative few people were wealthy, and the vast majority of the population was impoverished.  The rich maintained their wealth and status via exploitation.

Walter Brueggemann provides the key to this post.  Human beings are stewards of God’s creation.  In the Bible, we read examples of the link between land possession and the governance and purpose of God.  Psalm 37 affirms the imperative of living

in responsible awareness of the Creator and his intention.

—The Message of the Psalms:  A Theological Commentary (1984), 44

To live to the contrary is to yield the land.  Yet,

The just will inherit the earth

and abide forever upon it.

–Psalm 37:29, Robert Alter

In the meantime, though, the opening injunction not to permit evildoers to vex or incense (depending on translation) remains difficult.  The promise that soon they will “wither like grass” provides little or no comfort.  We human beings exist within linear time; God does not.  And how soon is “soon”?

So, we become vexed, incensed, and impatient.  Of course, we do!  Even the most devout of us need reminders to trust in God and to act justly.  Notice the link between trust in God and positive actions, O reader.  Affirming the efficacy of prayer does not improve a situation.  In other words, the stereotypical offering of “thoughts and prayers” can be a copout and a poor excuse for doing nothing when one can do something.  To quote the title of an editorial I read in a Roman Catholic magazine in the 1990s,

Get Off Your Values and Get to Work.

So, O reader, we have work to do.  May we trust God to empower us to perform it capably.  May our work bring the world closer to the ideal of Psalm 37.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 2, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE NINTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE FEAST OF SAINT GASPAR DEL BUFALO, FOUNDER OF THE MISSIONARIES OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD

THE FEAST OF JOHANN KONRAD WILHELM LOEHE, BAVARIAN LUTHERAN MINISTER, AND COORDINATOR OF DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN MISSIONS

THE FEAST OF SAINTS NARCISSUS OF TOMI, ARGEUS OF TOMI, AND MARCELLINUS OF TOMI, ROMAN MARTYRS, 320

THE FEAST OF SAINT ODILO OF CLUNY, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

THE FEAST OF SABINE BARING-GOULD, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

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