Waiting on the Lord While the Wicked Prosper — Psalm 37

March 23, 2026/Zach Keele/
Photo Credit: Wildroze / iStock.com

Photo Credit: Wildroze / iStock.com

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning Beautiful Christian Life LLC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through its links, at no cost to you.

They say that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. So, what field have you been eyeing? With social media, there is no shortage of people to spy on. You may follow a celebrity or an influencer whose life seems ideal. You want the washboard abs of the fitness guru on Instagram. The wardrobe on Pinterest makes you drool. If only you had the happy family of your favorite podcaster.

As you doom-scroll, everyone seems to have more and better than you. And to make matters worse, many of these greener pastures you view on your phone belong to people who aren’t very upright. Unbelief and disobedience color their character, yet their life is prosperous and healthy. Comparison is the death of joy, but this just doesn’t seem right.

It is downright infuriating that the impious and immoral have a way better life than you. The world seems broken, unjust, and it makes you mad. It tries your faith, and you ache for an explanation. We need some wisdom to explain this frustrating imbalance, which the Lord gives through Psalm 37.

This psalm opens with an exhortation directed at us, and it deals with anger. Literally, don’t anger yourself. This is a serious issue for it gets repeated several more times. Don’t let yourself get angry. Refrain from fury; forsake wrath. And as you are well aware, anger is one of those emotions with which we generally don’t do well.

Jealous anger can appear suddenly and then grow into the enslaving sin of bitterness.

Wrath pops up in a flash with no effort. It comes on hot and heavy like a caged tiger eager to get out. Sure, anger can be righteous or understandable, but even when it is, controlling it can be nearly impossible. As it says elsewhere, the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. Fury can start as upright or sinful anger, but it often finishes in sin.

With our poor self-control, ordering our anger rightly is much easier said than done. The anger prohibited here in Psalm 37 is mixed with jealousy. Don’t envy wrongdoers. Let yourself not get angry over evildoers. And this concoction of jealousy and wrath forms the toxic brew of bitterness. Resentment, discontentment, and rancor are the ingredients of bitterness.

Moreover, bitterness is an especially enslaving sin. The sour grudge grabs you, and it won’t let go for decades. Indeed, we are plenty familiar with the sins of youth, lust and folly, but bitterness is particularly a transgression of old age. Jealous anger sets in, and it grows into the grey hair of miserable bitterness, robbing you of all joy and peace.

Thus, the psalmist speaks to us as an old man. As he points out in verse 25, “I have been young, and now am old.” Grandpa David has weathered the trials of decades; he has learned the lessons of time, and he passes on to us the wisdom of his years. Yet, what is the target of this envious wrath? What is the thorn of bitterness that we should avoid? This is jealousy of the wicked.

The prosperity of the wicked can stir anger and envy in the hearts of believers.

Such jealousy involves being all hot and bothered over the evildoers. And why would we be jealous of the wicked? Because they are prosperous. They are enjoying the good life of champagne and caviar. The psalmist exhorts us, “Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way” (Ps. 37:7), for this is something we all deal with on a regular basis.

It is a stable fact of life that the wicked are often wealthy, famous, and enjoy a pampered ease. We see this in most music videos, as rock stars flaunt their money and licentiousness. It is evident in politicians, who claim to serve the people even as they stuff their pockets full. This is the very stereotype of billionaires who make their billions from exploiting the vulnerable. Sure, this isn’t true about every rich person, but it is about some. Being envious of the success and affluence of the wicked confronts all of us. We labor at being upright only to enjoy toil and meagerness, but the evildoer is flagrantly wicked yet rolls in affluence.

And to drive home that our anger is not completely unjustified, the psalmist lists off many of their wicked deeds. He especially highlights the wicked’s violence against the upright and lowly. They plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth like a hungry lion. With sword and bow, they are fully weaponized to slay the upright and needy.

The wicked borrow money and never repay it. To take out a loan with no intention of paying it back is just a sly form of robbery. It is borrowing thousands, hiding it in offshore accounts, and then filing for bankruptcy to stick it to the lender. Moreover, remember that in ancient times loans were taken from individuals and neighbors, not banks as we have today.

This envy, then, is a very personal sin; it is a direct assault on someone you know face to face. They get rich off of theft and are quick to murder (Ps. 37:32). They lie in wait for the righteous in order to slit their throats and spill their blood. In today’s lingo, these wicked are gangsters, human traffickers, and corrupt politicians. They are Epsteins and Diddys who don’t get caught. They are sleek and fat, rich and prosperous, comfortable and secure in all their ways and days.

We want what they have, and our sense of justice is irritated deeply. Our envy isn’t merely petty coveting. Our jealous wrath files a complaint of injustice, which isn’t just aimed at the wicked but also has God in view.

The Lord’s throne is established in justice and righteousness; he is supposed to govern providence justly to render to each one according to their deeds. Retribution should work. And this irritation of justice is only felt more sharply under the Mosaic law, the era in which the psalmist lived. The Lord published in his covenant law that the righteous would be blessed.

Under the Mosaic covenant, those who broke the law would be cursed. A long, rich life was guaranteed by law to the obedient, and swift punishment was sealed for the lawbreakers. Retribution was codified on those Mosaic tablets of stone. As students of Ecclesiastes, we understand that retribution is topsy-turvy under the common curse, but the psalmist lived under the special providence of the theocracy that ensured fully operational retribution. Yet, here the righteous are robbed and killed, while the wicked strut around in comfort and opulence.

Hence, the bitterness we are warned against is dissatisfaction with heaven. Lord, how can this be? What are you doing, God? This looks like failure!

The wicked will not escape judgment.

The first lesson the sage psalmist imprints upon us is that the wicked will be judged, and this is expressed in a controlling metaphor introduced in the first two verses of this psalm:

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. (Ps. 37:1-2)

The evildoers are like verdant grass and green herbs. In verse 20 we read that the wicked are glorious pastures, and in verse 35 the ruthless are likened to a green laurel tree, a flourishing shrub.

Lush vegetation so aptly pictures prosperity and ease—a beautiful hay meadow dancing in the breeze, tulips in full bloom, and ripe berries on the vine. This is a perfect picture of the abundant and lovely life. What, though, does all the verdant vegetation have in common? It is short lived. The bejeweled blossom withers; the fresh raspberry spoils; the greenery turns brown.

And this is the wise insight the psalmist has learned from God. The prosperous wicked may dazzle for the moment like desert wildflowers, but they quickly fade and perish. A bit longer and the wicked will be no more; you will look at the space that the wicked took up and they are gone (Ps. 37:10). Like a grass fire, they vanish like smoke (Ps. 37:20). David looked for the evildoer, but he could not find him, for he disappeared.

Hence, the wisdom from above assuages our wrath by impressing upon us that retribution delayed is not retribution denied. The wicked may escape justice for a time, but it will find them in the end. The evil will be impaled on the same sword with which they murdered. Their arms and bows will be broken.

There is one punishment here that is repeated five times, which is the controlling idea. The wicked will be cut off. And to be cut off was the ultimate curse of the Mosaic covenant. Additionally, this judgment dealt most truly with the next life. To be cut off was a cursed death, a doomed afterlife, a permanent stay in Sheol.

The psalmist doesn’t promise that the wicked will be brought to justice in this life. The Lord doesn’t ensure punishment here and now. No, the wicked may live into their nineties, covered in luxury and ease, but they will be cut off in the next life. This is an essential clarification, for we must hold to what God has promised and not to what we want to be true.

The Lord will execute his justice ideally and satisfactorily.

We must remember that the wicked may not get their comeuppance during their time on earth. Some will get caught by the justice of the state for a penultimate penalty, but others will not. Some of the wicked will be untouched by justice under the sun, but to escape the sword now doesn’t mean they will get away with their evil.

The Lord’s justice will cut them off. He will condemn them with an eternal curse in the world to come. This delay of punishment, though, has direct effects on how we should respond. The wicked will flourish in life, and their evil will rob and murder us. Our vengeance won’t happen until the next life. What are we to do in the meantime?

The grey-haired David spends a lot of time in this psalm instructing us on this present state of affairs. First, he calls us to trust in God, to put our faith in the Lord (Ps. 37:3). Faith operates when eyesight doesn’t work. The Lord reveals himself as just and righteous, and he promises to judge the wicked, to carry out retribution. But, at the present, we don’t see this. The wicked strut in evil with full bank accounts and a bed of roses, while the righteous struggle along with little, suffer violence, and are denied their day in court.

The righteous, however, believe the Lord to do and to be all that He is in his timing. Tied to the call to faith, we are exhorted to “be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him” (Ps. 37:7; see also 37:34). Our God will do all that he promised. The Lord will execute his justice ideally and satisfactorily. It may take a while—we may not see it in this life—but he will do it.

The imagery here is waiting is in silent peace. When we are angry and jealous, we clamor, complain, and bicker loudly. A silent waiting, however, is peaceful and restful. Like a child reposed on mom’s lap, so we are to quietly lay ourselves upon the Lord. Nothing needs to be said, for we are sure that the Lord is in control and he is doing all things well.

The psalmist’s instruction for us to trust and do good is simple yet deeply profound.

Next, as we wait upon the Lord, the psalmist calls us to obedience. Do good. Turn from evil and perform righteousness. Keep the way of the God. Practice blamelessness and establish your feet in uprightness. This is a very fitting call, for if evil prospers and gets rich, then the temptation to turn to wickedness is strong. If righteousness is not profitable and if evil earns a fat paycheck, then why not go where the money is? But this is not the way of the Lord.

God calls us to righteousness for its own sake, aside from any earthly or physical benefits it may or may not have. In fact, Psalm 37 is the inspiration for the children’s song, “Trust and Obey.”

The psalmist’s admonition to trust and do good is so simple, yet deeply profound. David highlights a few specific features of obedience. First, he calls us to the wisdom from God’s Word (Ps. 37:30-31). The law of God is in his heart, and his mouth utters wisdom and justice. Our obedience is shaped by memorizing the Word of God. Scripture fills our minds; it fashions our thoughts and feelings.

The inspired revelation of Scripture forms wisdom in us. It gives us conversation that is seasoned with truth and voiced with justice. Such wisdom from God’s Word enables us to practice the second feature of obedience, which is contentment (Ps. 37:16). Better is the little that the righteous have than the abundance of the rich wicked.

David is frank about how life really is. The upright often have a meager amount, while the wicked swim in their money banks. Yet, the piles of gold of the evildoer are inferior to the frugality of the upright, because the lust of riches never quits. The desire for money is like a treadmill that we can’t get off of.

The constant striving for more is wearisome and terribly unsatisfying; however, contentment with little fills you with peace. You are free from the controlling slavery of riches. Prosperity can be a cruel master that never gives you a day off. Contentment with frugality liberates you; it banishes the comparison that kills joy.  

Who cares what others have, for you have enough and it is good. Thus, this contentment yields another beautiful virtue, which is generosity (Ps. 37:21). The righteous don’t have a lot, but they still give charitably. They lend freely. The wicked have a bushel of apples and steal ten more, but the righteous have a single apple and cut it in half to share with their neighbor. And there is a definite reason for the contented generosity of the righteous. They know the Lord supports them (Ps. 37:17, 24). When they stumble, they aren’t destroyed for the Lord holds their hand. Yahweh upholds the righteous.

The way of the righteous may be wise and contented, but it isn’t easy. The wicked plot against them; the evildoers rob them. The upright are murdered sometimes by the felon. The hardships of the upright are unmistakable, but they are not alone. The Lord holds our hand; he supports us every step of the way. He helps and rescues the righteousness from the venom of the wicked.

Psalm 37 directs our gaze to God’s promise that the righteous will inherit the land.

And one of the greatest aids from the Lord is his promise, and a very particular promise he gives us. The controlling picture of judgment for the wicked was being cut off. Likewise, there is a repeated and overarching promise for the righteous, which is inheriting the land. Six times this is reiterated.

Those who wait inherit the land (Ps. 37:9); the meek inherit the land (v. 11); the upright have an eternal inheritance (v. 18); the blessed inherit the land (v. 22); the righteous inherit the land (v. 29); and those who hope inherit the land (v. 34). The psalmist beats this drum so we cannot miss it, but what is the meaning of this paramount promise? Again, the Mosaic context is key.

To be cut off was the ultimate curse of the covenant, so inheriting the land was the preeminent blessing. Likewise, just as cutting off points to the next life, so does possessing the land. Indeed, under Moses, the promised land was a picture of and sacrament for heaven. To enjoy God’s earthly land was a sign and seal that you would have eternal life in glory.

The wicked here succeed in murder at times. In verse 24, the righteous falls, which is a classic image for death. Despite this fall, the upright are not literally hurled away or cast off into Sheol. Furthermore, the psalmist declares several times that the Lord doesn’t forsake the righteous, which is another term for ultimate curse.

The Lord will not forsake his saints (Ps. 37:28). They are preserved forever, in this life and the next. The Lord guarantees his righteous ones that, no matter the toilsome frugality of life, he loves them in life and brings them into eternal glory. This promise, though, is characterized by the Mosaic law. As God’s law states continually, the obedient inherit the land.

Jesus is the Righteous One who merited the land on our behalf.

As a matter of law, only righteousness merits the land; obedience earns the enduring inheritance. When the attorney put Jesus to the test by asking what he must do to earn eternal life (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus’ answer given was straight out of Psalm 37—to obey the whole law.

This truth is deeply problematic for us. The righteous merit the heavenly land of God, but we are not righteous. We fail at contentment; we covet the riches of wickedness; we sin in our anger; our faith is pathetic; we don’t speak wisdom; we forget the Word of God, and we are regularly not generous. The law condemns us; it does not approbate us. Thus, the perfect promise for the righteous is not for us as we have sinned and fallen so short.

How can we escape being cut off? In the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord divulged the secret. In the Beatitudes, Jesus quoted Psalm 37 and particularly this line about inheriting the land. Inheriting the land is repeated six times in this psalm, but Jesus picked just one of these verses with deliberate intention. In Matthew 5:5 he cited verse 11:

“But the meek shall inherit the land
    and delight themselves in abundant peace.”

And what is the primary attribute of the meek? It is humility. It is honesty that we are sinners, unworthy, and undeserving. The meek understand that we have no meritorious obedience in ourselves, so we look to another. Therefore, this psalm concludes with the banner of faith. The Lord saves those who take refuge in him. He saves them who rest in Christ by faith alone.

Jesus is the Righteous One who merited the land. His active obedience earned not a piece of earthly real estate, but it won the domain of heaven. Because Jesus was righteous for us, the meek in Christ inherit the heavenly new creation, the true land of God.

The prosperous wicked will face justice one day, but the Lord delivers all who take refuge in him.

This promise to inherit the everlasting land is yours through Jesus and his imputed righteousness. It is yes and amen for you because of your Savior. With this promise secured for you through faith, you are enabled by grace to wait faithfully on the Lord. Yes, the wicked will continue to prosper.

As long as this sun dawns, the success of the evildoers will plague and frustrate us. In Christ, however, we can endure the meager portion and the abuse of the wicked without getting jealous or angry. By the wisdom of Christ, grace gives us another emotion, which is the opposite of anger, laughter. In verse 13 we read,

But the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.

The proud prosperity of the wicked is actually a joke, for they suppose that justice cannot touch them. With the support and love of God, we get to laugh with our Lord. This is a holy and humble laughter, a heavenly-minded laughter. The rich wicked are foolish, for they are like grass that soon withers.

The evil can have their buckets of gold and silver, for we have Jesus Christ and his righteousness. We have the Word of God and the wisdom that is from above. We may fall and limp along amid many troubles, but the Lord supports us and holds our hand. Because he has made us the righteousness of God in Christ, the Father will bring us to inherit the land, the new creation of the heavenly Zion.

May the wisdom of Psalm 37 be with us as we trust in Christ and wait patiently for him, knowing his promises are imperishable and certain. And as we wait upon the Lord, let us praise and magnify his name forevermore.

This article is adapted from the Rev. Zach Keele’s sermon on Psalm 37, preached at Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church on May 25, 2025.

Recommended:

Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges