BackgroundAcrostic instruction written late in David's life ("I have been young, and now am old").
Psalm 37: Don't Fret
Of David.
By Bea Zalel
Psalm 37
Of David.
- Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong.
- For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender plants.
- Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate 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 do it.
- He will bring forth your righteousness like the dawn, your justice like the noonday sun.
- Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men prosper in their ways, when they carry out wicked schemes.
- Refrain from anger and abandon wrath; do not fret—it can only bring harm.
- For the evildoers will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.
- Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.
- But the meek will inherit the land and delight in abundant prosperity.
- The wicked scheme against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them,
- but the Lord laughs, seeing that their day is coming.
- The wicked have drawn the sword and bent the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright.
- But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.
- Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many who are wicked.
- For the arms of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.
- The LORD knows the days of the blameless, and their inheritance will last forever.
- In the time of evil they will not be ashamed, and in the days of famine they will be satisfied.
- But the wicked and enemies of the LORD will perish like the glory of the fields. They will vanish; like smoke they will fade away.
- The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous are gracious and giving.
- Surely those He blesses will inherit the land, but the cursed will be destroyed.
- The steps of a man are ordered by the LORD who takes delight in his journey.
- Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, for the LORD is holding his hand.
- I once was young and now am old, yet never have I seen the righteous abandoned or their children begging for bread.
- They are ever generous and quick to lend, and their children are a blessing.
- Turn away from evil and do good, so that you will abide forever.
- For the LORD loves justice and will not forsake His saints. They are preserved forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off.
- The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.
- The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice.
- The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not falter.
- Though the wicked lie in wait for the righteous, and seek to slay them,
- the LORD will not leave them in their power or let them be condemned under judgment.
- Wait for the LORD and keep His way, and He will raise you up to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.
- I have seen a wicked, ruthless man flourishing like a well-rooted native tree,
- yet he passed away and was no more; though I searched, he could not be found.
- Consider the blameless and observe the upright, for posterity awaits the man of peace.
- But the transgressors will all be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off.
- The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their stronghold in time of trouble.
- The LORD helps and delivers them; He rescues and saves them from the wicked, because they take refuge in Him.
Theme
Psalm 37 is an alphabetic acrostic, with each new section beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. After Psalm 18 it is the longest psalm in Book I, and it reads less like a cry from a single moment than like the long-considered counsel of an old man. The opening command sets the agenda and returns three times: 'fret not yourself' (Psalms 37:1, 37:7, 37:8). The Hebrew verb is 'charah,' to burn, to grow hot. David is not addressing mild worry but the slow inner combustion of someone watching evildoers prosper while the honest go hungry. In a subsistence economy, that burn was not abstract. A corrupt official who seized a poor farmer's terrace in the hill country took not just an asset but the family's bread for a generation.
The psalm's repeated answer is a cluster of verbs: trust, do good, dwell, befriend faithfulness, delight in the LORD, commit your way, be still, wait. None of these are passive. 'Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness' (Psalms 37:3) keeps the burning farmer working his field rather than abandoning it or taking revenge. 'Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him' (Psalms 37:7) is the harder discipline, because the wait may be long. David's framing assumes that the apparent prospering of the wicked is real but temporary, and that a stubborn life of quiet faithfulness is the only sustainable response.
At the center of the psalm sits a verse Jesus would later make famous. 'But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace' (Psalms 37:11). The Hebrew word for 'meek' is 'anavim,' sharing its root with 'ani,' poor or afflicted. The meek are not the mild-mannered but the bowed-down, the ones bent low by hardship and oppression. To Israelite ears, 'inheriting the land' was not an afterlife metaphor. The land was the ancestral inheritance, the family fields apportioned by Joshua tribe by tribe, identity and livelihood bound together in soil. In Matthew 5:5 Jesus says, 'Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.' He widens the inheritance from one tribal allotment to the whole earth, but he keeps the same audience: the bowed-down ones.
The psalm closes with the language of refuge. 'The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; he is their stronghold in the time of trouble. The LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him' (Psalms 37:39-40). 'Stronghold' is the vocabulary of David the fugitive, who spent years hiding in caves and clefts. The psalm's counsel is not passive resignation. It is patience plus action plus faith, a long obedience in the same direction across generations of farming the same hill while waiting for God to set the world right.
Discussion questions
- Why might David have chosen the acrostic form for a psalm about patience? How does the alphabet shape the experience of reading it?
- The Hebrew 'charah' means to burn. Where in your own life do you recognize that slow inner burn at the success of people you consider corrupt?
- What concrete loss might a poor Israelite farmer have suffered when a corrupt official prospered? How does that shape what 'fretting' actually meant?
- List the verbs the psalm uses for the righteous response (trust, do good, dwell, delight, commit, be still, wait). Which is hardest for you, and why?
- How is 'be still before the LORD' different from doing nothing?
- What does the Hebrew 'anavim' (the bowed-down ones) add to your understanding of the word 'meek'?
- Israelite 'land' was identity, livelihood and inheritance in one. How does that change the force of 'the meek shall inherit the land'?
- Read Matthew 5:5 alongside Psalms 37:11. What does Jesus keep, and what does he widen?
- Verses 25-26 say 'I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.' How do you read that claim honestly when you have seen righteous people suffer?
- What does it mean to take 'refuge' in the LORD when the threat is not a sword but a slow injustice over years?
Read this psalm in another translation
The inline text above is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB). Open in a new tab to compare with a modern licensed translation: