Psalm 37 (And A Bonus at the End)

I don't claim to have the most fertile mind at 5:30 am, but since I'm up with 25 minutes to spare before my appointed task, I'll take the time the Lord has given me. Psalm 37 is the go-to psalm for every person who despairs of this world. This ties in closely with my post of yesterday and gives hope to any Christian who thinks he/she is the last man standing for the Lord. I'll key in on three sections.

The first is the opening two verses:

¹ Do not fret because of those who are evil
   or be envious of those who do wrong;
² for like the grass they will soon wither,
   like green plants they will soon die away. 

I'm not sure how often I'll quote T.S. Eliot this year when I state "People come and people go, speaking of Michelangelo," but there's nothing more transitory in this world than the victories of the venal, and these two verses speak directly to this. ALL of us get frustrated when we see non-Christians (or any mean person, for that matter) obtain the things of this world unjustly.

But the wicked get what's coming to them in verse 20:

²⁰ But the wicked will perish:
   Though the LORD’s enemies are like the flowers of the field,
   they will be consumed, they will go up in smoke. 

I'm happy I didn't live during World War II, and I'm extremely thankful for those brave men and women who served, but take the broad view and recall how well Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito fared. Even in the bleakest hours (the bombing of London in 1940, Pearl Harbor, the early battles in the Pacific), simple economics  foretold the conclusion of the war (and every other war then and since), as well as a conviction that what the Allies were doing was right. The wicked DID perish and the enemies DID go up in smoke. I won't trivialize 6 years of turmoil and sacrifice, but when you view the iconic picture of the end of World War II, it's human joy celebrating a triumph similar to what this verse describes.

Many of us felt the same way when we heard about Osama bin Laden last week. I don't get my news from TV (if it's not in the Wall Street Journal, I probably don't know about it), so when Kelsey texted me about 9 minutes after the news broke that he was dead, I could relate to what David wrote in verse 20. No matter how bad the situation is in the world, and no matter how many battles we will lose on this earth (and we will), we WILL win in the end. Throughout history, the one constant has been that tyranny is a short-lived triumph. There will be times when we have to stretch our definition of "short-lived," but it simply cannot hold. It didn't work in the Soviet Union, it's failing massively and systemically in the Middle East, and Iran and North Korea probably shouldn't be asking for whom the bell tolls.

The last verse is verse 34, which states:

³⁴ Hope in the LORD
   and keep his way. 

 And that says it all.

As for the bonus, when Kelsey was in 4th Grade at Trinity, Joel Springer was her teacher. Painted on the wall of his room (which was the middle room on the west side of the elementary wing) was Psalm 27:1:

¹ The LORD is my light and my salvation—
   whom shall I fear? 

  The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
   of whom shall I be afraid? 

And when you think about it, if you accept the first part of the verse, how can the second part not be an integral part of our lives? Turn it around--if you have fear, where is your light and salvation? I've always enjoyed this verse for its simple truth and beauty and the easy reminder of how we should view events in God's world.
Scott