A Strange Temptation and Its Remedy – PSALM 37, Part 4
Dennis Gundersen
The Word of God often cites for us distinctions between the righteous & the
wicked; those who know the Lord by grace & those who do not. In Rom 6, the
contrast is between those led of the Spirit & those led by the flesh, those
who walk in righteousness & those who walk in unrighteousness. In Gal 5,
the distinction is drawn as those who manifest the fruit of the Spirit &
others who manifest the deeds of the flesh. In 1 John the distinction
drawn is often the one who is born of God or born from above & the one who
is of the world.
It all shows that the Word of God knows only two types of persons. There
are no "carnal Christians", no spiritual people living in fleshly ways, as
a lifestyle. We are either being saved from sin or we are being left in
sin. In this Psalm, one righteous man, tells us how distressed he was when
he saw the success & prosperity enjoyed by the wicked. In our first three
message from Psalm 37, we have seen how he learns to settle his heart over
this.
And as we today reach v 21, we come to a slight change of direction. We
find another of the Bible's contrasts between the character of the
righteous & the character of the wicked, & when we're done looking at it,
we see why David brought it up. The difference which stands out between
godly & ungodly, in this case, helps to further solidify our peace & rest
with whatever God chooses to do with us or with them. We are secure, even
if it seems they prosper & we do not. Let's get into it & see.
1) A Contrast Between the Wicked & The Righteous – v 21
"The wicked borrows and does not pay back, but the righteous is gracious
and gives."
It is among the first duties of men which God lays on us, to deal justly
with others & to render to one another what is their due. But in the
subtlety of their sinful imaginations & devices, men do deeds which they
talk themselves out of regarding as sin, when the least little thought
would make it obvious to them, of course that act was sin. And to borrow &
not return what was borrowed is without question sin, a form of the sin of
stealing. Some do not regard that sort of negligence as such, but it is,
whether they are wise enough or honest enough to see it for what it is or
not.
The wicked man abuses other people this way because his love of himself is
so great in comparison to any care he may have for others. How clearly
this shows, as Jesus taught us, that all the commands of God have some link
to love. To borrow what belongs to your neighbor – his money, tools,
vehicle, & not return it is obviously a lack of love for one's neighbor. It was always presumed that the borrower would return it.
But it's amazing the justifications people will come up with to excuse this
sin! "He doesn't need it! He'd ask me for it back if he did." Well, the
fact that he owns one, which you did not, is enough evidence to you that he
needs it at some time or another. Further, it is none of the borrower's
business whether the lender shows need of it or not, when it is his
possession anyway. This sort of thing should never be found among the
righteous. "Well, I'm not done with it yet."
This mostly has to do, however, with money – refusal to repay cash
borrowed. Now, it is a mistake to put guilt on yourself by trivializing
this into minors that don't really fit the case of this sin at all. For
instance, you borrow a book from a friend & two weeks later you feel, "Oh
my, I ought to have returned that by now! I am so negligent, such a louse,
he probably won't want to loan me anything again!" – when the owner never
gave you any set expectation of when it ought to be returned. They have
not felt abused & it was clear that, as a friend, you could borrow it for a
length of time, longer than the little while you have had it was
understood. You serve no end of resisting sin by labeling yourself the
"wicked", who "borrows & does not pay back". That's reducing it to
trivialities.
The real scenarios which fit this come to light when we rightly apply Rom
13:8, where Paul tells us to "owe no man anything". To "owe no man
anything" means that whatever you agree to pay, you pay. If you borrowed
$1000 & said you'd repay it $100 per month for 10 months, then do that. It
can't mean that it would be sin to borrow to begin with, but some try to
construe "owe no man anything" to mean that all debt is sin. But how does
that fit the description of the righteous in v 26 as ones who are
"gracious, & lend", if being a lender is enabling someone else to commit
the sin of being in debt?
So it's too simplistic to label all borrowing sin. What is sinful is, to
arrange to borrow when there is not intent to pay back or failure to pay
back. You kept what isn't yours. Though you may not see it this way, it
is not really different from taking what wasn't yours.
If you use the services of a worker – a doctor, a typist, a gardener, & do
not pay for it when it was agreed you would pay, it is past the due date
for payment & you have not, that is borrowing & not paying back, because
there was an expected due date.
Or, one of us lends you money & the date or schedule of re-payment is
clear; but you don't pay. You exceed the due date. This is immoral. To
say "I can't pay, I don't have it!", only shows that you sinned in being
careless about that inability to begin with. You should not have borrowed;
you should not have hired that worker for the job he did. How often do we
hear of people who run up their charge accounts to sums they cannot
possibly pay, but they expect mercy to be shown them when the original
agreement did not call for mercy, it called for payment.
It reveals a basic dishonesty at heart that does not act in a forthcoming
manner, when it is such a simple matter to ask for mercy, a re-setting of
the deadline, which most are glad to offer.
Well, hopefully, however I am not speaking to those in such a lifestyle,
for it says that's what the wicked do; it contrasts, "but the righteous is
gracious & gives". Rather than just say that the righteous does pay back
what he borrows, it leaps beyond that & points out that the godly man is
often a giver. He encounters need in others & is pleased to meet their
needs with his own generosity. Just as the evil man shows his absence of
love in his failure to pay back what he borrows, so the good man shows his
love in the deed of giving. He shows that others are on his heart. He is
not merely thinking of himself. He has a broader interest in the good of
others.
It was one of the first points of instruction to the Gentiles, when the
gospel reached them, to say that those who had formerly lived unto
themselves & in dishonesty, should now give: Eph 4:28; to the rich to be
generous & ready to share. And as promised, Prov 11:24-25.
Now, how this fits into the scheme of the Psalm is shown in what follows:
2) The Divine Hand Behind These Differences – vv 22-24
These verses shows us that v 21 is not merely a comment on the deeds of the
righteous & the wicked; it is a statement about God's blessing upon His
people. They are capable of giving graciously because the God they serve
makes them able.
Despite taking other people for a ride, the wicked are cursed, v 22, by
God, & will not be ultimately successful in their designs of
self-preservation & getting ahead. For seeking to save their own life, by
dishonest means, they will lose it. The stinginess of the wicked man does
not bring him the happiness, the blessedness, he desires. Blessing is the
gift of God. To try to get ahead "in the land" by unethical means is to
act as if there is no God Who sees.
The Lord is committed to bless His Own & so those who have that blessing,
from Him, will "inherit the land". Now, the godly Jew knew there was more
to that promise of an inheritance than just the land they saw before them. Abraham, it tells us, was aware that God's promise pertained to another country, a heavenly one. And this is the ultimate answer to the problem of
this Psalm. If a man read it but said "But I do know worldly men enjoying
great success, while God's Word says the righteous will be blest & they
will be cursed. So what is this? Clearly, the resolution is in Abraham's
thinking – to know that there is a greater country than Palestine to be
inherited–just as there is more to the option – being "cut off" – than
just dying. Everyone dies; but only the wicked, once they die, are "cut
off". What does that threatening phrase imply? It is intended to sound
threatening. It is the sound of lasting, severe judgment. It meant: "Cut off" means all happiness comes to an end
"Cut off" means all memory of you is gone, you are forgotten.
But again the Psalm turns to us in v 23, saying that our "steps" are
established by the Lord, clearly meaning our steps, since it says "And he
delights in his way", God delights in the "way", the path of His people. Not that He is pleased with all our actions but that He is pleased to have our path in His hands, pleased to be our adequacy, so that, v 24, "When he
falls, he shall not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who
holds his hand". He prevents even terrible falls from being the deadly
falls they could be. He sees to it that falls which all would expect would
turn out deadly to be not nearly as damaging as we might expect.
So, your God makes sure that if the wicked rip you off, don't pay back,
you'll still have more than enough. He sees to it that if the wicked plot
against you, & if they take you, that it does not turn out for your harm as
it would seem to. If only we could see the secret, marvelous ways in which
God makes money move, we'd be so much more amazed than even anything Alan
Greenspan can do. Ever read Eccl 2:26? That is going on every day!
So next David tells us that he has seen the promise of God made good in
this – that he can vouch for it:
3) The Testimony of the Security of the Righteous, Even While They Give &
Give – vv 25-26
David has observed God's faithfulness in this all his life; decades have
gone by, most of his life has past, & he has never seen "the righteous forsaken or his descendants
begging bread." Never seen it! David had seen a lot. Kings have a
breadth of opportunity, & in particular kings who have a burden of care for
the poor, which David has manifested during his reign. He had seen wicked
people abandoned, both by heaven & by earth, but the righteous, he has seen
have heaven on their side even if all on earth are against them.
What is most striking about our security is, that it's not realized by our
stingily watching out for ourselves all we can, but while "All day long he
is gracious & lends", while we give out, give away, & keep doing it with
regularity. The righteous man is a blessing & his children grow up
learning the same way of life & they bless others with their giving. When
they are without, God raises up friends who will support them; when they
lack, God provides in inexplicable ways they can't keep track of. You go
through those times of unemployment, no income, & it makes you wonder where
all that money goes when you were working!
Now, is this Psalm giving us teaching which bears any resemblance to the
"prosperity" teaching? I don't think so. It is obvious that God has
deemed for some of his servants to suffer lack; Paul said that he had been
in that condition & had learned to be content in it, & there is no evidence
to suggest that he was somehow being chastised for sin when he was lacking.
There are certainly times & circumstances in which God chooses to permit
suffering to make a greater testimony to His glory in His people. In those
lands where the church is persecuted, there will of course be need among
the Lord's people. But this is a comment to the effect that, not without
exception, but as a rule, the tendency of a godly life wil be to make a men
prosper in earthly affairs, enough & more than enough. To have enough for
one's self and to even not need to borrow from others but to be in a
position to lend to others. A younger family may not be able to do this,
but later in life you should, if you plan well.
And you have seen this. Who are the street people? Who are the beggars
with nothing? Are there many of the righteous down at the Tulsa Day
Center, where our homeless "hang out"? Do the righteous fill the beds of
the city rescue mission? Not as a rule; not at all. You will find
religious fakers there in multitudes, pretenders, but not the children of
God. The children of God are in the soup kitchen, feeding them.
And he brings this now to another exhortation to us in light of this. An
exhortation to everyone who reads, to all who have heard his comparison. You have heard of how God works. You have seen that you cannot guarantee success in this life by looking out for self & leaving others aside. Will
you learn & adapt your ways to this?
4) The Exhortation – v 27
The exhortation is pretty general: "Depart from evil, and do good" – but
it's simple enough that no one can miss the point for its complexity,
right? Men are so apt to talk about not being able to do the right thing
because it is "so hard". Living unto God & not self or sin is hardly
complex. If we learn to honor God & commit to righteous paths, the promise
is given, "so you will abide forever".
What makes that so certain is what's revealed next – v 28 – "for the Lord
loves justice, & does not forsake His godly ones; they are preserved
forever, but the descendants of the wicked will be cut off." This is a
certain outcome because the God ruling the universe is a God Who loves
justice. He may permit injustice; He can tolerate it for a time for
certain ends to be manifest, allow it for the short duration of this world,
though that seems so long for us. But give it time & you will see that
what He loves is the only thing which will be established forever. As John
says, "the one who does the will of God abides forever." Period. No one
else.
So there is perfect security in God's paths. And keeping to His paths
makes us much like Him – gracious, generous, benevolent. The gospel call
pictures disciples as people making money to give a lot of it away. The
first thought of an earthly mind, when one makes some money is, "What can I
get?!" The thoughts of a godly mind can learn to think on a higher level,
to think in more noble terms than this, but to see all I earn as part of
what belongs to the Lord, His stewardship to me, to be used for His cause.