#DailyDevotion Do You Want To Face The Future Without Fear?
Psalm 37 14 Wicked men draw their swords and bend their bows to strike down the poor and needy and slaughter those who live right. 15 Their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be smashed.
It does seem like the poor are the prey of the wicked. Wicked men seem to have their own lawyers who know how to take advantage of the law and therefore other people and people in poverty can’t afford a lawyer to fight back. They go after people who also are trying to live right. Again, lawyers are expensive. What can we do? Our hope therefore is not for this world but for the world to come. There, the wicked will see we indeed have an Advocate, our LORD Jesus Christ. If they haven’t repented of their sins, He will see to it their swords pierce their own hearts and their bows are smashed. The wicked have no influence when Christ is revealed as King.
16 Better is a little that the righteous man has than the wealth of many wicked people. 17 The arms of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD helps the righteous.
When our trust is in the LORD Jesus Christ, then we are righteous. We will see it is better to have little when we’re trusting in the LORD. As St. Paul in Phil. 4, “11…I’ve learned to be content whatever my condition. 12I know how to live with too little or too much. In every way of life I’ve learned the secret of eating heartily and of being hungry, of having too much and too little. 13I can do everything through Him Who gives me the strength.” When our faith is in Christ, what we seem to lack doesn’t loom in our hearts as large as those who do not trust the Father will take care of them and their problems today. The little we have is better than the wealth of many wicked people. They are never content. They can have no peace. The picture of the future for the wicked isn’t good. Their arms will be broken, i.e. they will be made powerless. Those whose help is the LORD will indeed be helped by the LORD.
18 The LORD takes care of the innocent day by day, and their inheritance will last forever. 19 They will not be miserable in bad times and in days of famine they will eat all they want.
Who is innocent? This is translated also upright, blameless and perfect. As applied to us, it can only mean we have made use of the means of grace and we have let the LORD have His way with us. That is, when we have done wrong, we have confessed our sins, received absolution, gone to the LORD’s Supper and made things right if we have caused any harm. To such people the LORD takes care of and their inheritance lasts forever. Now it is true, the LORD causes the rain to fall on the righteous and unrighteous, and the sun to shine on the righteous and unrighteous. The unrighteous just cannot recognize it or enjoy it. Jesus promises us in Matt. 6 and 7 the LORD knows what we need. He teaches us the Our Father which contains everything we need to pray about. With daily bread we can be content. We need not worry about things of tomorrow. It’s enough to take care of the things of today. If we trust Jesus’ words there and His words here is this psalm we will not be miserable in bad times. We will be content. During a famine, we will eat all we want for we live in contentment trusting in all of His promises.
Heavenly Father, grant us faith to be content no matter our circumstances. Grant us Your Holy Spirit that we may put all our trust in You so we can receive all Your benefits from being Your holy people. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.