Sermon Notes

June 2, 2024

Keep Calm and Carry On

Psalms 37:1-11

The 37th Psalm is a very interesting one for several reasons. It was written by King David in the latter part of his life and was not really written as a traditional Psalm, but it was very much like a Proverb instead. One writer described the 37th Psalm as a string of pearls. You have a pearl of wisdom then you have a little string that attaches to the next pearl of wisdom, and it continues like that until the end of the chapter. The reason for this chapter's interesting structure is very evident in the original Hebrew. This Psalm is written in an acrostic where each stanza starts with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, so this Psalm is laid out in Hebrew Alphabetical Order (A, B, G order if you will). Because of this creative choice by the author it can be hard to organize this in our western minds to understand this in its original intent, but in the Psalms, there are some wonderful truths and imagery that every believer needs to understand. We are going to try to sift through these pearls of wisdom over the next few weeks.

Frustrations are a part of every life, so a Christian’s life will have its share of frustrations too. Maybe life hasn’t turned out like you expected or maybe you thought you’d be farther along the path in your walk with Christ at this point. Frustration can be caused by perceived injustices of many kinds or maybe it’s just dissatisfaction with something that you can’t (or have very little) control over in your life. Whatever the reason for your frustration, the fact remains that we all experience frustration in our Christian lives in one shape or form. When frustration shows up in our lives there is something else that seems to always show up as well ― that is comparison. Comparison is a thief of joy, but we tend to go back to it time and time again, especially when we experience frustration. We start to compare ourselves and our situations to others who seem to have it better or who seem to have things always go their way. That is the attitude and reaction that David is responding to with the first part of this Psalms. He had experienced this situation many times in his life where he compared himself to others (especially those who were wicked) and was frustrated. He knew what the solution to this frustration was ― Keep Calm and Carry On.

Keep Calm - Psalms 37:1-2

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

When we find ourselves frustrated with life, we tend to get upset to some degree. Maybe we would even go far enough to call that angry. We usually don’t react with reflective rationality to situations in our lives that we find ourselves overrun with frustration in. King David had been there many times and his first pearl of wisdom in this Psalm is a simple command not to fret. The idea he’s conveying is to get ahold of your emotions in those moments ― don’t worry, don’t stress, settle down, chill out, relax. Remember David is writing this at the end of his life, and he knows in those moments of frustration we are not rational, and we need to get ahold of the emotions that are leading us astray from God and bring them back into obedience to Him. Remember what we said was the cause of much frustration in the life of David? It was jealousy of the wicked and he knew that there is nothing that can come from being jealous of sinners that is God honoring. There is a question that comes up often when you share Jesus with others and it’s the question of “Why do bad things happen to good people?”. We can see throughout all of Psalms that David often found himself struggling with the exact opposite of this question. He constantly asked, “Why do good things happen to bad people?”. David had experienced it in his life. He saw Goliath and the Philistine Army. The injustice that was being done against the army of the living God, to the injustices in the courts of King Saul, and all throughout his own reign as king. David saw it in his own life and knew that it had to be identified and gotten rid of. Before he shares how to take care of these frustrations we experience in life, he wants to frame the wicked to help us understand why we shouldn’t be jealous or compare ourselves to them in any way.

David equates the wicked (or the lost) to grass. He does so because he knows just like the green grass of summer, the cause of your frustrations will not last forever. It will either get long enough that the owner of that field will come with a sickle and remove it, or it will die off when a new season comes, and it will come. These things should never bring us into a sinful mindset as they often do, because they are only for a short period of time. David wants to make it clear that we need to keep calm when these frustrations come our way. Before we understand how to deal with them, I just want to say these frustrating issues that are not ones that God’s Word has already told us to deal with. If we were to ignore those issues it would be considered disobedience and that’s not what David is speaking of here, but rather of things that we have no control over or no command to respond to. However David’s solution to these frustrations is a rather simple one if all things are considered ― it’s to just Carry On.

Carry On - Psalms 37:3-11

Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight 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 this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. 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 enjoy peace and prosperity.

David’s simple solution to overcome these frustrations and frets in our lives is to simply carry on in your walk with God and let Him take care of those issues in His timing. Sometimes we can get so frustrated and overwhelmed with a situation in which we have no control of that we don’t even know what it means to just carry on in our walk with God. David had been there before as well and wants to let the reader understand exactly what it means to carry on in our walk with God.

Trust in the Lord. - Verse 3

The very first thing David mentions is trusting in the Lord. He knows that a fretful heart cannot be a trusting heart. To carry on in the Christian life, we must overcome our fears by once again trusting God with (and in) ― everything. Situations, the people involved, the outcome of those frustrations, and the timing of it all. We can’t just say we are trusting God in these situations, but rather there must be good works to prove that we have the faith David is speaking of here. Just like James tells us in James 2, faith without works is dead, these works can take a lot of different shapes in our lives, but there will always be fruit when our faith and trust are real. One of those fruits David mentions here is in the later part of verse 3, when he says, “Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.” This phrase would have meant something very different and deep to the Jewish readers of this Psalm. For us to understand what that meaning was that David was trying to convey we need to go to another translation. I really like the American Standard Version’s translation of verse 3 when they translate this phrase as, “Feed on His faithfulness”. I absolutely love this imagery. It evokes a picture that when we trust God, we don’t take for granted His immeasurable faithfulness to us. We feed on it and realize how blessed we are and how faithful God is and are thankful we are for all of it. He was faithful to the children of Israel through the Old Covenant and David wanted those Israelites who were struggling with their frustrations to remember that. God is faithful to us as well. It’s not through the Old Covenant, but rather through the New Covenant that was brought to us by Jesus Christ. We can “Feed on His faithfulness” in many different and practical ways. We can do it by keeping a prayer journal, by keeping a daily diary, or even by using the “memory” feature on many social media platforms. Carry on by trusting God, producing fruit by your faith, and feasting upon His faithfulness in your life. Enjoy His blessings!

Take Delight in the Lord. - Verse 4

The next pearl of wisdom that David shares is that to carry on, we need to delight in the Lord. Last week we spoke about delighting in the Word of God and the idea here is very similar. It’s to find us seeking God and find in Him our ultimate source of happiness and joy rather than seeking it in our possessions or in our circumstances. That is how we are to delight in Him and to desire Him above all things. When we delight in Him, we are promised that we will be given the desires of our heart. This does not mean that all our dreams will come true, but rather like Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, “where your treasure is there your heart will be”. When your treasure is God, that’s where your heart and desire will be, and when you want more of God, we will be given just that. We will be given as much of God as we want in our lives. The sad part is many times in our lives, we want more of everything else ― more money, more pleasure, more entertainment, and more time, but very rarely do we want more of God. We are never promised more money, more pleasure, or more time, but we are promised as much of God as we want in our lives. When we carry on in our walk with God and away from the frustrations that plague us, we must be reminded of this. Seek Him with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength.

Commit Everything you do to the Lord. - Verse 5-6

The next pearl of wisdom in carrying on from the hurt of frustration is one that should be very familiar to those who follow Jesus and that is the idea of Lordship. Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved.” When you confess that Jesus is Lord it means it’s true and that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and the idea of Lordship is the one that is spoken of here. Lordship is turning over or surrendering every aspect of your life to God. Give your hurts, your hopes, your dreams, your skills, your family, your troubles, your entire life given over to Him. That’s what we must do. Every day in our Christian lives, we present ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. Give Him everything and trust Him with the results. When we do, we are promised He will help us. Again this will be according to His way and in His timing, but God will do what it takes to act on behalf of those who have put their faith in Him. God doesn’t take our burdens so we can be irresponsible, but rather He wants them all so that we can serve Him better and that is very evident in verse 6. It’s just like Jesus said in Matthew 5. We are to be lights in the darkness, reflecting the light that only comes through Jesus in our lives and everyone will know Jesus because the light that shines through each of us who are totally sold out to Him.

Be Still in the Presence of the Lord. - Verse 7

“Be still” here means to be silent and still. It’s a call to calmly surrender to the Lord in an otherwise chaotic world. We live in a society that does not value stillness and silence at all. If we were to turn on the TV and there was nothing on a channel, we’d change the channel instead of sitting in the stillness and waiting. If we were driving in our car and turned on the radio only to hear nothing on a particular radio station, we would change the dial. We even have a hard time just having a moment of silence in a church service. We are a people who usually don't like silence, but it is required in our walk with God. We must spend time in silence and stillness before God, meditating on His Word and waiting on His timing. The only thing that we must do is be still and wait on the Lord, but doesn’t that seem ridiculous to say, “Only”. Waiting is hard, but David has seen many times throughout his life that you must wait upon the Lord because when you try to take it into your own hands you are going to mess it up. To carry on in our walk with the Lord we must find time to be still and silent in the presence of the Lord.

The rest of the passage is just a reminder of that, God will take care of His children. Don’t get upset or riled up, but trust in Him. If you are anything like me this is a wonderful reminder. There are times I let the smallest of things make me upset or even mad and I want to respond. I want to react, but sometimes we just need to stop, stay calm, and carry on in our normal day to day walk and trust God to take care of the rest.

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Sermon Notes

Keep Calm and Carry On

Psalms 37:1-11

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