in a world of conflicting values, when questions are more common than answers. God's Word provides everything we need to live a God-centered, truth-driven life. Now, here's the Word for Life broadcast, brought to you by Brookside Baptist Church. Well, good morning, everyone. Welcome to Word for Life. This is Pastor Scott Sander. Pleased to be here with my co-host, Pastor Mark Widmer, as we have been going through Psalm 37. I hope this has been a blessing to you as we're really not even halfway through this psalm yet, but looking at the things that God has for us. Pastor Mark, I love the thesis statement you wrote about this psalm, and that has to do with the wicked and the righteous. And in this ageless battle that we have of good versus evil, righteous versus wicked. And it is an ageless battle. It's been going on since the garden, since the fall, but God is the constant. He's the steady constant. And so we're called to rest in him, commit our ways to him, trust in him, all of these things, because he will act. The evildoers shall be cut off. We read in verse nine of this Psalm, but those who wait on the Lord are the ones that shall inherit the earth. And we don't like to wait. We're a very impatient society. We're good at that. Yeah. Listeners to this broadcast will be familiar with Pastor Greg Huffman, and he delivered a great message, a timely message to Brookside earlier this year about being in God's waiting room. And we find ourselves in God's waiting room all the time as we're We're waiting on something, but all of that is our perception. God is never late. God is always on time. God didn't forget to set his alarm clock that morning, which is why he's not acting. His timing is perfect. and excellent, and so we're often called to wait, and we're called to wait during some very difficult circumstances, usually. We don't mind waiting, perhaps when things are going well, but when things start to go bad and we're called to wait on the Lord, that can be a challenge for us. We know people who live in constant pain. And I don't relate to that because I've just never had such a thing, right? But how do people endure such a thing? I don't know. I marvel at that and how they can do that and just waiting and so forth. Well, getting back to our scriptures here, I'm going to try to take us today from verses nine through 20. I'm going to try to do that. We'll find out if we're successful. We've got 10 minutes here. to do this, but let's see what happens. But what I'm portraying is this, when I look at this little section of scripture of this, I see that in verses 9 and 10, the kind of the background has been set, kind of like the opening of a novel. Evildoers will be cut off and yet a little while there'll be no more and that sort of thing. But then in verses 11 to 13, that I'm going to ask Pastor Scott to read here, is kind of the rising action, just kind of as things unfold, you'll catch the drift here of the evildoers. And let's catch a glimpse of this. Verse 11, But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plots against the just and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for he sees that his day is coming. And that's something. So verse 11, the meek shall inherit the earth. Again, a reference to the Beatitudes. We looked at that just a little bit earlier in verse nine as well, that concept. But the wicked, can you picture this? The wicked plotting against the just, gnashing at him with his teeth and just the scheme and how we're gonna get ahead. We're gonna steal, we're gonna destroy. everything that is righteous, and how do we see in verse 13 how God responds to all of this? It says that he just laughs. How come? Because he can laugh. He says, all this, you're getting yourself all worked up here and you're plotting all of this. Do you remember the old Roadrunner cartoons from years gone by? I just love those things. So he had Wile E. Coyote, who was always after this little innocent little bird, the Roadrunner, and he would roll rocks off a cliff and he'd make a rocket and he'd buy a case of dynamite and all this stuff he would try to do to capture the Roadrunner. But in every instance, Whatever he plotted, he was the one that received the explosion or the broken bones or whatever. I think this is verse 13, the Lord laughs at him. Why? He sees that his day is coming. the day of their end, the day of the judgment, you know, so forth. Let's bring all of this now, again, kind of to a climax here. We've got the wicked who are scheming, the Lord is laughing. We're instructed to delight ourselves in the abundance of peace, and this is going to happen. But, Scott, how about verses 14 and 15? The wicked have drawn the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to slay those who are of upright conduct. Their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. The wicked, can you picture them? They've drawn their sword, holding it high over their head. They've bent their bow. In other words, the arrow is in the notch. They're pulling it back, just ready to let it go. And their aim is to cast down the poor and needy and so forth. But what's verse 15, their sword will enter their own heart. Their bow will be broken. How does all of that happen? that is because it is God's work. God has said that evildoers should be cut off and this is what's happening here. So, Pastor Scott, how about verses 16 through 18 where we see what's happening as a result of all of this? Verse 16. A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. You see what's happening here? Now we're moving to this place of kind of a tranquility and so forth for the righteous. This idea of a little that a righteous man has. You get the idea of contentment there? And don't you sometimes just really take note of people, they may have relatively little in life, Or what they do have, they really value, but it's simple and so forth. It's kind of the necessities. A little that a righteous man has is better than all the riches of the wicked. How come? Well, the wicked just had their sword enter their heart and their bows broken. Verse 17, their arms are going to be broken. But what happens to the righteous? The Lord upholds the righteous. And then verse 18, just like the Lord knows the wicked and all of their schemes and plots, and soon they will be cut down like the grass, the Lord knows also the days of the upright. and their inheritance shall be forever. You know, one thing that I think of here, Pastor Scott, with this, how many of the blessings that you and I have in life that we enjoy and so forth are going to be carried over to our children in our grandchildren, let alone by what they choose to do in life that's good and righteous, but how much of that is coming as a carryover, a fact, a trickle-down type of thing from us. Their righteousness, the upright, their inheritance shall be forever. And what a blessing all of that is. Pastor Scott, how about if we finish out today with verses 19 and 20? They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the day of famine they shall be satisfied. But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord, like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish. Into smoke they shall vanish away. Hey, I think we're going to make this 20-minute mark here today. I'm kind of excited about it. I didn't think this was possible. But going back to verses 9 and 10, you have this little movie, if you will, that's coming about. and the evildoers and so forth and all of this controversy and kind of setting the stage of who the righteous and the wicked are. And then verses 11 through 13, the wicked plot and scheme and gnash their teeth and the Lord just laughs at them. And then the climax where the wicked are gonna put their plan into place and they draw their sword, they bend their bow, but What happens? The sword enters their own heart and their bows are broken. And then this reconciliation, this falling action that takes place in verses 16 through 18. But in verse 19, what happens now, just at the end of the movie, it's a sunset, if you picture, and you know, where the cowboy rides off into the backdrop. But they shall not be ashamed. Who's that? The righteous. They shall not be ashamed or disappointed in the evil time. And in the days of famine, they shall be satisfied. But the wicked shall perish. The enemies of the Lord, like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish into smoke. They shall vanish away. Those verses right there are just quite a picture, you know, of life. And which side of the coin would we choose to be on? Anybody, I think, with any wisdom would say, I want to be on God's side, the righteous and the godly and so forth. And yeah, just really, really a blessing here. And when we look at these passages, Pastor Mark, I can't help but think of today's world and a lot of the wickedness we see. And we could look at some of the demonstrations we see maybe on college campuses, those that are pro-abortion or pro-LGBT rights. And many that I see doing that are angry and they're plotting and we want them to come to faith in Jesus Christ. For sure, but we know the Lord will uphold justice. He will draw them to himself. And if they reject, he will uphold justice for them. And so the wicked will by no means get off easy. So thank you for that lesson, getting us through verse 20. Pastor Mark, and for everyone listening, we hope to resume our Psalm with you next time. Have a good day. We hope you enjoyed today's program. If you have a question we can answer, or would like information on the Word for Life, would like to donate to continue to produce this broadcast, or need resources for your Christian walk, contact us at Brookside Baptist Church, 4470 North Pilgrim Road, Brookfield, Wisconsin, 53005. You can also visit us at brooksidebc.org. That's brooksidebc.org. Or call us at 262-783-6180. That's 262-783-6180. Thanks for listening today, and please tune in again as we bring the Word of God to your life. so